It's a real pain having to uncurl each leaf to spray off these aphids. I think they're pretty much under control now with the Tanglefoot in place. But... I've just realized I have a larger ant/aphid problem in the rest of the garden. The ants are totally out of control, farming aphids on other plants that I can't use the Tanglefoot on. Any advice from anyone one dealing with a massive ant population in a garden? If I can get the ants under control, the aphids will be much easier to deal with. This post was edited by cjgw on Tue, Jul 15, 14 at 14:36

Hello all, I live in the Bay Area. I have posted a picture of the sadness that is my potted dwarf clementine. I got this tree from Home Depot 4 years ago. That was the last time it was healthy. It is still only 3 feet tall and 2 feet wide. I feel like it hasn't grown at all since I bought it. After I bought it, ants got to it and there were scale insects everywhere. I used rubbing alcohol to get them off and the ants have been gone for a while but I think are coming back. But since then this tree has been very sickly and never has produced again. I have attached a picture of some of the leaves with a curling leaf. You can also see that the rest of the leaves around that curling leaf are yellowish and very small/narrow. You can see how small they are in comparison to my fingernail. I have small hands. There is a tiny little clementine fruit in the photo that will fall off in a few days. All the other ones have fallen off while that size. There are spikes growing off the branches, and some of them have black specks on it that look like scale insects, but I can't rub them off. Other leaves have brownish gunk on the undersides of them that looks like gunky sap. Please give some advice about how to save this tree. It has a host of problems and I don't know where to start. I currently water it with a drip system of 10 minutes 2x a day, once in the morning, again in the afternoon. Every three months I feed it with Vigoro brand citrus/avocado tree fertilizer granules, about 2/3 tsp at a time. What else should I do? Thanks for your help!!

beachy, the trees can be saved, but it will be some work on your part. We can't really see what's going on as the photo has such poor contrast and is so far away, can't see the specifics. But, here is the list of to-do's: 1. Weed under the trees and mulch. 2. Fix the drip systems so the trees are getting adequate waterings. Nice, deep waterings once or twice a week. At least 2 feet down, depending upon how hot the day is. 3. Prune out all the dead wood. 4. Put out rodent traps. Wrap the trunks with chicken wire to discourage further gnawings on the trunk (probably rabbits, possibly citrus/roof rats). 5. Fertilize VERY WELL at the drip line. Water in well. Repeat in 1 month x 3. Then more to 3-4 fertilizing applications a year. Use a good quality fertilizer with micros. 6. Treat for CLM (Citrus Leaf Miner) which will also take care of any aphids. Aphids are not the same as psyllids, which is what you are referring to regarding Citrus Greening. Which we do not have here in the state of California - yet. We have the psyllid but not the disease that the psyllids can carry. Aphids do not carry Citrus Greening. They can carry other diseases, but if you treat for Citrus Leaf Miner now, and then a second application in 6 months and continue to do so every 6 months, you'll also control any possible psyllids that might end up reaching your area (you don't say where you are in California, so I can't tell you if psyllids have been found in your area of Calif.) Old trees can be worth saving, especially if they are on sour orange, which produces the absolute sweetest sweet citrus imaginable. Please let us know how you fare. Patty S.

Broken rocks in the bottom of a pot do not assist drainage. They move the level of the perched water table up in the pot and reduce the overall volume of plant-usable soil. What does "cactus mix" mean? Was it a pre-bagged product? Do you know the breakdown? Did you recently repot it into that mix? The easiest way to solve the over/under watering problem is to use the gritty mix. There are some minor complications with the mix for trees indoors (ie: you need a way to deal with the runoff) - but they are easily overcome (ask me if you go that route, I have an easy/cheap solution). You will never have to worry about over-watering again with that mix. All that said: it's possible that your tree was just adapted to outdoor growing when you purchased it - that it was used to much higher light levels and different humidity conditions. It's possible that it is just shedding leaves that are ill suited for the current environment. You say you have 2 others but have you had them longer? Are they already adapted? It's also very likely that your soil is supporting a perched water table and that some of the roots are drowning as a result. Combined with the rocks that you seem to have added to the pot you've probably significantly reduced the volume of soil that is usable for the roots. If you tilt the pot 45 degrees does any water come out? Some minor leaf curl is normal on clementines.