LOL - I would love to post a picture, especially now that I have piqued your curiosity. I took some pictures yesterday, but I haven't seen how well they came out yet. Also, I haven't figured out (yet) HOW to put a picture in a post. I thought they might be a mushroom as well, and they may very well be. They turn more opaque and sort of a grayish-white as they are dying, but they are pretty much transparent sort of like springroll wrappers (rice paper?) in the morning. Oh, and they completely disappear by the end of the day, like they were never there. They vary in size. I guess the stems have ranged up to about 1.5 inches. The heads are also small, the largest maybe up to 3/8 to 1/2 inch, with veins running out from the center, like an umbrella. I haven't felt one yet. That will have to wait until morning as they are all gone for today. I will also try to get a picture online.

What I'm going to offer is the results of my experience & studies, and is only meant to be helpful, so if you THINK you see anything critical, please take it as constructive - I'd rather be your pal than alienate you, so please keep that in mind. ;o) I've tried many times(experiments) growing with coir and CHCs as replacements for peat and pine bark respectively with loose controls in place & have never had good results - even when coir was only about 15% of the mix, but YMMV. As far as the sustainability issue, I've done some researching on that, and here is a reply I often leave when that point is raised: Sorry, but I'm not buying the non-renewable lament. In Canada alone, there are more than 270 million acres of harvestable peat bogs. If we make the conservative guess that the harvestable portions of these bogs are 10 feet deep, that means there are probably more than 900 billion cu. ft. available for harvest, just in Canada! That doesn't even take into consideration what's available in Europe, Asia, or places like New Zealand where they also mine peat, or those bogs that are NOT considered harvestable. Canada currently has mining/harvesting operations underway on approximately 40 thousand acres or about .014% (that reads 14 one thousandths of 1 percent)." Check the math - it's accurate and conservative. It's more likely that the next ice age will be upon us and glaciers will have covered what's available before we even use a noticeable percentage. Renewable/non-renewable = moot. Water drains well but the area around the plant stem sinks in about 1". When I fill the hole back up and add a bit of water, the water just sits on top all mushy. I think I'm moving in the right direction, but not quite there yet. I'm guessing this is your container soil? From what you said, I'm getting that your soil was 100% saturated - that it was so water retentive that it supported a perched water table at least equal to the depth of the soil. This means that the entire soil mass was probably completely filled with water. To be very direct, I really think you need to take a good look at basing your soil on a very large fraction of larger particulates, instead of the ones that are causing all the water retention. Most soils based on peat/coir/compost will support 3-6" of perched water after you water them a few times, and more as the soil ages. Perched water kills roots, and the more of it you have in the container after watering, the worse it is. By mineral content in RBs, I meant something that remains stable - like topsoil, sand .... or it could be something like a Turface product - just so it doesn't break down and gas-out. I wouldn't be too concerned about a pH of 5.8-6.0 in raised beds at all. I think you'll be just fine with that. Be very careful with the blood meal at soil temperatures below 55* because of ammonium toxicity. I would withhold it until temps are comfortably above that benchmark. Take care, and good luck!!! There's a container gardening forum too (that's where the link I left took you), where you can join in if you need more help with your containers. I really think you could do yourself a LOT of good and skip a whole growth cycle of heartache if you turned your container soil into your raised beds & started afresh with pine bark as the basis for your container soil. Remember, container soils are almost entirely about structure - you can do without the fine black soil, coir, vermiculite (also water-retentive), ash and w-castings. Now that the talking is done, if you were here I'd offer you a blueberry or chocolate tea or a Cran-Grape juice (my fav), while I take in what you have to say. AL

Houston, Thank you so much for all the information on everything! lol it really helps. I'm going to try to find the materials for your light set up too. I wonder, do these light bulbs fit into a standard lamp? I have a floor light that looks very similar to the lamp in the link below, except the neck of my light bends so I can point the light down. http://www.target.com/p/room-essentials-steel-floor-lamp-black/-/A-11266163 do you think one of the grow bulbs you use could fit into my lamp and be safe? (don't feel like setting the house on fire XD) I can bend the light so it points downward, and it might work so long as it's safe. Mike, I'm glad you responded to my post, I was hoping you'd respond at some point, lol! you seem to be the unofficial expert on this forum. I'll definitely make a couple of calls to the plant nurseries near me (I'm thinking my best hope will be farmer john's and bordine's, not sure if you have any of these places out in Maryland). I think the perlite/ regular mix (70/30 ratio) will probably be my best bet. Just curious, what exactly is perlite? I know it's the white bits in my plant's soil, just not sure exactly what it is. Whether wise it's been 90+ nearly everyday this summer, VERY unusual for Michigan summers. We just finally got some rain last week, before that everything was dried up and yellow,hadn't rained in my area in months, not as many people were having bonfires or setting off fireworks because of the fear that it would start a fire. It's been hell trying to keep my vegetable garden alive, but its finally starting to slightly cool down, so I think I made it through the worst part of it. Has it been unusually hot in Maryland too? I wonder how that heat would affect all your citrus. Rhizo, Yes it is sinking in that there is no magical formula, just to get a formula that drains well :). Thanks for the clarification just in case I was a little slow, LOL XD, I truly appreciate it. (I really mean that without a sarcastic tone, seriously).:P Thanks again so much! it's so nice to have this forum. On a high note I think my little orange tree is going to have some oranges. one of the flowers that bloomed has mostly fallen away, but beneath it there is a tiny green orange, maybe it will grow bigger. I thought my tree was too young to make oranges, but maybe its older than a year.

If you have it near a window that gives it some bright light, you'll get some flowers again. Even if the temperature doesn't vary much (though my guess is that even indoors, when autumn comes, you'll have cooler evenings), the difference in the length of the day will often trigger a flower spike. You seem to have it in a really good pot situation right now, so just wait and see! As much as we talk about all the factors involved, at the end of the day, if the roots have humidity, and the leaves have lots of bright light, you're going to be rewarded. Don't think too hard about it. Just an aside: I know it's discouraged, but in my experience, phals CAN get direct sun, either early morning or late afternoon, so it's not too intense. I've 10 phals here that all get at least two hours of direct early morning sun, and 4 of them have just spiked for the second time this year (that's a first for me!!).