Thanks for the reply. Yes, I did buy mulching blades and a cover for the mower. I am thinking that I cut too much off on my first cut when I side discharged. But I figured that the mower would do a better job of chopping up the dead clippings when I went back over it 2 days later with the mulching blades. Maybe mulching only works well when you are cutting a small amount of fresh grass? I mean, it basically did nothing to the clippings on the second try and I ended up having to rake the yard.

Welcome Emily and Hello John! Emily, first and utmost, where do you live? When can you put your tree outdoors? That tree is small enough to wipe every leaf off with warm milk and water often. If it can't be oudoors for a while, I would watch your watering closly as John says. I must say it looks like it is in a great mix. Is that the 5.1.1 mix many here use? Mostly bark? Very porous? That was a great catch on your part, finding the mites. Most would not be aware of this factor so my hats off to you for controlling it. I would make sure it gets lots of sunlight at this point. even if it should drop all the leaves, at least the roots will stay strong and still push new growth accustomed to new light levels. I have many times actually plucked every leaf off just to have the tree come back bushier than ever. They are more resilient than one might think. I would of held back on fertilizing after an attack as so, because you don't want to encourage new growth in your warm , dry conditions unless you can figure a way to discourage mites from coming back to eat the fresh foiliage about to grow with 'constant' air movement aimed to blow towards under the leaves. Never shut your fan off and see if you can use a small table one with low speed. If I have had a mite infestation,I would actually snip of all the new growth until I can almost put them outside to be on the safe side from stragglers then treat and treat all summer so I don't bring them in the following fall. I always make sure the environment for mines are just right to reduce mites infestation possibilities. For instance. >If they are indoors, in my house, in a sunny window, I like to keep the room very cool with fans and moisture in which mites or any pests detest. >For those in the greenhouse, I fertilize regularly for new 'strong' growth along with moist air, and air that is constanly being moved my fans. I am not worried about spindly growth in this case or tender desirable leaves because they are getting all day sun and grow tougher. In there, I deliberately let temps drop to the 50's at night though again which mites despise. >At work, where conditions are very dry, I constantly wipe the leaves off those with warm milk and water, and shower them once in a while to keep the leaves clean. Keeping your tree in a well draining mix, in a full sunny south facing window, leaves clean, fertilizing very lightly to discouarge fresh tender foliage until you are ceratin you have no mites, will help your tree make a full recovery in time for outdoors. Please, don't fret if those leaves fall off, since many citrus shed leaves anyway for various reasons. As long as you are not loosing branches due to root issues caused by over or under watering or a poor soil mixture, it will come back strong once it sees the great outdoors if not sooner:-) Mike

Hi Dana, I had them and they are quite "easy" for me. Your plant could have suffered a sudden disease. "Phytophtrhora to Fuchsia" is like "measles to the Native Americans". The following post is from this site: Quote - Fuchsias are Gondwanic. They occur in Mexico but birds probably brought them up from South America long before the two continents collided near the Ithsmus of Panama. They have fine, wide-spreading (and rather greedy) roots which are not as susceptible to disease as those of many of their compatriots, but bear in mind that their resistence to Phytophthora is poor. Phytophtrhora didn't occur in the southern hemisphere until people inadvertantly brought it in. Many southern hemisphere natives have zero resistence to it. This is why they can grow in Sacramento, California, in shade with lots of irrigation, despite temperatures in the 100s in the summer, but are almost hopeless in the southeastern USA. The Phyto kills them sometimes within hours. I have heard from a few folks who claim that they can grow things from the southern hemisphere, because their coarse sandy soil is not particularly condusive to Phyto. There is at least one heat-loving Fuchsia. Maybe a few of them, but most are native to cloud forest or rain-forest in cool, temperate climates. Fuchsia triphylla comes from the Caribbean and loves hot, humid weather. Most unusual for its kind. I have no idea if it is any more resistent to Phyto but I would guess that it probably is. It has been tried occassionally in the southeast. It has minimal resistence to frost. It can be and sometimes is grown as an annual. I have a Triphylla type hybrid that does have some frost-hardiness--NOT MUCH--and we just had a fairly severe winter. No signs of shoots yet. I am hoping that I didn't lose it. It was quite a beauty--the variety "Billy Green". -end quote

Don't worry, Jan! Your plant won't die. Hoyas are tough and yours still has plenty of healthy vine to work with. We all experience new vine die-back, which usually happens when you underwater as new growth is still getting established. It is unclear whether this is the case here, or whether it was a mature section that shriveled. If it's the latter case, the root system may have been compromised due to overwatering (=roots rotted) or underwatering (=roots dried out). Josh is probably right that your pot is on the large side for this plant. I would check the roots and examine carefully for pests. If all looks okay, just be extra cautious with the watering schedule for a while until it turns the corner. Sometimes Hoyas will just start fading, fading, fading though, so if it continues to decline and be problematic, you will have to consider restarting it. There probably isn't a person here who hasn't at one point had a Hoya be a pita for months, chopped its roots off, and had a silky smooth relationship with it ever since. Best of luck!