treated it several times with a baking soda, but the blades are just dead. Not so sure this was a good idea. I know people use it on ornamental plants, but not for yard fungus. Here in FL we use Baking Soda to kill crabgrass and dollarweed in St.Augustine lawns. It does cause a little damage to the S.A., but nothing serious. Baking soda also kills the good and bad microbes in your soil. You could spray compost tea to help regain the population, or just wait for them to return/multiply again. If your sure you have a fungus you could use corn meal @ 10-20lbs per 1000sqft. Do a google search for thatch and research it, as I dont think you have it. Thatch is a layer of living and dead organic matter that occurs between the green matter and the soil surface. Thatch becomes a problem when there is too much. A little thatch is okay. You might also want to post this message on the Organic Lawn Care forum.

Then it is probably not Ph. Otherwise the plants look fine, it's jut that a few of them have the tendency to spoon in the middle and I didn't know what this was. Who knows... As for Home Depot gizmo...I just got the confirmation that it wasn't really working, certainly not to accurately measure light. I just received another light meter (Analog) which someone recommended on this forum and that seems to be quite reliable. I was surprised to learn that this one uses a tri-stage foot-candle range for precise readings on three scales; so fluorescent light is measured on a different scale than sun light. When I set the meter on fluorescent, it registered exactly 500 ft candles right at the plant level, so the set up I have really is the way it should be. Now I just need to receive my timer so I won't leave the poor plants under the grow light for all eternity, as I have sometimes done...and then get them pale in the middle. And some leaf rings for support...:-) Looks like this hobby is not as inexpensive as I thought it would be but it certainly is fun. On top of that, a few days ago I also got my very first mouse ear EVER! It's embarrassing how exciting this thing can get. :-))))

Franz, when was the last time you sent in some soil tests for accurate readings? Also, I'd take some of those leaves in to your local extension office for examination and maybe even tissue analysis. Though I suggest that you wait until you have the results of your soil tests, iron nails won't give you the results you wish. Iron nails and iron shavings break down into solids that aren't soluble or absorbable by plants. Your soil tests may even determine that your soils don't need iron at all, but a change in pH so that existing iron can be released into the soil solution and made available for uptake. Or, if the pH seems to be borderline, a good citrus fertilizer will have the necessary chelated iron and other minor elements required for good health. If you have a very high population of ants in this location, you ought to use an ant bait to control their numbers, once and for all. Amdro is recommended for use around citrus, I believe. There are also some 'organic' ant baits that do a good job, too. Look for the active ingredient SPINOSAD on the label of those baits. Do you have scale insects? You mention something white and powdery, and I don't think of aphids with that description. ;-)

Okay...now to show my extreme inexperience at gradening... The raised bed I really messed up on the soil...what I used was about 1 yard of compost (uggh I know now after reading this wonderful forum that was the wrong idea) and I mixed in about 16cu feet of kellog garden soil, so I'm pretty sure my garden is toast at this time...the soil under the bed is a mix of granite/DG/clay...really horrible tough soil in parts of my yard. I bought a water meter yesterday after the suggestion above and it is off the scale wet wet wet,and I havent watered them in 2 days and it's been in the 90's...so I have been way over watering, but soil is more than likely an issue also...I will get a PH kit and test the soil...the plant in the bucket was an equall mix of kellog garden soil and some rich (looking) soil from my yard that is probably why it looks allot better. Unfortunatly the plants in the bed are looking really bad one day after I took the picture..I will let them continue growing but have little hope they will survive... I started this garden to get my kids out of the house and really want to get this going so I went and bought a bunch of 5 gallon buckets last night and all new plants , do you think the mixing equall portions of kellog garden soil and soil from my yard will do the trick or should I add something else? and are 5 gallon buckets big enough to get us by? The weather has been downright hot the last few days 95 degrees at my house yesterday and 85 degrees at 7pm last night. it hasnt really been cold here at all for the last 2 months pretty much a glorified desert out here in San Diego. my back yard..