Gosh, I see no one has responded to you! Well, if you get a lot of rain in your area of Hawaii, then gritty mix will be a good choice for you. If you're in a more arid Hawaiian climate, just be sure to water enough to provide adequate moisture. You can use a wooden dowel inserted into the pot to see if you still have moisture at the bottom of the pot. If not, water well. And fertilize frequently, probably for you with every watering, 1/4 strength in the winter, 1/2 strength in the summer, due to your very mild climate and long growing cycles. What's eating your citrus? Not sure, don't know what bugs you have in Hawaii. I am fairly certain you do not have snails, so it would not be snails, but could be earwigs, grasshoppers, or some other sort of chewing insect. I would contact your local ag office to ask what it might be. Is there a reason why you are not putting your citrus in the ground? They will do exceptionally well in the ground for you. Lastly, don't be surprised if your citrus do not color up well. Coloring is dependent upon a certain amount of temperature variance from day to night. If you're closer to the coast and do not get temp swings from day to night, your citrus may stay greenish even when ripe. Not at all uncommon in Hawaii, Jamaica, Bahamas, etc. Patty S.

Flowered corners, My memory is failing me on the exact year, but we've had an El Niño winter like this in the last 10 years. Here's what happened: Warm Jan-Feb temps, regular Mar & April temps. And that is what the NOAA is forecasting for this year. I think the website is NOAA.org or maybe NOAA.gov. As I remember the map, the closer you are to Minneapolis, the weirder your winter will be. Last El Nino, we had 2 nights of 12 degree temperatures in early to mid-April, which is very common here, but because the season was so far advanced, so VERY far advanced, a number of things got hit hard. The early daffodils, muscari et al, crosuses, hyacinths and tulips had already bloomed fine, the mid season ones got frozen out BIG TIME, and the late season ones bloomed as if nothing bad had happened. The magnolias got frozen back while they were in bloom, and so maybe did some other blooming shrubs. Long-term, all bulbs were fine; even ones that were in full foliage and/or bloom. Daffodils with stems & or leaves longer than 6" were ruined and those lower than 4" were fine. (the ones between 4-6 inches were just sort of "iffy". I think if I had raked leaves over the 6 and 7 inch stems I could have saved some. The bulb foliage, flowers & stems for the year turned to mush and had to be hand-pulled off so it/they didn't rot. (This then turns into a black sooty mold called fire or soot or something evocative and can transfer to other plants.) Larkspur & carnations will both be fine. The little seedlings in my experience, not with wintersowing, but gardening, can take much more cold than a full-grown plant. Other people I know have said this, too, but only on plants that usually come up early -- not Cosmos & Zinnias! Hold off on those. Lime

Could be the beginning if spider mites, but more likely depression from being kept indoors when all the other basils get to go outside. Basil does not like it inside, and leaves that form in bright light will suffer when deprived of their power source. Even in a sunny window, the plants are getting maybe 1/3 of the light they would get on "the other side". It really, really wants to go outside.

Deanna, that thing was indeed "broke". It showed signs of unwelcome pets inside. If it's just one red wiggler, it will continuously disturb the roots and may stunt the plant growth. If there are two, they will start reproducing as soon as they are both 3 months old and they do it fast. Of course, the conditions in the pot are not ideal for the population to explode, but still.. It's a sensitive topic, as I've recently discovered a bunch of red wigglers and a ton of their cocoons in a small pot with stalling titanopsis seedlings. They have migrated there after the seedling pot was carelessly placed on a soil previously fertilized with worm castings.. with no barrier over the drainage holes, the worms just went up and made themselves at home. Btw, after seeing the poor roots on those seedlings, I'm VERY suspicious about the statement that worms do not harm living roots. That's possibly be true in the garden, but what do they eat in a small pot with sandy c/s soil? ..So I guess that's the 3rd way to catch worms (if the plant can tolerate drying out a bit) - take a smaller pot with nice and big drainage holes, fill it with organic soil, and place on top of the soil of the big container. Add water only to the little one until the worms migrate up. A piece of e.g. a rotting cucumber should make the process faster. Do the math when you catch them - if there are two adults and they had time to drop cocoons, you'll have to repeat the exorcism after a while.