To answer you original question "Succulents dying, how can I save them?". The quick answer - you won't save them. Throw them away. If you really are interested in growing healthy plants, you have lots of work to do. It's a great hobby, but you can't go into it blindly. I will try and keep this as simple as I can, please don't take offense: - You should not be growing these plants until you have done at least a modicum of research, unless your intention is to only have them as temporary, short-lived decorative plants. These plants were doomed from the start. Poor pot selection, poor soil mix, inadequate light, inadequate air movement, inadequate temperature range, and an owner with a lack of information. I partially blame the retailer for selling an attractive but terribly ineffective mini-garden. - Succulents ARE NOT houseplants. They will not be healthy indoors without significant effort. What you may think are "healthy" plants are instead plants that are tolerant of abuse which can only put up with so much before they start to go downhill. Most succulents need fresh air and sunshine for at least a few months a year. Indoors year-round they are essentially being tortured. -"gnats" are fruit flies. They feed off of organics in the soil, like decomposing peat. Peat is probably the single worst ingredient for growing pot plants. -We have all been in the same position. We have all killed plants in the beginning. What defines success, IMO, is how you take it from there. /rant

My humblest apologies for my long posts. The firmness of the roots is a good thing. Be wary of disturbing the actual root mass unnecessarily--it just may cause more damage. I know someone who bare-roots her trees every time there may be a problem, and I've been doing my best to discourage this process (ahem. you know who you are ;) Ultimately and ideally, in a potted tree, you do want lots of fine roots for nutrient uptake as opposed to woody lignified roots taking up space, but if the roots are so fragile they are breaking off essentially spontaneously, then they are not viable anyway. pH does seem to be one of those topics that sets some people off for an unclear reason, but I now fall into to the camp of I-don't-really-care-about-it. pH management in *containerized* soils is different from the earth and the reason it is a PIA IMHO is b/c it is extremely dynamic. (Out of curiosity, what is your method for checking--is it pH paper or a meter?) Having said that, citrus do prefer a *slightly* acidififed soil, but they are not blueberries. Most tap water is going to be basic to some degree to keep contaminants from precipitating out, but since you've used bagged soil, there is a very high likelihood that there is a good portion of peat moss in your mix and therefore you've already got a slightly acidified soil. I'd leave that alone for now. Otherwise, you can add a light dose of slow-release fertilizer that is nitrogen-dominant, and since many sources of nitrogen are acidifying on their own that may help. Also, I've seen a brand of those slow-release granules that also has sulfur in it, and that might help over time. When you do fertilize otherwise, you can choose an acidifying formula that way too (I use Miracid for the most part). No, thorns do not *precede* growth. They *accompany* it and you should be seeing something besides just thorns if you really do have some sort of growth. Other possibilities are thorns that you missed previously since there were more leaves to cover then, actual new vegetative growth forming (doubtful if you're still seeing signs of decline like continued leaf loss), or the beginnings of massive pathologic stress-bloom. You're going to have to wait awhile before you see results--I had a tree in CHCs (stupidly) for over a year before I pulled that sucker out and rehabbed it, and it was easily 5 mos or so before I felt like I had made any progress with it whatsoever. The tree's stored energy is eseentially depleted and it has to have time to build that back up. Which is hard when it doesn't have many funtional roots and reduced leaf surface area. Something some speak of, but I don't do, is to prune it back significantly and reduce the canopy mass when you have had major root damage. The main reason I find this difficult is that often leaves will drop first from the inside of the canopy in this situation (older leaves), and then if you prune it back you're cutting off the rest of the leaves--shooting self in the foot while you're at it, lol. The tree needs maximal photosythetic area. Personally, I think citrus is hard to kill if you've got the basics down. It's easy for them to get into trouble, but I don't think they actually die that easily from stuff like this. So it's reasonable to keep trying with this tree. Branch dieback will be your guide, but even if the graft goes, the rootstock can survive--and then in a little while you have someplace where you can do your own grafting. How appropriate--lemonade out of lemons. Literally. Please keep us updated on your progress. Hopefully someone else will comment--where is tapla, bencelest, eyeckr, jackpines, citrusboy? Surely you gents can help us out here...oh wait, I know where they are--they're sick of my longwinded posts :)

Kathleen, Where is the green bit? If it is in the center of the plant, you could try removing all the dead tissue, putting the plant in a bright spot with normal watering (little less than normal until it recovers.) If the green bit is on a leaf somewhere, and it looks like the center of the plant is dead, you could try snipping that part off the plant and rooting it like you would to propogate a strepto. Don't consider myself an expert- just comes under the "what I would do" heading. Hope it is helpful... Let us know how it goes. Andy

Sounds as though there are lots of animal lovers in your new neighborhood, but not a lot of animal caretakers. Some people just don't know what they don't know. THey know they want the cute and fuzzy, but not that they grow up and might need work! So, it sounds like you have an opportunity here! You can be an example for your neighbors as to how to care for an animal at the very least. You can also take it one step further and maybe provide free literature on vet clinics and low cost spay and neuter to your neighbors. If you don't have those services available locally, you can work to make those services available by joining a rescue group and working with other like minded folks. What I'm trying to say is what some other posters have said: there is POWER in numbers. Join a group. Found a group. Get the local kids involved in educational efforts and maybe they won't grow up to be their parents! You feel overwhelmed and a little alone now, but if you make contacts with other like minded folks, your effectiveness as an agent of change multplies! One person can't save them all....but a dozen people can save a neighborhood. It's like the old shampoo commercial. You tell two friends, and they tell two friends, and they tell two friends..... and the next thing you know, your county is actually opening an animal shelter where none existed before and the deputies just shot stray dogs (true story!).