MG potting soil is fine, but other mediums should added. I mix soils and non-soil-less mixes together. For my 2 Lipsticks, the soil consist of Miracle Gro, a handful of house plant soil, coarse sand, handful of peat, and Perlite. They hang in a west window, in the bathroom. Can't use a humidity tray when plants hang so 4 showers per day and daily misting increases humidity, (lipsticks need humidity) Lyssa, as long as your container has drainage holes, soil is well-draining, and watering isn't done too often, (daily, like some ppl tend to do,) there's no reason to worry about overwatering. To be honest, my lipsticks are watered when soil dries, but if you wait too long, they wilt or drop. Overwatering causes wilt and felled leaves too, so the best thing is to familiarize watering habits. Aside from using sand and perlite, both lipsticks are rootbound, so chances of overwatering are next to nil. If you worry about overwatering, use smaller pots. Lipsticks are more likely to bloom when roots are snuggly. Your lipstick will thrive in an east window, but lessens chance of flowering and sturdy foliage. Unless your plant is right against the pane and/or getting additional artificial light. Consider obsturctions like curtains, blinds and trees... Lipsticks are early bloomers..Once you see growth, start fertilizing. I alternate by using an All Purpose fert, then, the following month, Flowering fert. Herbs are difficult..they need fresh air and a good amount of sunlight, there's no comparison. If you've just started growing plants, don't count herbs. Since your leaves were soft brown, the soil wasn't being kept too dry. It's a good idea to check for insects. I'm not saying that's the problem, but one never knows unless they inspect plants regularly. Do you know what to look for? So far, saturating soil and removing dead foliage is a good start. Periodic spraying in sink or shower, or if you're into misting, helps with humidity, especially if the air in your house is dry. Good luck..Toni

On the contrary, leaves that once were green, then going through the stages of yellowing, browning, eventually turning black is definitely a cue that you are overwatering. Leaves turn black because they are not able to further take up moisture. The roots are sitting in too much water...forcing the plant to draw water up, until such time, the plant is unable to proceed any further. Root rot sets in....the leaves are the first sign of any problem that is caused from such watering practices. At the stage of blackness, it has gone on far too long. Yellow leaves might be the first sign of overwatering---along with other possible causes...but overwatering, being the one biggest reason for trouble, should be thought of first. As the water is no longer able to do anything for the plant....even tho, water is sitting only a few inches away...the leaves are unable to draw any more, they are saturated...and so will turn black. I think one of the easiest ways to have such result is by not having something between the soil and the drainage holes and letting the drainage water sit too long under the plant causing it to draw water it once got rid of, to be drawn back up and if the plant cant use it, it sits there, drowning the roots. Distilled water is a viable choice if you believe the water from your tap has something in it that might cause problems. But there are other sources of water without going the distilled route. Bottled water---very common these days...water that has sat for days in a watering can or water from snow you have brought in and allowed to gain room temperature can be used. Plants react to changes that are abrupt. Cold drafts from floor vents or open doorways can cause yellowing leaves. Too high nighttime temperatures can cause browning tips and edges.

Night Hawk is so happy in his new home. i have him inside the laudry room, very dark and quite. Inside the preformed pond. I filled it up last night and ran the pump in it all night. Mike, i just knew you would say that would better, so i got it ready while you slept :) and then when i got online.. yes, i did the right thing. But i just now moved him so it ran for over 6 hours.. :) When i put Night Hawk in the pond he swam all around and when i put the net over the top he was sitting on the ledge right way up. YEAH.. i think his might be ok. Thank you Erie for trying to help also. It was a storage plastic tub that Night Hawk was in. but i was real worried when i saw Mike say that i should change the watter so frequently. I thought this might stress Night Hawk out even more. should i put some stress eze stuff in the pond with him?? i put in the salt and kio clay ( i don't know if the clay helps but i thought it might). Mike, i will get the specs on the pump for you. About the water fall; it is 8-10 ft from the bottom of the pond to the top of the water fall (if you measure straight up in the air) the legnth of the watter fall is 12-13 ft. and it is 2 ft wide. the pump just sits on the bottom, we don't have a skimmer. we keep the filter pads in the watter fall box thingey .. i don't know the proper name off the top of my head. we have 4 diffrent color pads in there. ( we are using the same system now on the other pond, but with a much smaller pump) we don't want the watter to run to hard down it due to the splashing and watter loss. i reall need to rework the entire thing. the pond my fish are in now is 4 ft deep 3 foot across (short way) and 5 ft across the long way. There is 9 kio, 3 commets, 6 shubukin, in the pond now. When i got the fish the idea was to have the 3 commets in the preformed pond 55 gallon, the koi were going to be in the large pond with the water fall and the shubukin in the deep pond. the bigest fish is a butterfly kio about 8 inches long tail and all. When we had the problem with the large pond i realized we were going to have problems with the freezing weather. i thought maybe i would bring them in for the winter but i realized that the cold and hybernation state is good for the fish. so to the deep pond they all went for the winter. it is suppose to be below 32 for the next few nights, and i don't have the pump for the big pond yet; but even then i'm worried to move them and have the watter freeze.. To fix the big pond i thought rather than take apart the liner that is sealed to the water fall liner and dig a deeper hole that i would be better to bring in the sand and raise the ground level to be even with the ground where the water fall ends. I have a bunch of extra liner on the side of the pond folded up under the rocks. The cat fish that my husband put in the big pond is no longer living there , we took him to the spring house and put him in the pond there. Before you mentioned that other fish will help him, should i bring in one of the small kio or commetts to stay with Night Hawk? i will get the specs on the pump filter system and let you know asap.. lori

hablu, forgot to mention, the soil in the plastic pot it was in was not too wet, but, the cactus was sitting above sideways, separately if you may. there was a little soil with it on the bottom, a little more on the dry side, it caught my eye that way, but i just placed in on the soil that was originally there, have not watered at all, but will see how it goes. thanks for your advice/opinion Chuy