On this forum, you'll often find a lot of emphasis on things of dubious value, like misting and using certain elixirs that in the overall scheme of things will have no measurable impact on your tree's current or future state of vitality. Most plant afflictions ultimately lie within the affects of a very few factors, those being your soil choice, which is inextricably linked to watering habits, light, nutrition, and how you've maintained the root system of your plant. The light and nutrition are pretty easy - you either have or do not have appropriate light. If you have it, that's wonderful; if you don't have it, you'll simply need to accept the limiting effects of inadequate light or supplement, which isn't easy on an 8' tree. Nutrition is also easy, but it leads us right back to your choice of soil (surprised at that?), I can tell you WHAT to fertilize with, but HOW you fertilize and how fertility levels combine with the level of other salts in the soil need more discussion. We can talk more if you're interested. Most importantly - if you can't provide cultural conditions that ensure happy roots, you have no chance of keeping the rest of the plant happy. This leads directly to soil choice and what you've done to maintain roots. This area of container culture, and I'm going to include over-watering with soil choice because of their close association, is rightly where almost all of the problems brought to this forum originate - including pest infestation and various diseases. It sounds probable that your plant is dealing with one of several fungal infections that affect roots. The roots of a plant that old would be climbing out of any size pot if the plant was healthy. If the bark peals away easily exposing what was once living cambium, you can be sure your plant has Southern Blight or any of several other fungal infections associated with this plant. Without being there to see the plant, it's difficult to assess whether the plant is savable or not. You must feel that it is, or you wouldn't be asking for help. The best time to undertake any kind of serious root work on your rubber tree would have been late Jun - late Jul. A picture would be very helpful, otherwise you'd need to unilaterally decide if you think an emergency repot is in order. Repots differ from potting up in that they include removing all (or almost all) the soil from the root mass, and in your case removing any dead/decaying/otherwise compromised root tissues. Trees in the condition yours are in just don't turn around because you decide to fertilize with something special or offer a plant tonic; and misting the foliage isn't going to do it either. It will take some fortitude and your willingness to take a risk, but in your case it sounds like that might the only option to keep the tree from staying its present course. I maintain MANY Ficus in containers, many of them very old specimens, and I maintain them in continual good health because of a good understanding of their needs and what they will/won't tolerate. Let me know if you want to establish a dialog and if you want additional/more specific help. Al

I'm hoping to retry growing some butternut(autumn glow) and triple treat pumpkin. I tried getting a late crop of autumn glow butternut this year by seeding 4 plants mid august but only one plant bore fruit. They are about 3 inches long in a container and wont probably make it by the time the first freeze come along. I'd also like to plant some netted pumpkin again this year. Melonette Jaspee de Vendee and some winter luxury pie pumpkin. Anyone know if those two pumpkins are related? But they are C. pepo and thus susceptible to vine borers. I won't be planting any C. maximas again because they take too much space and are prone to insect attacks. The Seminole pumpkin squash sound very interesting but might not have enough time to mature in the northeast US. Has any one tried the delicata types "Honey boat and Sugar loaf" varieties and can give me comparisons on their tastes as compared to each other and the common butternut(sweetness, texture, firmness)? All my honey boat squash plants wilted under mildew pressure this year. The delicatas I've tried from the supermarket were bland and probably grown with too much water. So, so far C. moschatas are my surest bet. Around here the supermarkets sell kabocha squash for 80 cents a pound and they are super sweet. Makes me wonder if I shouldn't just plant flowers instead of squash. One more question: The Autumn glow butternut I planted that grew large enough to bear fruit bore male flowers first. However, the female flowers that came about a week after opened up before any of the male flowers. Could this be due to the shorter days of Autumn? The plants are incredibly compact, no more than 40 inches long with very short tendrils. And the male flowers are very different from regular squash flowers. The flowers are very fleshy and heavy. Sorry for going off topic, but thanks for any answers.

Hi bluepalm, I am also new to Lychee tree growing, just plantd one 4 weeks ago, in full sun. My "Sweetheart" variety tree came from Pine Island Nursery and the label said plant in Full Sun.I live 2 hours south of Orlando. I found this website www.hampshirefarms.com and under frequently asked questions this is a quote. How many hours of sun are considered Full Sun and Part Sun? "Full Sun means plants need at least six hours of direct sunlight. Part Sun means plants need at least three hours of direct sunlight, with shade or filtered sunlight during the remainder of the day." (back) Hope that helps. Mine gets full sun from 8am to 6pm and is full of new growth, I have watered it everyday for 4 weeks, and I will start watering it every other day for at least a month or two. Seems to love a lot of water. Of course we haven't had any rain lately. Once the rainy season starts, I will slack off on the watering.Someone recommended I shield the plant from wind, since when very young they are very sensitive to windy days. Also go to Lycheesonline.com, it is loaded with lychee information. Nancy I attached a photo of my Lychee Tree below. Here is a link that might be useful:

Thanks for the information Dave. And thanks for providing the search link, I always forget about the search link. I had heard/read that starting from seed is less desirable, but I figured since I got in the seed I would use it- and give myself some time to get the bed set up. I figure if by the time the bed is ready to go, if I'm not happy with what I got from seed, I can get crowns of another sort at the time. I'm patient, and figure I probably won't see anything till at least 2020. I also figured that the wet area in the sun would be the best spot, but I wasn't sure. It's big enough that I can probably expand it a bit more as time and need go on. That drive is about 200 feet long, but I figure the usable area is more around 150 feet long- and of that I figured starting out with a 20-40 foot long patch was reasonable. Maybe I'll end up with two patches, one from seed starts, and one from crowns. Reason I figured around 60-80 pound a year is because my husband and I can go through 30-40 pound a year. I pick it up by the 10 pound bag when the local farm starts selling it in the spring. Now that I have mom and sis living with us, and they love asparagus too, I figured the increase. But then, if it were free out of my garden instead of buying it, we might end up eating more than we currently do. So maybe 60-80 pounds is too conservative an estimate.