By Sep, it will prolly be difficult to over-water tomatoes unless you work hard at it. Your weather sounds just like mine. I live on the Bay & we get humidity and dry winds. I don't know how you feel about fungicides like Daconil, but with all that humidity you might wish to consider it's positive effect on blight, graymold, and other diseases that are prevalent when humidity is high. Do avoid spraying foliage if you can - the practice often provides the incubation period many species of fungi need to get a hold. I grow tomatoes in the 5:1:1 mix. My vines are always lush; but still, I never need to water more than once daily. My plants are usually in 18 gallon containers. Part of a mid-July experiment on behalf of the UpsaDaisy Company - just getting started: Al

Pictures would help a lot; include the whole plant and one of the pot and soil. What did you do when you put it in the 17 inch pot? Put the existing rootball in the pot and surround it with fresh soil or remove the old soil and replace it? What kind of soil was it in and what kind of fresh soil was it? Was it rootbound? It's possible the new pot is too big, making the soil stay very wet for too long, causing roots to suffocate for lack of air to pull oxygen from. If so, the easiest remedy would be to put it back in the old pot and wait until June to repot in a faster draining highly aerated soil that would be harder to overwater. Meanwhile, check out the posts upthread about watering, using a dowel to check soil moisture, and the kinds of soil and light conditions lyratas do best in, and start to water only when the soil at the bottom is the pot is dry. Lenore

As far as too-dry roots, should I have just sprayed them more? Or should I have pruned less off the roots in the first place, and maybe kept some of the soil around them? They didn't have all that much mass, and I did wonder about that. My husband kept telling me, don't cut its roots! Even if you use a soil that allows you to use a much larger pot than you could use (effectively) when using a water-retentive medium, a ficus will usually colonize the soil to the degree the root/soil mass can be lifted from the pot intact - so it doesn't fall apart when you pull it from the pot. That's how I judge when a plant would benefit from a repot ..... but I'm using a high quality medium. I said that so I can say, if it's been more than a year in the same pot and the soil wasn't fully colonized by roots, there's something amiss. The plants might be reacting adversely to one or more of your soil's ingredients, or to how it's structured. In container media, that there is nothing phytotoxic (poison to plants) in the soil and how favorably (to the plant) the soil is structured are the most important considerations. It's not the soil's job to provide nutrition, that's your/our job. The soil's job is to provide a ratio of water to air that doesn't prove limiting to the plant, and it's better for the plant if you err on the side of more aeration than needed than more water than needed. The former is only limiting if you can't keep up with the plant's water needs. The later is a limitation any time you water appropriately - to beyond the point of saturation. This is a ficus repot of a F benjamina v "Too Little": After most of the soil has been removed: After all the root work was done. Note I kept only fine roots, the workhorses that do the lion's share of the heavy lifting: Repot completed - 90% of the top (branches and foliage) removed. It's pretty apparent I'm not too bashful about removing huge %s of roots, and the only trees I've ever tented were junipers of one species that I had grafted Shimpaku juniper (a variety of chinensis) branches to. I often tent hard to root cuttings, however. Even though conventional "wisdom" says you shouldn't prune the top of the plant to balance the volume of roots to shoots, those of us who collect trees in leaf from the wild or transplant/repot trees in leaf know it's foolish to think one size fits all. It's very often requisite that a significant fraction of the top be removed if the root system is weak or you judge it insufficient to support the top mass. After a few repots, you'll get better at making that judgment. The kitty litter contains *only* bentonite clay, and NOT clumping, NOT scented. Keeps its form when soaked, frozen, and thawed. OK, good. Was there a lot of dust in it? Fine bentonite forms a slippery, slimey paste that expands when it gets wet. I use it in Kokedama and in the dams that must be built to hold soil on top of tree plantings on flat stone slabs Al, I would feel very good about pruning. I don't see buds, but the tree-lets were in good shape and putting out new leaves before...before I tried to help them. Be patient. You can always take it off (branches) - harder to put it back on. Questions: --Are you talking about topping them above a branch? Just saying that's something you COULD do if you like - not a suggestion, just an observation. I do it all the time on very large plants. Another "story". Imagine how tall this tree was when I chopped it back. Does it look like a bonsai? No? Much better - right? No? this spring after repotting into training pot: Taken last Fri as it comes into leaf: Won't that get me two shoots/trunks at each cut, or a funny joint? No. The top branch becomes the new leader and the branch below it gets restrained. You'll prune it so it's growing horizontally. Changing a branch's position from vertical to horizontal also significantly changes the amount of energy that flows into that branch. The tree will always pay more attention to the branches growing vertically. Would I choose one branch, wire it up straighter, and remove the other? See what I just offered. Will that joint be strong enough? ;-) This is a tree in a put, you're not going to hang a tire swing off the branches or a chainfall so you can use it to hoist cars. It'll be fine. --Cut back a third in height? More? Whatever you like, but wait until the tree recovers. For now, just prune the branches. I can help guide you in that process. --If I take off the slender little twigs and actual branches that now go the wrong direction, will the trunk put out completely new growth from old wood? Yes. There are already dormant buds immediately distal to the point where every leaf that was ever on the tree was attached ...... and if that's not enough, the tree will form adventitious buds at random if it's healthy and really likes it's growing conditions. It seems like it might.... You're right. --Would it be better to repot it (them) into a different soil or is it too late? I don't have a good sense about what kind of job your soil will do. I'm not at all a fan of coir. Every experiment I ever did with it ended up with the plants in coir or CHCs faring nowhere as well as plants in pine bark and/or peat. Even in view of the fact I was using appropriate work-arounds for several of coir's shortcomings. This the soil mix I made today, which I could use tomorrow to repot. I was attempting to come *closer* to 5-1-1 but with some Turface added: There was no image. It would be great if you could come up with something that resembles one of these, or even a combination: [5 parts?] 3 cf Gro-well Soil Conditioner (composted forest product, sure looks like the composted pine fines photos to me...at least closer than coir???) [1 part?] 4 gallons Perlite [1/2 part?] 2 gallons of coir (peat moss substitute? ...feels similar to peat moss in texture...and that isn't very large proportion of it...) [1/2 part?] 2 gallons of MiracleGro Potting Mix (peat moss substitute) 2 C Osmocote 5 small handfuls of gypsum (~1/2 C?) [2 parts?] ~1 cf Turface MVP If you think you have a medium that drains reasonably well and will be adequately aerated if we get rid of the perched water, using ballast can make a very large difference by nearly eliminating all saturated soil with as very simple trick of science. This explains how it works. Al

@PDC720 here are the links to the bark I used.... https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00GP8QXGQ?psc=1&ref=ppx_pop_mob_b_asin_title and https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B07TLY5TVJ?psc=1&ref=ppx_pop_mob_b_asin_title I have a 3gal pot, used 2 quarts of jacks and 2 one gal. bags of the orchid one. I had some mix left over too which was good cause I used it to amend some pots of other stuff I just brought in. again, I’ll keep you posted on what my brother advises and what I end up getting for a light. @poncirusguy6b452xx you were involved in my post last year about my first disastrous Meyer lemon experience and I trust your opinion as well! could you include a link to the light you use? gathering all information before I decide and purchase! I think this needs to happen sooner than later because it’s been pretty gloomy here in Chicago. after the repot Tuesday night, so were about 44 hours in....the tree seems stable. I haven’t noticed any changes yet. Hasn’t gotten worse, hasn’t gotten better. The new buds seem to continue to grow so that may be a good sign. sorry @Meyermike(Zone 6a Ma.) i believe it was you who did advise to take them off but I just can’t get myself to do it, I figure if the tree needs to, it will drop them on it’s own.