Sean, as long as your Vigoro has micronutrients, that's fine, but I would also hit it with a foliar application of Grow More Citrus Growers Blend. It is something you want in your "citrus arsenal" here in S. California. With all the heavy, cold rains we've experienced in the last 2 years, you're going to run into the same issue I have with citrus in the ground (my soil is mainly DG here in N. San Diego county near the coast): a leaching of micronutrients, especially magnesium. So, start with the Vigoro, but do make a foliar app with some micronutrients. You'll see the difference, promise :-) And Tim's right, no pruning for now. Wait until you obviously need to do some MINOR shaping. Remember, with citrus, pruning equals no fruit. Citrus produce fruit at the tips of their branches, so you're cutting off your next fruit crop when your prune! And Tim's advice about removing suckers is right on. Just break them off if they're soft. If they've hardened off, trim close to the rootstock. Our water isn't too alkaline here in San Diego county - about 7 to 7.6. Fine for citrus. But, for your little guy, acidifying the water with some vinegar and pouring it over the fertilizer may help prevent the micronutrients from getting locked out due to the alkalinity. You guy needs a bit of a rescue. Tim's advice is good. Once recovered, you probably won't need to acidify your water. You can also achieve this with your foliar application - acidifying the water you use to dissolve your Growers Blend in. When you pick up your moisture meter, pick up a decent pH meter (don't buy the cheapest one). It's worth having these in your gardening tools. I've had both my moisture meter and my pH meter for many years. Great tools to have! Patty S.

Hello, I have a 20 yr old lemon tree that seems to be dying. It used to have healthy dark green leaves and produce a lot of big beautiful fruit. Now there is half the amount of leaves there used to be, all pale yellow and shriveled up, and the lemons are the size of key limes. An arborist believed it was getting too much water, though it was getting the same amount it always had, and suggested we stop the sprinklers and pull up the bricks around it (which we did) to let the soil air out. A gardener thought it was protesting against dirt having been buried too far up its trunk, which we removed. Another gardener thought it wasn't getting enough water, but when he watered it, the leaves did not unfold. None of this has made a difference - in fact it's worse than ever - and there don't seem to be pests or mites. It looks more horrible with each passing month, and we have no idea what else to do! Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated! Thank you... Heather Collins

Well, you have probably made some of the classic Meyer lemon errors. First, when you dramatically change the light conditions a Meyer will drop most, if not all its leaves, to replace them later with leaves better suited to the new light conditions. To move a Meyer from outside to inside without the leaf loss, you need to move it from full sun to partial sun for 2 weeks; then to full shade for 2 weeks; then indoors; reverse the process when putting it out in the Spring... and please DO put it out, if you can; you will be rewarded with a happy, healthy plant. Second, when you bring it indoors to a sunny window, the plant gets warm; but the roots generally stay cool; and citrus roots don't like to grow into cool soil... the solution is to put some sort of heater to warm the soil, or to put the plant a little further from the window. The thing to remember is first the roots grow; and then the leaves and branches. Now to your current situation... the plant is stressed and "thinks" it is going to die, so it will try to make seeds (fruit). If you take off the flowers, the tree will only make more; so wait until the flowers drop and then take off all the fruit; soon after that, if you treat it well, it will start to make new leaves... and then you should start to feed it. Have patience.

The light, the root temps the humidity, the right amount of watering, and of course diverse pests, for me here it seems like playing the lottery. There are so many factors that I have a hard time putting all together. In the beginning the temp in that room would go in the 80's with all that light and humidity close to 90%. Did that prevent spidermites or other gritters from showing up? Nope. And I believe they caused all the dieying of the very tender new shots on my Shiranui. (thank goodness under control) Next I thought open the window a tad to control temps and humidity. Lost one Cara and one of my moneola defoliated severely. Took me a while to understand what was happening. Now the temp is constantly at around 22C and humidity under 50% and the plants seem to like it better. During all that ordeal the only one not suffering is my Meyer tree. New growth and now new flowers. What I learned so far is that overcrowding is a very bad thing and I have to figure out how to manage better next winter (if I get some through this one it is) One last thing about watering, here my trees react to dropping leaves (green and not wilted) new shots and fruits when too dry. Wilted only if roots are damaged for different reasons.