Joe, the two most common diseases doing what you are seeing are septoria leaf spot and blackberry rust. My guess would be the former since it is more common. My recollection is dormant lime-sulphur is the best treatment. Lime-sulphur is organic. Since you may be past dormant season you could still spray a less potent strength I expect but look up some guidelines for treatment of the disease with Google to get the details. But, before you do anything search for pictures of various blackberry leaf diseases and figure out which one you have for certain. Then search for treatments for that. If you are not sure, ask more questions here :-) Scott

Bill, You are going to have to post photos if you want reliable answers. "Rusty brown leaf edges" is a hard place to start to diagnose your problem. If you are using a good formulated citrus fertilizer, I would not be adding iron on a regular basis... unless the plant showed obvious iron deficiency. In high doses Iron is toxic to citrus; in lesser doses it can cause an imbalance that impedes the absorption of other minerals.

I'm a newcomer to gardening in general. Very invested in this fig tree. Bought it back in June (see pic one), when I made the gritty mix, pruned the roots and reported it. I use Dyna-grow, about a quarter to a half teaspoon per gallon, and water regularly. Was watering every other day or so but now it's cold (I'm in Boston) and I'm watering much less frequently. The tree has flourished (see pic two)!! Thank you Al!! Im about to leave on a two week vacation, and two things made me curious and concerned. In pic three, I show the new leaf that is having issues. Never seen this happen before. When the leaf was budding a stronger wind knocked the tree over, and I have assumed that is what damaged the new leaf. What should I do about this? I'm assuming the holes will never grow together. Secondly, I have been noticing the brown edges of the leaves in pic four more since I recently rotated the plant. Are these cause for concern? Do they indicate anything I need to adjust? Or just light deprived, runty leaves? Last thought- my tree (which is actually two trees) is looking a little rangey. I was thinking of letting it grow even more before pruning but maybe I should prune come spring. Any advice on supporting it and keeping it harmonious? Does it seem too big for its container already?? These are just things that run through my head. I adore this forum and am grateful for any advice! Gritty mix has made me a successful gardener!!! It's amazing.

The contrast between "people time" and "plant time" can cause the grower some anxiety and frustration until the grower realizes there's a distinct difference and makes the adjustment by giving in to the idea that a plant has its own ideas about how long it should take to bounce back from adversity. Fortunately, the best form of resolution is usually no more complicated than procuring a few more plants so they can work as a team to satisfy your need to nurture. SOIL: I have perlite so I will add in more of that. Not sure if this is a bad idea, but I do have gravel I could mix in If you decide to include some gravel, use it in the bottom 6" of soil where it will displace the organic fraction of your medium that would normally be filled with water. This is a form of ballast. Don't use it as a layer, just mix it half and half with the bottom 6" of soil where the perched water table (excess water) resides. This in itself will reduce the amount of perched water your soil will hold by 1/2), and my neighbor has bark in her backyard that she said I could have some of to mix in if that's a good option for now? Depends ..... all bark is not created equal. Size and type of bark is very important. BALLAST/WICK: In reading through your posts I understand there are several ways to set these up, but I have an extra terra cotta and plastic pot so I figure this might be easiest? You mentioned covering the drainage hole in this post That reference was to the overturned pot you would be using as a form of ballast such that the rim of the pot would be down and the drain hole would face up. You don't want soil to drop through the drain hole in the ballast pot, so cover it. , but I also noticed [here[(https://www.houzz.com/discussions/dealing-with-water-retentive-soils-dsvw-vd~1415041) you said another option would be to leave the hole open and put soil underneath so that it acts as a wick. That is the pot-in-pot technique where the main pot is nested into another pot and rests on top of the soil in the lower pot. This soil acts as a wick. If the soil in the lower pot is deeper than the ht of the perched water table, ALL perched water should move from the upper pot into the lower pot. For this application, there should be nothing over the drain hole(s) in the upper pot - the one the plant is in. Would you suggest one over another in my situation? I would go for the pot as ballast + the gravel in the bottom 6" of soil as added ballast, and even a wick if you like (in the lower pot). I have two options for pots to put inside as ballasts, but I'm not sure which would be the best option. The terra cotta pot looks like it may not take up enough room to help with limiting PWT, but the plastic one may be too large? The plastic one is great - cover the drain hole in it. Ideally, there would be an inch or so of soil above the ballast pot. Fill in the sides with the 50/50 gravel soil mixture up to the top (former bottom) of the overturned pot - cover it with an inch of soil with no gravel - set the plant on the soil - fill in around the edges. As long as you're taking steps to eliminate perched water, it doesn't matter how large your pot is. You can put your plant in a 55 gallon drum if you like, w/o concern you'll be over-potting. ...... once I repot the plant into the better mixture and add the ballast, should I water the plant again or hold off given the amount of moisture already present in the soil? Plants do best when the soil is evenly damp/moist - never wet/soggy. Skip watering if your entire soil mass is moist. Keep in mind, with the steps you will have taken to eliminate perched water, over-watering shouldn't be a problem, as long as you're reasonable. You're making a soil serviceable that otherwise wouldn't be considered as such by a very large fraction of effectual growers, so it's best to try to minimize potential limitations. Use a 'tell'. If possible - site your plant away from heat sources, but in a warm spot with plenty of light. If possible, use a room humidifier and keep humidity in the 45-55% range. I keep my basement grow room at 55% by using a combination of home-made passive evaporative set-ups and 2 ultrasonic humidifiers. I have a R/O water system, so almost never have to clean the humidifiers. To eliminate potential for bacterial issues, I add an ounce of H202 (hydrogen peroxide) every time I refill the reservoirs. Al