Keo: Totally understand. Trying a soil that is....not "soil" is unnerving! I just started making "gritty mix" and I was a ball of nerves, lol. Absolutely, I have a place. In my area (Peninsula), Lyngso in Redwood City is the best. I got enough bark, quartz and pricey pebbles to make gritty mix for both of your planters for $17 and change. Since you're doing the 5:1:1, just the bark would cost considerably less; I opted for some very pretty stones that cost entirely too much compared to the other pieces. Perlite, as it's only one part, should be more than enough with 2 cu. ft. (or much less). Same for sphagnum peat moss. Garden lime, you can buy at OSH in small sizes for about $9--probably enough to make 100 half wine barrels. And that's it. Re: your citrus trees, at first glance they appear healthier compared to the avocados, but if you look closely, the leaves in the lower half are completely yellowing. This could be a result for many things (nitrogen deficiency?), I suppose, but it's also one of the first signs when a plant is drowning....just a heads up. Left alone, I think it's on the same path, unfortunately. As for watering, in my area (SF-SFO), I'd never think you would need to do more than one full watering every other day and daily during one of our 85 degree + heat wave days. In the east bay or hotter areas, I think you'd probably need to water daily, period, during the hottest months. Now gritty mix -- I could see one potentially needing to do more than once to be good for the plant in really hot areas if the plant is really sensitive to heat/drought. (Gardenias? Haha.) Given that my natural tendency is to overwater, this works for me but it may not be for you? If not, then I think Al suggests replacing one part bark with another part peat (or maybe just potting soil) to increase retention. With the plants I have in 5:1:1, I upped the peat only by making it 5:1.2:1 (I live dangerously lol) but its very NICELY moist, and not "soaked". In any case, while I can't speak to avocado trees specifically, I would definitely remove all four trees, wash off all the roots to bareroot and repot all four trees to start with a clean slate. I would also prune back the tree a little but others may disagree; I tend to repot when I feel like it. Don't fertilize it for awhile either -- just clean soil and water thoroughly once -- and a week later when completely dry, reassess. Oh. One other thing: I don't know that I'd use a drip system for 5:1:1. It beats not being watered, but unless there have been major advancements in drips since I last used them in 2006, this soil simply doesn't absorb and transfer moisture like regular potting soil (dense) would. There's so much space and aeration between chunk/bulk pieces that if a drip drips water into one area, it really doesn't mean the water will flow/absorb into the other parts of the soil. DEFINITELY for me anyway, this is a hand watering or at worst, sprinkler type soil--not drip. A garden hose fully showering each planter shown for 45 seconds, I'd guess, would be ideal for summer days, to ensure each piece of bark and perlite is as soaked as can possibly be. I don't know if this is a deal breaker for you. Good luck! Hopefully, someone with more avocado experience contributes!

Take photo of the avocado or install surveillance camera to see who eat or pluck the avocado. Growing avocado in Singapore

Folks. This JennAir (and all others) thread totally fascinates me. We have spent over 20k on JennAir appliances in two houses, mainly because we felt that we were getting the best deal for our money (we have the range reviewed at reviewed.com and have loved it, even though it is too powerful for our needs and is being vented by a JennAir microwave situated some 14-16 inches over it (stupid, but the limitations of our second/vacation home). I looked at every appliance under the sun and then some and reviewed hundreds of posts on THS and other resources. I also talked to my installer who is a certified JA, SZ, Thermador, Wolf, pretty much all high end brand installer. He tells it bluntly...ALL, yes ALL manufacturers produce lemons that require one time expensive repairs or multiple expensive repairs. He attributes it to "sick day" or "snow day" syndrome...couple of workers call in sick or fail to show up bc of inclement weather and a whole assembly line of products roll off the assembly line and get packaged after poor assembly by "scrub" workers. He has seen no more failures among JA, SZ, Thermador, etc than among any other manufactures. Now, how a manufacturer deals with a problem is another story. I have yet to call on JA for service and hopefully won't have to. My dealings with GE (and those of my parent's, as well) have been atrocious. 3 delivered dented replacement refrigerator doors (all left for me to dispose of...all had tiny dents, but GE didn't feel it was necessary to recycle any of the stainless steel they left behind for me to deal with). Also had our brand new GE fridge break within days of the 1 year warranty expiring and we had repair men fail to show up and then have to wait several weeks for replacement parts. GE tried to charge us several hundred dollars in repair fees (which we successfully fought), all on a $8-900 fridge!!! My parents have had equally exasperating experiences with GE. We had the compressor die (and I believe get replaced for free...after we sold our home) on a top of the line SZ fridge and we had a Viking 8 burner range that never really worked fantastically and that was a major, major pain to keep clean. We have two local major appliance dealers within 10 miles of us. I am incredulous that when querying both of them independently, they tell me that JA products are flying out of the stores (including complete high end packages like ours), mostly due to aggressive pricing and promotional discounts (installation subsidies and free appliances as part of a package purchase). Yet, I have never, ever, ever met a single person who owns a JA product, let alone is considering JA for their remodel. Several have not even really heard of JA!!! I was initially concerned with the reviews I read online about JA reliability and customer service, but so far, it has not been an issue. We purchased and installed the new Obsidian fridge from JA and the door had a tiny scrape in the corner where the stainless was not "buffed". JA did the right thing and replaced the door with no questions asked. They also called to make sure we received it and had it installed. See my separate post about this fridge. Luv, luv, luv it. And, it's super quiet. And a good $1500-2000 cheaper than similar models from the competition. With respect to the 9600 model of DW built by bosch, I believe it cost us $200 more than receiving the free DW that comes with a range (or cooktop and oven purchase) and it is indeed built by Bosch (for what that is worth). It had no panel, which we desired as we were going with a built in look. Honestly, no complaints here, either with this model which is nearly silent, nor with the free DW that we received with a range purchase in our other home. My wife (who really only opined about the DW and aesthetics of some other appliances) thinks the world of both DWs and is glad we did not go ahead with the FP dish drawers again. Overall, we are very satisfied customers of JA (thus far) and hope to remain as such. We're getting pestered with offers for extended warranties and I am seriously considering these given past experiences with other manufacturers and concerns about reliability. I remain puzzled by the fact that JA is not more in the vernacular when it comes to appliances, even when I hear from salespeople that people are indeed purchasing JA packages. Maybe JA's past reputation is the reason...maybe Thermador, SZ, Wolf, etc just have too much cache. But look at my review on the Obsidian fridge...I thought that internally, the SZ looked like any cheap fridge; people just marvel over the inside of the JA fridge and the layout meets our needs nearly perfectly. I'll try to upload photos when I get a chance.

Looks like fungus or disease attacked the branch starting at the wound hole. In the best case it might be possible to save the branch if the cracked bark/dead area is removed along with any soft/decayed wood. Then you could regularly paint on liquid copper fungicide (including under the sides of the rod and on the other side of the rod) until the tree grows around from each side and closes its wound. It would take several years however and no guarantees of full recovery. The next best case you would have to add a wood post to support that corner of the tree house and cut that one branch off below any bit of dead area to prevent disease from reaching the trunk, then regularly paint on liquid copper fungicide until the cut branch closes up the wound over a few years. The worst case is if the tree is deeply infected with any bad disease at that branch, it could spread all the way down to the trunk eventually and kill the whole tree over several years.