I will let Al answer the question you put directly to him, but I wanted to comment on this statement: I avoid using chemicals generally because of runoff and water contamination issues. First, thank you for having an environmental conscience! Unfortunately there isn't much, if any, difference between organic/synthetic nutrient sources and run off. It's certainly true that if you water a plant with Miracle Grow that any run off water will contain that Miracle Grow, but the same is true of non soluble fish emulsion. Likewise even a solid material is going to run off with drainage water as it is chemically/biologically processed and the nutrients turned into soluble salts. I, too, am concerned about the environmental pollution caused by the use of fertilizers, particularly on the water bodies. It's one of the reasons I prefer synthetic fertilizers in containers where I can match the ratio of nutrients as closely as possible to what plants actually use. Makes for less waste and less to run off into the water bodies. I live in Wisconsin which has a ton of water and phosphorus is high in the soil in most of the state. It's a major source of pollution in the water and I get sick everytime I see what was once a beautiful, healthy lake get surrounded by private homes with manicured lawns. It's not long after that the lake has the life choked out of it from eutrophication. Then the tax payers have to front the bill for machines to go in and routinely harvest the explosive weed growth so residents can swim/fish/boat/jet ski as well as pay for the continual restocking of desirable fish that can't sustain their numbers anymore.

Jades do not like overheated cooked roots would be more accurate, Drew. Yes, that is probably the problem i had. For sure. Thanks for pointing it out. Yeah in California they are in full sun. My first jade was about to be killed as a weed from San Diego. My aunt lives there. I took it off her hands. Anyway again because of the pot heating up I have had best results in partial shade, your miliage may vary. Mine tends to grow weak in the winter as I'm unable to give it enough light. I prune it down in the spring. It's about 38 years old. I'm really bored with jades and I would just toss it, but my wife is attached to it. So how many jades have you grown? Any pictures? Here is one I grew from a broken branch off the orginal. About 4 years old. Grew well in partial shade too! You can see though how close the sun is. This post was edited by Drew51 on Tue, Aug 19, 14 at 23:09

It means you need to be very aware that the natural tendency of soils irrigated with water treated with bases like calcium hydroxide to raise their pH level is to have their pH increase with time. This is especially so if you're unable to regularly flush the soil, because the base compounds tend to build up in the soil. For example. I don't usually see any signs of a pH induced Fe (iron) deficiency in the summer when plants are outdoors and I water with the hose, flushing them very thoroughly each time I water. In winter, those plants I over-winter indoors don't get as thorough a flushing as they do in summer, and I OFTEN see pH induced Fe deficiencies. To correct that issue, I'll add enough vinegar or citric acid to my irrigation water to bring the pH down to 5.0, which immediately fixes the Fe deficiency. This is why it's poor practice to reach for an Fe supplement as soon as you see chlorosis in your plant. Undoubtedly, a sufficient supply of Fe is already IN the soil - you just need to make it available by lowering pH. Many of the micronutrients also precipitate from the soil solution at high pH. This means they form insoluble compounds with other elements in the soil solution, and they literally fall out of the solution like rain - thus the term 'precipitation'. When you start adding up all the negatives associated with soils that don't allow you to water properly, it starts to become easier to see why I'm constantly harping on soil choice as the most significant influence on a grower's ability to consistently produce healthy material. The upward creep of pH is one of the negatives on the list The fact that different genera/species of plants grow in different types of soil (pH) does not necessarily mean that the plant is an 'acid lover' (as an example). It just means that the plants have developed strategies to adapt to certain conditions, like excesses and deficiencies of particular nutrients. Plants that "love" acid soils have simply developed strategies to cope with those soils. Their calcium needs are still the same as any other plant and no different from the nutrient requirements of plants that thrive in alkaline soils. The problem for acid-loving plants is that they are usually unable to adequately limit their calcium uptake, and will absorb too much of it when available, resulting in cellular pH-values that are too high. Some acid-loving plants also have difficulties absorbing Fe, Mn, Cu, or Zn, which are more tightly held in alkaline soils, another reason why they thrive in low pH (acid) soils. Al

Hey Mike & Josh. I'm doing OK -- had a couple of really bad days (make that weeks) recently. So as usual, I drop off the face of the earth for a while. Eric: Now that I realize the tree will be indoors a lot, I'm even more concerned about the lack of sifting. But if I were in your shoes, I'd probably just stick it out to see what happens. Although it's not ideal, it shouldn't be any worse than the peat based (bagged) mixes as far as root zone aeration and additional water retention (my two concerns). But I've never grown a citrus tree indoors, heck I have had problems keeping houseplants alive. So you'll have to seek advice from others... Mike is hinting at a real problem with beginners bare-rooting in the mix: you really need to spend a bit of time making sure the mix gets into all the spaces in the roots. One way to help, now that it's all done, is to use the skewer/dowel to gently push down into the roots and if the mix starts to sink there, you know there was a gap. So continue in that spot until it stops sinking. After I do that, I would take a large buck and soak the tree in the bucket for a few minutes or longer. You'll probably need help lifting it out. It's only required to do this once to help the mix sink in a bit and also ensure the entire root area starts out moist. What size dowel? Somewhere between the thinnest BBQ skewer and regular chopstick. The thin skewers can work to help push the mix in the spaces, but can be too thin for checking water. I'll let Mike explain the water check process using the dowel. He is famous at FourWinds, look at this quote from their website: An alternative method recently shared by a New England citrus enthusiast simply employs a plain wooden dowel about the diameter of a pencil. Sharpen it with a whittling method (sharp knife) or pencil sharpener. Then insert this into the pot at varying depths, shallow to deeper, determining moisture using your direct senses (feel, smell, etc.). I wonder what New England citrus enthusiast they are referring to? Here is a link that might be useful: FourWinds Growing Citrus in Containers