I was thinking about my post as i was feed-watering my trees a bit ago. yes, I think so. My caution - or suggestion - is to have a feeding plan/program in place so that you can get enough food to the tree. Meyers are especially hungry. For the few potted trees i have, i have been successful with a weekly water-in of Foliage Pro alternating with Liquid Gold - a tablespoon of food with a tablespoon of vinegar (because my water is 9.4 pH) per 1 to 1.5 gallons (loosely measured). The weekly feed is in addition to Osmocote Plus in the top layer of the pot's soil. In my case for the 40 in the ground i just fed, i need to overfeed and spot-water/over-water to compensate for other established trees' roots; and in general water restrictions (we are still officially in a drought). The trees that produced lots of fruit this past season are underfed, pale green with yellowing tips here and there. The trees that i successfully limited to 3-5 fruit are just fine; deep green. And the trees under the neighbors' against the fence tall trees are struggling for food and water and sun. So they all got a dose of hose-end sprayer loaded with vinegar and liquid food. As someone posted a while back here on this forum... feed weakly weekly.

Melissa, yes it's worth it to get your mix ready, even if this particular plant doesn't survive. You can always re-use the mix because the mix is very durable. Money Trees do root very readily, so definitely give it a try as Al suggested. I encourage you to get another plant, though, and you can apply everything you've learned, and enjoy a great experience from day one. Pick up a small, inexpensive Money Tree, plop it into your durable, free-draining mix, water and fertilize, and you will be amazed at how rewarding and easy these trees can be. On a side-note, I don't suggest you take the advice that Anthony is giving. Now is the best time of year to do heavy pruning and re-potting with your Money Trees. In fact, I just chopped my Pachira about a week ago. Notice how it is located in bright shade, just to the edge of where the full sun hits. For transitioning an indoor acclimated plant to the outdoors, this is an optimal location on my property.

Yep, checking soils is one of the basics that we've covered in training but testing the leachate from a pot of succulents growing in bark and chicken grit isn't basic. I love learning about that type of stuff so it is a shame it's not covered in the training! The Master Gardener volunteer program is run thru the county extension office and trains people to help out in the community. The curriculum is geared towards things we'll encounter like lawn care concerns of the average homeowner or identifying and removing invasive plants from public areas I'll share some background. I've read all of Tapla's stuff but it's been several years (before gardenweb merged with houzz) and I haven't kept up with the forums. When I started using his Gritty Mix recipe years ago I was also going by his recommendation for Epsom salt and Miracle Gro "weakly, weekly" (never got around to trying Foliage Pro) but everything was different - my zone, light conditions, the types of succulents that were common in stores, and availability of ingredients. I moved a few years ago and suddenly had an actual house with a yard so my collection of succulents in containers fell by the wayside. Since I recently started as a Master Gardener I realized it was a bit embarrassing that my succulents weren't thriving as they once were. The availability of ingredients is much better so I'm no longer substituting things but I also don't have a huge selection of neat succulents at big box stores. To illustrate why my situation is a problem, picture the sempervivum pot that mayo posted that started from one plant. In my case, that one plant might develop 5 pups and then growth slows to a crawl or worse, the plants start dying. I notice roots are coming out of the drainage hole so I unpot it to find the roots have filled the pot and started circling. This is fine if I've got a pot full of pups because I could divide and the plant would look good and recover. Since the pups aren't filling the pot I either have to move the whole thing to a bigger pot to accommodate all the roots which doesn't look great or trim the excess roots and repot in the same container. The plant is subjected to further stress so it has trouble recovering. I posted this question because I thought if someone had experienced this before they could share some insight. Something about my method needs to change but I can't afford to do a ton of experimenting due to lack of offsets. If I lose a plant I can't head to the store and pick up another of the same like I could where I lived previously. Plus, a hurricane hit here a couple of weeks ago and big box stores have more pressing needs than getting succulents back on the shelves. (I briefly considered buying a beekeeper suit that was in stock because I couldn't find any mosquito repellant!) Paul, I'm a Texan, born and bred. The username is a song we performed back in school choir. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=zfdfGPNstj0 (here's a much better choir singing it) Keiki! What a nice word! Provided Zika virus doesn't prevent me from having kids someday, this could be a contender as a baby name. (Hmm...maybe I should reconsider the beekeeper suit.)

You can trim to two leaves if you want. Those young leaves are not ready for photosynthesis yet until they mature a bit more. You cannot really do much about stopping that growth - it is just the time of the year - their internal clock is telling them to get ready for spring. For example in a few weeks my figs that are in complete darkness will start to leaf out. Many of my indoor plants are doing it citrus or not. If light level is low they will be leggy. If you are providing light and warmth then it is also a good idea to fertilize them lightly since they still need the nutrients to keep functioning. They are still doing photosynthesis at a much lower level and so they need some nutrients. I do 1/4 strength every other watering. In another week or two I will bump it up to 1/2 strength.