I'm sorry, Rebecca, but IMO there's a lot of unsupportable information and conjecture in the advice you've received on this thread so far. Allowing the plant to dry down is going to cause leaf tip and marginal leaf necrosis (dead tips & leaf edges). The plant needs almost NO fertilizer indoors, so it's dangerous to the plant to fertilize one week with fertilizer 'A' and the next week (even the next month - especially "all through the seasons") with 'B'. With this plant, that type of fertilizing virtually guarantees greater leaf burn unless you are growing in an extremely fast soil. IF you were to adopt that regimen, you could only use a tiny amount of fertilizer in each gallon of water - a drop or two, or you should expect burn. This plant actually tolerates low humidity (to about 15%) IF the plant is fertilized properly and not over-fertilized. It's NOT the lack of humidity that causes leaf tip & marginal necrosis (though when the plant is over-fertilized, it IS a contributor), it's a high level of soluble salts in the soil that makes it difficult for the plant to absorb water that is almost always to blame. Over-fertilizing, as suggested, will simply exacerbate the problem. Alternating fertilizers with a bloom-boosting blend would also be very counter-productive. The plant uses about 6 times as much N as it does P, so there is no way to justify adding fertilizers with unnecessarily high levels of P to the soil that cannot be used by the plant. The added P simply causes more burning. Allowing this plant to go 2-4 weeks w/o water will force it into an 'environmental dormancy' as a drought response. This kills the top growth (leaves) which are making the food for the blooms in the next bloom cycle. I don't think that's what you need to promote blooming. IMO, Superthrive, used as a tonic is useless. (I'll provide a link to some experiments I performed if you're interested). Misting the plant, IMO, is also counter-productive and more apt to cause problems than solve them. It's generally accepted that the presence of 'real soil' in container soils is best avoided. It compacts, slows drainage, and greatly reduces the most important characteristic of container soils - aeration. I'm wondering why, if someone "... learned this trick several years ago. Alternate fertilizers. For instance, fert with an All Purpose one month or week, however often you fertilize, then use a flowering type fertilzer [sic] the next feeding. Continue doing this throughout the seasons." there would be this offering just a little up-thread: "... I rarely fertilizer PL's, though I'm not suggesting others do the same. Last year (2008) mine got one spring feeding, before that, they went two, possibly three years without. Other than once a month Superthrive and fresh soil, (true soil, not soil-less) they were on their own. Yet they bloomed, several times, in the last 3 years." That seems like a complete contradiction to me. May I suggest: A south window behind window treatments that diffuse a good part of the light or an east window. Keep the plant at 65-90* - no lower than 65*, very low doses of any 3:1:2 ratio fertilizer whenever the plant is growing robustly, whenever you water - water thoroughly and flush the soil of salts each time - then allow the plant to dry just to the point you notice the slightest bit of wilting and water again. Watering with deionized (distilled) water when you're not watering with fertilizer solution will go a long way toward curing the burn problem and you wouldn't need to flush the soil at every watering, either. Take care - wishing you well with your plant. Al

Fruitnut, I deal with numerous root bound potted trees every season in my nursery. Your plants look to be in better shape as far as circling roots than my potted plants. I don't power wash the soil away, however, although this is often recommended. I just don't find it at all necessary, and I prefer leaving some fine roots imbedded in the potting medium when I move the tree into real soil (I realize that this is not what your project is about). What I do is pull the circling roots piece by piece out of the ball (this is mostly with apple trees). When I put the tree into real soil I stretch the roots straight and as well distributed as possible- pegging the roots down if necessary. I often will be able to provide a transplanted 15 gallon potted tree with a root distribution that extends out in as much as a 6' diameter "circle" from the trunk. This allows the tree to do far better than some B+B'd tree that's lost most of its functional root system. The only problem is that it can take up to half an hour or more untangling the roots and then digging trenches to place them in that go way beyond the initial planting hole. Obviously this info is not of much use for people repotting plants where the idea would probably be to cut back the circling roots to fit into the new pot.

There is a relatively easy way to deal with fungus gnats by using those mosquito dunks, those floating things that contain that bacteria that goes after the mosquito larvae. Seems that it also goes after fungus gnat larvae. I have 3 of 5 gallon plastic buckets in the greenhouse full of water, and I leave two dunks floating around in each bucket for a week or so. I then use that water to water in the seedlings, and that introduces enough bacteria into the soil that I have no fungus gnat issues. It is surprising the damage they do to small seedling roots.

I wish my state allowed for me to place my child in rehab, but our laws state that at 17 years old, the person is an adult and unless they agree to go to rehab, there is nothing a parent can do. I so wish I was able to be brave as you are when my daughter needed more help at 17. She is now 20 and still in complete denial with legal, moral and financial woes from her addictive personality. If I had been able to place her in a facility, as you have done for your son, I know I would have all the same feelings you are experiencing....but I also would have hope for the future. Something I have less and less of, because my daughter refuses any help. So, hang in there and know you are a good parent, jiggreen. Being a good parent is the hardest thing we will ever do.......