Patty: Believe it or not, not everything needs to be fertilized. In fact, MOST plants require little if any supplemental fertilizing. And some plants actually RESENT being given supplemental fertilizer (that includes natives and many plants from South Africa and Australia). But there are some heavy and/or regular feeders: Lawns Container Plants Annuals (most; including vegetables) "Woodland" plants (non-natives, including Azaleas, Hydrangeas, Camellias) Subtropical Plants (Citrus, most feather palms, Fuchsia, Gardenia, Blue potato vine [Solanum rantonettii]) Roses If you have these, it IS agood time to feed cool-season lawns, cool-season annual flowers and vegetables and container plants. The rest are best left until spring. If you intend to fertilize because you have some leaf yellowing right now, do note that summer yellowing is almost always caused by one of two things: "summer doldrums" Â the "alive-but-dormant" look of most natives and other Mediterranean climate plants. ItÂs just what they do and how they look this time of year, including bearing lots of yellow or simply pale or tired-looking older leaves. too much water. Natives and almost every other Mediterranean plant detest water in the summer time. Signs of too much water: lower/older leaves yellowing and drooping; leaves with soft brown tips/edges. Joe

Watering will be up to how warm your days are and how much rain you get, kumquat. Check your soil, and if it is starting the dry out, water well. Not deeply, just well enough to soak the top 18 to 24 inches (deep watering citrus has gone by the wayside, it is not necessary and a waste of water.) That might be once a week, twice a week, once every 2 weeks, impossible to say since I don't know how much rain you're getting or how warm your area is. And, your satsuma will naturally drop excess blossoms as well as excess set fruit. If you end up, however, with a lot of fruit set past the ball bearing/marble size, you can thin some if your tree is very tiny, and you fear the branches breaking. You should be fertilizing (actually, you should apply fertilizer before blossom set), and then every 2 to 3 months through about Sept. You should be following your citrus growing recommendations for your area. Check out your local Cooperative Extension office's recommendations for growing citrus in your area. Or, contact your local Master Gardener's group. Patty S. Here is a link that might be useful: University of Florida Cooperative Extension: Growing Dooryard Citrus

The numbering system for inorganic fertilizer has confused people for years. There are three numbers and they represent the amounts(as a percentage) of the three major ingredients of fertilizer: Nitrogen, Phosphorus and Potassium. "Balanced" fertilizer would have the same number for each element 20-20-20 or 10-10-10. Dahlias like a fertilizer with 5-10-10 or 10-20-20 or even 12-24-24. All this means is that it has half the nitrogen as the other two elements. Most gardens stores sell 5-10-10. Farmers buy 10-20-20 at the farm store because it is twice as concentrated and much cheaper than 5-10-10. Most of us are going organic. Alfalfa used as mulch is a great fertilizer. Mint compost is also excellent. Both have all three of the three major elements and work quite well. Bat guano and blood meal are good fertilizers. Of course all types of aged manures are the classic fertilizers for organic gardeners. Chicken manure works great but needs to be applied in the Fall as it is too "hot" (too much nitrogen all at once) for dahlias. They say that rabbit manure can be used fresh and needs no aging.

The biggest issue is fungus gnats. Tiny black flies that love to live indoors or out and infest every single plant even if its in a pot. They are smaller than fruit flies. Outdoors, I use a form of Bt and also benefical nematodes as I used to get a LOT of these fungus gnats, they even get inside the leaf layers of brussles sprouts, which are not good eating when you see tiny back flies in the cooking water. Indoors, when I start seeds, I use a mix of seed starting soils, like Natural Beginnings from Gardens Alive, as well as a Jiffy mix that is sold by the bag through sevral web sites, and even shreaded coconut husk fibers called coir. These are all quite 'clean' and have little to no real soil in them. They help hold just the right amount of moisture too. The fungus gnats usually come from outdoor soils, lay eggs in the soil that turn into tiny maggots and these feed off the tender roots of any plants. Thats one reason you see house plants suddenly dieing for no apparent reason. To check indoor plants, I use yellow sticky traps that rest horizontally on the edges of the pots. After just a couple of days, these traps can become loaded with tiny black gnats! Outside is where I use a form of Bt and also water in the beneficial nematodes that live in soil and go after the fungus maggots. My garden soil here isn't perfect, but if I can reduce harmful bugs from killing plants, its a big help. I use scent lures and sticky traps for my apples, peaches, and even cucumbers. Each sticky trap has a scent lure that attracts the pests common to these plants. Some plants and trees are highly resistant to diseases and bugs. Asian pears, asparagus, and blueberries to name a few. It may be better to head to a nursery/garden shop, as Home Depot and Lowes tend to offer a very limited amount of organic supplies. Here, we have only a very few products that are organic and most are for bugs (Neem) and disease control (Serende). The bags of soil offered by Miracle Grow tend to be a bit harsh as they simply use chemical equivilents to the real soil nutrients. I have a small leanto shed that stores corn gluten, fish meal, humate, kelp meal, and a few others. I use these as natural nitrogen additives, or in the case of humate, many minerals and micro nutrients. If you do plan to spray for any bugs that might be feeding on the leaves, try Neem. I wouldnt spray any herbs with anything unless the bugs are chewing holes in the leaves however. Bt, is a liquid mixed with water and has several different strains, of which one is for the gnat control. Ever hear of squash vine borers? These bugs bore into the base of squash vines and destroy the insides which cause the plants to quickly die. I have used another form of Bt and actually injected it into the main stems of squash plants, by using an insulin syringe. The Bt attacks the borers and kills them. Imagine a garden thats a living thing like us, it just can't survive all by itself if you want good yields and quality crops. I have only 2000 sq. feet of garden space, and there is also areas all around the edges of my garden that have fruit trees, or some permanent plants like asparagus and horse radish, which I harvest every spring. For your pot of cilantro, add some seeds every 2-3 weeks, so they can give you more than 1 or 2 harvests. Only thing is, if they are clumped together, they are hard to seperate if there are two stages of growth within each other. Indoors, I start about 60 petunia plants, 60 or so impatien plants, peppers, tomatos, basil, and a few others about mid April. This year, seedless watermelons with a necessary pollinator, as well as a few cantaloupe types. Brussels sprouts again too, but will be covered with a light weight white plastic fabric to block out the bugs, then my big batch of corn, which I plant every other year. I have a small tractor and a big rototiller to turn the soil over every spring, and work in any soil ammendments needed. Here is a link that might be useful: Natural Beginnings