First of all, pictures are worth a 1000 words. Please post pics. Second, I think you probably have a moisture issue with the soil in particular. Fans and warmth/sun should help that out. I am not real familiar with your soil mix but that could be a problem. Plants love compost if it is properly composted. But compost that isn't broken down well enough or made up of the wrong materials is not good. If you have water in the pan or basin after watering, then that is likely the ultimate cause of the soil being so wet for so long. But I think you are on the right track in that the real problem might be the water left in the pans. Those 4" pots are wicking that water up constantly and the roots never have a chance to dry out and breath. Water the plants, then place them in a basis or open shelf that is dry, when they get dry, water them again. You can water bottom up or top down, that is not the issue. You can check the moisture content of the soil by poking a wooden stick, dowel, popsicle stick, etc into the soil. If it comes out clean, you likely need to water. If it has soil particles stuck to it, the soil has enough water. Oh, in case I forgot to tell you, pictures are not only important but very much appreciated on this forum. Bruce

Thank you for the kind thoughts-Christmas was bittersweet at times, and there were some group tears moments-but over all it was fun-DD and DS-in-L were in from the West Coast and we enjoyed our half of their visit. After an autumn of comfort rereading, I am moving on-first I read Sister Queens by Julia Fox-a tandem biography of Catherine of Aragon (1st wife of Henry VIII) and Juana of Castile, queen of Aragon and Castile in her own right and mother of a Holy Roman Emperor. Interesting parallels even though they met only once after Catherine left for England at age 16. Now I am treating myself with Miss Buncle's Book by D.E. Stevenson. Charming, light, a bonbon. Work has started up again-deadline on the 3rd-so reading time will become slim and precious. For BookClub in January we will be reading Killing Lincoln

Even before Jen posted this, I was telling my husband about hearing it and being sad that I missed seeing Sedaris in my backyard. Then he suggested maybe we could do a road trip to catch another performance. He was probably thinking a place like D.C. I said well, I have checked the schedule and he'll be in Australia in January. I may have overplayed my hand. I think I'll recheck the schedule and see if there's a city - with a sports team - that we haven't visited and see about a weekend away. Unfortunately, we've already been to Dallas but I suppose we could repeat, we had a nice time.

I thought I posted a reply yesterday, but I don't see it here today 🤔 I make a berry cobbler from BettyCrocker.com. Last time I used strawberries and blueberries. I've tweaked it a bit from the original... https://www.bettycrocker.com/recipes/country-fruit-cobbler/80b5961b-29f5-4921-a9ed-af055d1c3c0f Country Fruit Cobbler - my version 5-6 Tbs.butter or margarine 1 cup all-purpose flour 1 cup sugar 2 teaspoons baking powder 1/4 teaspoon salt 1 egg plus milk to make 3/4 cup pinch nutmeg 1 tsp. vanilla 4 cups fresh or frozen (thawed and drained) blueberries, raspberries, sliced peaches or strawberries (or combination of fruit) Heat oven to 350°F. In casserole, melt butter in oven. (I use a 9'X13" pyrex casserole - the pan size they recommend was too small and overflowed) Mix flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, nutmeg, then add egg/milk mixture and vanilla to make a thick batter. Spoon/spread batter evenly into casserole onto the melted butter without mixing. Spread fruit on top of batter. Bake 45 minutes to 1 hour or until top is golden brown. Serve warm. Makes 6 servings And this topic reminded me of an Atlas Obscura podcast I listened to not that long ago about a guy in Maine who farms wild blueberries and burns his fields every year... https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/podcast-maine-s-burning-blueberry-fields