Has the possibility of over watering crossed your mind? Is the mix very porous so that it drains rapidly, insuring healthy roots? A containerized citrus should be allowed to dry out somewhat before another good drenching.

A dowel rod is a round piece of wood - like a pencil. You can get one at a hdwe store & sharpen it in a pencil sharpener. Alternately, us a 12" wooden skewer - they come pre-sharpened. * Move the plant to a spot where you can repeatedly and thoroughly flush the soil with water that hasn't passed through the softener. * Flush the soil up to 10 times with at least as much water as the volume of the container the plant is in. You cannot overdo it. * After flushing, tilt the container at a 45* angle and wait for the container to stop draining. This drains a considerable amount more water than allowing the container to rest on its bottom. * After draining has stopped, remove the plant from it's pot and set on newspapers to drain. If the plant is small, a few hours is fine - if large, allow it to rest on the papers over night. * With a utility knife, slash deep vertical cuts into the root mass and an 'X' on the bottom. Alternately, you can remove an inch or two of the roots/soil from the bottom. * Pot up into a slightly larger pot and fill in around the roots with a soil similar to what you currently have in the root mass. Use a wick in the bottom of the pot if you are going to be able to lift the pot above the collection saucer (best). Ideally, the wick will dancle 2-3" below the bottom of the pot w/o contacting the water in the collection saucer. (I know - a lot to ask) ;o) This wick will 'fool' the water into 'thinking' the pot is deeper than it is. Water will move down the wick 'looking' for the bottom of the pot, and droip off the end. This will go a long way toward eliminating the specter of root rot and allowing you to water copiously enough to flush the soil each time you water to help gurad against salt accumulation. * A few days after you've repotted, fertilize with 1/2 the recommended strength of Miracle-Gro 24-8-16 (granular/box), Miracle-Gro 12-4-8 (liquid/yellow jug), or Foliage-Pro 9-3-6 (best, but you'd probably need to order online) * Give it all the light you can, and try to keep soil temps @ 65-75* That's the standard plan for bringing Ficus back from the brink. I'm not sure how many it's worked for, but I know it's more than I can guess at .... lots. ;o) Best luck!! I'll be around if you still have questions. Al

Looks like you never give the tree magnesium (Epsom Salts MGSO4). The leaves are showing a major magnesium deficiency. The symptom of a magnesium deficiency in citrus are leaves with a green delta shape in the lower center portion of the leaf with the tips and sides of the leaves yellow. At the stage the leaves are in now, even when you apply magnesium to the tree, it will take a considerable time for the present leaves to recover, and maybe never will. However any new foliage should develop normally. Dissolve one table spoon of Epsom Salts in a gallon of warm water (Epsom Salts does not dissolve well in cold water), then apply to the root zone. Epsom Salts can also be applied as a foliar spray. Could take more liquid for application to very large containers. Secondly how well does the container medium drain? The best to this tree.

Parker T - > just FYI - in my particular yards, I had conflicting scenarios (after dips to 18-19F) but have a different preference. I've "soured" on any cultivar with 'quat in its name; they are not as cold hardy as I had hoped. In Napa, the Eustis Limequat (on Volk) was killed to just about the graft - regrew and is now 10 ft. tall - took over a year. The Bearss lime just lost its leaves and refoliated, produced a huge crop right away. In Danville, the Bearrs lime was completely destroyed, the Volk rootstock lived. While the Eustis in my neighbor's yard was defoliated and came back. From what I've seen since, the Eustis fruit gets destroyed quickly when the temps go below freezing. The Bearss lime fruit can and has survived to 29/30F. So my vote is for the Bearss or Persian lime -because I want fruit! - far better for my climate's fall/winter dips below freezing. - George