i dont see where pruning will save a dying tree ... or a dead tree ... hard to pin point that dichotomy ... if you are dying.. will lopping off your arm??? perhaps.. if in fact that its the problem part .... but how would you know on a tree ... the losses i have had .. in late spring.. after i note bud swelling.. i can usually figure out a hard frost or freeze.. that hit the plant at just the wrong time.. and yes.. it can hit on tree ... or only affect the struggling on .... a previously struggling plant [transplant .... drought the prior year... disease.. bug????] ... might have just enough power to bud out.. but then they get hit with the killing temps.. and frankly.. it just gives up .. if it had a choice ... and if that is the case.. of what good would pruning be??? i suppose.. at that point.. you have nothing to lose ... cut on it.. and see if anything can be saved ... but i wouldnt bet too much money on it... ken

if you are in suburbia.... on a relatively small lot... say.. under 3 acres .... and you have any dreams of having a garden in your yard ... DO NOT PLANT NORWAY MAPLE .... IMHO .... healthy trees are well suited to keeping themselves alive .... though i would be concerned that you lost 2 old timers... i would consider that they already had other problems... or were past maturity .. and in decline ... i dont have the time to research your specific problem.. so if what i said directly above is stupid.. so be it.. lol please rethink the norways... you wont even be able to grow the most common weed in the world under it .. grass ... ken

Hi again, Ok, I contacted my local Cornell Extension, and they cannot do the test (they don't have that equipment) - it must be mailed to the Cornell Plant Disease Diagnostic clinic. I explained what happened, and she does not think it is Phytophthora, because according to her the soil would have to be excessively wet "almost like a bog." She does not think it is worth having tested because they have been dead too long and other organisms may screw up the test. Now, everything I have read says it spreads in "wet" soil (not just "almost like a bog"), and that one of the main ways it is spread to new areas is through nursery stock. She thinks the trees "Just didn't take." Very odd, in my opinion. The fee for each test is $40, and each test (mold, fungus, nematodes) is a separate fee. I don't think it is worth it, since it has been too long. I'm going to call the nursery and explain what happened and ask them if they have certification proving they do not have Phytophthora. I already removed the mulch and soaked it in a 10% bleach solution, and when I removed the soil from the hole there were at least 100 earthworms in it, so I picked them all out and relocated them to another area of my yard that is pure clay that I've been amending with leaves and pine needles (nothing planted there yet). I'll soak the soil that was immediately around the tree in bleach, and then till the rest of the area and add a lot of compost and some sand for drainage. The plum was already planted above-grade, but I'll plant the mulberry even higher. I figure better safe than sorry and bleaching it is the safe way to go (my book on diseases says to throw the soil out - but that will only spread it to a new area!).

I've tried out the ballast method with my very first citrus and it worked very well last fall into winter then spring. Not sure if anyone remembers my Meyer's story but my Meyer came to me with a badly propagated root system from RBF and was always on the edge of declining health but it still managed to grow an impressive root system throughout winter with the ballast I provided in the pot. The tree only had 5 leaves provided with one LED grow light the whole winter season but still managed to grow nice roots in such poor health! I used a half quart plastic takeout container as my ballast. My poor tree is gone now but it serves as a wonderful reminder of what worked and didn't work (ie. ballast worked). Vlad it is possible the dust caused the bottom half to be too soaked for too long. I know you mentioned that Al's recipe uses the dust but I've looked into many different recipes and opinions on the 511 recipe on gardenweb to see how it fared with other growers. There was a very interesting thread where someone talked about a threshold for particle size and the maximum percentage allowed before becoming a real issue in container mixes. I've been trying to find if I saved or bookmarked it but haven't located it yet so I'll be looking through my phone photos for screenshots. I know for sure I saved it because I liked how he provided numbers for the quantities of each respective media and/or particle size. When I find it I'll make sure to post the photos or link. This year I've also noticed a huge difference in the way I water and how it effects the smaller particles like peat. Last year I had just started the gardening hobby so I didn't have any watering cans or wands. I just watered with a decades old leaking spray nozzle from the hose or using an empty water bottle as my watering device. I would drip water through the cap of the bottle very slowly and at the time with just 1 citrus tree, I had the patience for it. This spring I've added some blueberry plants, about 20 citrus seedlings from seed, and my 3 trees from Stan so I purchased a watering wand to make it quicker and easier. But! I stopped using it because I noticed that it provides such a large amount of water in such a short amount of time that it created a type of flash flood effect in my containers. So much water would pool and stay above the mix and pull alot of the peat down when it sank down leaving a layer of bare perlite on the surface. This was drastically different from my extremely slow water bottle method. My water bottle method acted more like drip irrigation and did very little to disturb the surface or stratify the container mix. I really feel that most people will have problems with peat or dust sized particles settling to the bottom of the container if your collection is large enough to require a watering wand or can. I think I'll be going back to poking holes into the caps of empty water bottles and letting that drip irrigate my citrus lol