Definitely read Al's primer on container trees. Where exactly in Texas are you (I'm in Houston). What do you mean by "the roots are still turning up clay soil"? Do you have 2 feet X 3 feet of open ground space? If the trees are dead and these are just roots left behind, this would make a *perfect* space for a raised bed. Seriously, perfect. If you can afford large clay pots, you really should spring for them. The big black plastic pots absorb all the solar radiation and bake the roots in the south. If you can't do that, making plywood boxes to or even using some opaque cloth to shade the plastic from the sun would help a lot. A lot of the excessive moisture loss has nothing to do with the temperature of the air, but rather the temperature of the roots. Be more detailed about the yellowing leaves, because I couldn't get a good sense of what you mean. Pictures would be really helpful. The most common yellowing problems for citrus are due to secondary and micronutrient deficiencies (magnesium, iron, manganese, zinc are the most common). Is the yellowing in between the veins, with the veins remaining green. This is called interveinal chlorosis, or christmas tree chlorosis. Does it start on the oldest leaves and progress up the tree? This is usually magnesium deficiency. Is the yellowing on the newest growth, and interveinal? This is usually iron deficiency. The brown squiggly lines sounds like leafminers. Most experts agree that this is almost entirely an aesthetic problem on otherwise healthy trees - the leaves still work, they're just ugly. But on trees that are already highly stressed, this is a major problem. Ants do not prey on red spidermites (oh how I wish..). Heavy rain usually results in major spidermite mortality though, especially if all the leaves are exposed to it. If you have spidermites on any of your plants, you need to get rid of them.. they can't handle the stress on top of everything else. All you need to do is give your plants a serious bath, focusing on the underside of the leaves, as often as you can. A forceful stream of water is all that's need to kill or remove spidermites. Insecticidal soap or horticultural oils are very effective, but you have to apply them at night because citrus is very susceptible to phytotoxicity. I don't want to overwhelm you, but there's quite a bit you can learn about an ideal container soil. I've linked another of Al's (Tapla) epic posts that has transformed that way a lot of us container garden. If it's too much for you to absorb at once, just take away this - the 2" layer of pebbles and gravel does not improve drainage... it actually makes conditions worse for your plants.

I put chicken wire over my pots with yummy bulbs and for the perennial bulbs I bury a piece of chicken wire about 1-2" below the surface of the dirt. The spacing is wide enough that the plants can sprout up through the wire but the squirrels can't dig down deep enough to get the bulbs. I don't know if this would help in your situation.

deep_woods, Thanks for your tips....I have become moss obsessed and have found very little info on the web for growing it in containers. I hope to eventually take it outside, but for now, I am focusing on growing it indoors in several types of containers including: under a cloche, in a hanging terrarium (with a hole in the front), in a jar, and in a small bowl with no covering. I have harvested moss in my area (Philadelphia), where it grows all over the rocks and in cracked pavement (almost no soil at all), and even on debris-filled pot holes. From your previous conversations, I gather that taking some of the native soil/debri for the containers would be a good idea. Just as brendainva, I am growing in containers that have no drainage holes. I also gather that you would not suggest pebbles, clay balls, or charcoal at the bottom? These are suggestions I have heard from other sites. As I mentioned, most of the moss here, which is short, bold green, and clumpy, grows on extremely nutrient poor areas such as rocks and walls. Which makes me think it might do well on some rocks/pebbles. Although I cannot tell you what species it is, what are your thoughts on this? You said, "Shallow containers with fertilizer and warm weather and regular misting or watering from above with some mosses can lead to doubling the moss in a month." What type of fertilizer are you referring to? Eventually I would like to add some ferns or other native plants to my moss terrariums. For now, however, I am focusing on the moss. Thanks so much!! We need a MOSS FORUM QUICK! If you have any other sites or articles that you would recommend, pleeease send them my way.

Thanks Blue. I can now see you are 100% right - the 18 slice 2" mesh net pots came the other day. They weigh 4.0 grams each, too flexible, and the lips are tiny and molding shoddy. The only way to deal with them would be to buy a 1 7/8" hole saw. To add further insult, about 10% of the lips were not completely molded, i.e., missing material and are worthless. These disappointing mesh net pots came from hydroponicsnation in CO via eBay. They are obviously not reliable for most veggies, though they might be pretty good for Spiritweed, garden Dandelion varieties and the like. I may just snip the 16-slice bottoms out and insert them in the durable 4 slice bottoms I'm using currently when I get a chance. They came from homeandgardensupply in RI via Amazon, and weigh 4.5 grams, which made all the difference to their integrity and clearly superior durability and molding.