In some Calif. counties, the exotic Asian citrus Psyllid is found to be infecting citrus trees, my area is affected. It's moving into other counties. It's very damaging to citrus, but worse it hosts the terminal greening disease--the leaves and fruit look part green part yellow. I wasn't able to see your pictures. On my navel tree, hundreds of mature dried leaves fall off, they're folded looking and have no signs of disease. It has the psyllid, but I'm trying to save it. I pull off all new tender growth that looks terrible. For yellowing problems, try using greensand for a natural magnesium supplement, it helped the yellow go away on mine completely, after a few months last year. Also I give it triple 15 fertilizer, or if you want organic, blood and bone meal with the greensand. Leaves are falling off dry and folded, but weren't yellow. It seemed to help the tree last year when I wet it down, then threw diatomaceous earth over the leaves and any young fruit, this is supposed to kill insects by a mechanical means, not chemical-the insects can't walk on it. It's due for another diatomaceous earth powdering, but I'll wait until no blossoms, so to not harm bees, and when no chance of rain to wash the earth off. I think the Greensand and the D. Earth both helped the psyllid problem. If greening disease is present, the tree is supposed to be cut down and disposed in doubled vinyl bags (like asbestos ceiling popcorn!) I'll add a link about the Asian Citrus Psyllid damage and greening disease. For yellowing issues use Greensand, natural magnsesium. Still, my oranges aren't ripening right, they stay part green and never get sweet. The leaves used to look like the ones shown in the link, but look better now. My 30 y/o lemon tree was destroyed by the Asian Psyllid, I'm taking that tree down--never seen such bad damage to leaves in my life-unbelievable!! Will try to post a picture. Good luck. Here is a link that might be useful: CA Pest and Disease Prevention Program

I grow Citrus on straight sand and IâÂÂve learned that you have to adjust your fertilizer applications to accommodate leaching. By the looks of your trees, they need more food, more often. The 10 year old trees should be getting 11lbs of 8-8-8 or 13-13-13 per year, divided into 4 applications of 2.75lbs (2 x 8oz cups is approximately 1lb.) through the growing season. My 1st application goes down March 1 and my last is Sept 1. Increase the rate of fertilizer 1 - 1ý lb of 8-8-8 or 13-13-13 per year through the 12th year or max of 18lbs of fertilizer per year. Broadcast the fertilizer beyond the spread of the limbs where most of the feeder roots occur a good practice is to put your left shoulder near the outer branches and hold the can of fertilizer in your right hand. You can simply walk around the tree and evenly spread the fertilizer in a 12- to 18-inch band on the outer branches of the tree. This is the foundation of your feeding schedule. Supplement to this: i) A small amount of nitrogen fertilizer (ü pound of Ammonium Nitrate or Ammonium Sulfate/year/age of tree or ý pound of Calcium Nitrate/year/age of tree) should be applied to bearing trees (trees 4 years and older) in late May or June. The rate of fertilizer is increased each year until the tree is 12 years old. This helps the tree make adequate vegetative growth and appropriate sized fruit. The additional nitrogen also will encourage the tree to set a crop the following year. ii) A micro-nutrient foliar spray once every 6 weeks. I like Keyplex HG (http://keyplexdirect.3dcartstores.com/KeyPlex-Citrus-HG--32oz-_p_91.html#C3). You can tone it down to 2oz/gallon. iii) An application of WEAK liquid fertilizer (200ppm) in between granular applications. I like JackâÂÂs 25-5-15HP (http://www.jrpeters.com/Products/Jack-s-Professional/Jack-s-Pro/General-Purpose-Formulas/25-5-15-High-Performance.html) As far as pest cpontroll goes, IâÂÂve had luck with: i) Macho 2.0 (http://www.keystonepestsolutions.com/labels/Macho_2.0FL.pdf ) Application: 1/8oz/10oz water, applied to base of tree at start of 2nd flush ii) Kocide 3000 (http://msds.dupont.com/msds/pdfs/EN/PEN_09004a35804ce82d.pdf ) Application: pre bloom, petal fall, & each flush @ the following rate: 5gal 3gal 1gal (tbsp) (tsp) (tsp) 6 9 3 iii) Greenlight Spinosad (http://www.amazon.com/Green-Light-Organic-Control-Spinosad/dp/B000BO8XZO ) Application: 2oz/Gallon H20 + 1Oz Hort Oil as foliar spray every 7 to 14 days after petal fall. This is what works for me in sand. Best, Skinn30a

For citrus groves, the eulophid wasp is pretty effective in controlling peelminer. Since there are several wasp species in Florida that do the same for leaf miner, I imagine there would be some possible cross-parasitism. Unfortunately, cultivating wasps is out of the question for backyard hobbyists. It's my opinion that the benefit of neem oil is more preventative, in keeping the adult form from even landing on a tree that's been sprayed. That because of the smell, more than anything else. There's probably a pesticidal benefit for insects the oil contacts as well, but when I spray, I'm not especially concerned with getting the oil on all parts of new flushes. This is why I think that neem will be an effect deterrent in both cases. Peelminer adults lay eggs on the bottom sides of leaves (allowing them to be sheltered from large-scale pesticidal applications), but leaf miner behaves similarly. I can eliminate leaf miner by spraying the top sides of leaves. So, it stands to reason that the effects of neem oil would be similar for both moth species. Moths have highly-developed senses of smell. -Bruce

I"m sure there's a lot of smart people here that know a lot more about plants and house plants than I do but to say that "If you have gnats, there's a 99% chance your plants are suffering from excess water retention", just isn't true. I've had the same 28 house plants for 5-15 years (depending on the plant) and all are thriving. I've only had a Dracaena die on me a few years ago due to my water quality i believe but it certainly wasn't root rot. Last July, a friend of mine gave me this amazing Philodendron Micans becuase he was leaving the country. Shortly after getting the plant, my wife and I went away for 10 days. We came back to fungus gnats. I immediatley quarantined the new Micans and completely changed the soil but it was too late. Many of my other plants, including plants i run very dry like ZZ, hoya, snake plant had fungus gnats. I've never had a fungus gnat issue in the past so i really didn't now what to do. Like many people, I tried using BT and yellow sticky tape combo (the rememdy that many poeple are recommending), Bonide systemic granules, hydrogen peroxide, diatamacious earth, neem oil and nothing worked. I tried completely drying out my soil and again, fungus gnats came back weeks later. After hours of gnat research, I read about someone with a similar problem and she said to cover the drainange holes in all your plants and cover the top layer of soil with sand. It appears that fungus gnats are skilled at finding any moist soil, top or bottom so they can and will use your drainage holes to lay their eggs. Their eggs can also lay dormant for many weeks in dry soil and then hatch again when you water your plant so drying out your soil, even the top two inches bone dry, doesn't always work. So no, it doesn't take just poorly drained plants to make fungus gnats happy. Poorly drained soil certainly helps them thrive but they will thrive just fine even in slighly damp, properly draining soil. I was desperate and I really hated covering my soil with sand and wil likely remove it at some point but i'm happy to report, i've been fungus gnat free for about 2.5 months and all plants are doing fine. You have to make it impossible for any gnat to gain access or escape from your plant's soil. This will break the life cycle. Hopefully this is helpful to anyone else looking for a gnat solution. (And there's no sign that my plants are under any additional stress due to the sand compacting the soil undernearth. I used about 1/4 - 1/2 inch of sand, just don't go too crazy with the sand and you will also have to slow down your watering because the water pools temporarily on the top of the sand before it is absorbed and reaches the soil underneath)