Very good! See if you can find the name of the grower on the pot label, or ask your Costco what grower they buy from. That way, you can stay in contact with them to know when they will be sending citrus to the various Costcos or other retail outlets. Australian Finger Lime is its own weird citrus cultivar, but very fun to have in the yard. It has very pretty foliage - tiny little leaves. Very thorny, and grows some very, very interesting looking fruits that can be used in cooking like a lime. Kind of the rage in many high end gourmet restaurants right now. And sorry to hear you were in a car accident, my gosh. Glad you're okay and healing. I would wait to plant anyway, until your weather cools off some, anyway. Keep them in an afternoon shady spot, so the don't cook in their black plastic pots. Patty S. Here is a link that might be useful: UCR Citrus Variety Collections: Australian Finger Lime

OMG!!! Patty, that manderine you speak of, I HAVE ONE! Let me tell you when I say that it is sweet and seedless! In fact, I just gave the only 2,lol, yes 2 that I managed to grow to my mother and father. 1 each. They said they had never tasted a fruit like that before. When I first bouht it I was told they were that good, but did not believe it and still paid 39.99 for a very small tree. Now I am glad I did. This one is my special tree:-) It also seems to be a very tough one to kill. It doesn't react to being over or under watering like the others and it stays very green even without constant feed. It can also adapt to temps swings. It flowers prfusely and grows the fruits at an ease. Thanks for sharing your experience and good time with us. In fact, you were lucky they weren't selling the whole trees or you would be in the poor house. Now to reread your post and figure out what is next on my list. What a nice thing to do for your community too:-) Have a great day to all. Mike

Hi All, many thanks for the replies. I just got back from a trip so am just getting to these. plant54 this is a link to an album with the photos in case you still cannot see them http://s22.photobucket.com/albums/b336/yoggity/Trees/?albumview=grid To start off, I would agree with everyone that the general problem is poor drainage. This is former lakebed and very dense sticky clay (I have broken trowels right off the handle in the stuff). Recently I dug a hole for a new tree and filled it with water to see how it drained and it took almost 48 hours for it to drain. This said, I have some questions about making the best of the situation: Watering: 1) We are cutting back watering to every 14 days and generally just giving a pretty good soaking. Should we be more measured in the actual amounts of water? 2) Being a tropical climate with heavy sun, even though 6" below the surface it is still moist or even pure water, the top bakes and cracks within a day or 2 after watering. Would plastic or mulch covering around the tree help 3) Is it advisable to not water for an extended period of time (say 3-4 weeks) to make sure the soil really dries out once and for all, then aerating and going back on the appropriate regimen? Would this help? Would it hurt? Aerating: 1) What is the best method to aerate the soil? Can it be done with the special aerating drill bits I have seen? 2) Once aerates, should we mix in some organic mulch, liquid humus, or something? 3) Is this best done during certain time of year? We are entering a brief spell of cold (never freezing) and then a long, super sunny dry season until July. As for you other questions regarding soil pH and the pests, let me get outside and do some legwork and get back to you with more details. This is a home orchard, we are not professionals, do not sell but rather give away the fruit to neighbors, and consume much of it. Again, I appreciate the responses and hope to continue hearing from you. Thanks, JNR

Here's a true story I used to tell in my agri-marketing class. Near my hometown of Chico, CA, there used to be a mandarin grove on the side of the highway; the owner hired the local high school kids to pick them and sold the entire crop at the side of the road with a sign reading, "Tom Brown Tangerines"; it was a famous place to stop when the fruit was in season and the fruit was exceptional. One day, I suppose, someone must have told him they weren't tangerines; because he changed the sign to "Tom Brown Mandarins". His sales fell off sharply and people quit stopping; then one day someone stopped and asked him whatever happened to those wonderful tangerines you used to have here every year? At that point, he changed the sign back to Tom Brown Tangerines!