Westgirl, photos are helpful :-) Just upload them to Photobucket, then find your photo, float your mouse over it, and then click on the HTML code to copy it to your Windows clipboard. Then, just right click in the body of your message and select "Paste". That will paste the HTML code into the body of your message, and your photos will be embedded right into your message. I suspect not warm enough, and maybe too wet. Key Limes are the least hardy of any citrus. You're much better off with a Bearss lime, which has some lemon in it genetics, and much, MUCH more cold tolerant. I don't even bother growing Key limes where I live, here's a photo of a big bunch of Bearss limes we just picked: (That's a Valentine pummelo on top of the limes, btw.) Check out the roots carefully and see if you've got root rot going on. If so, try to trim away the decaying roots, and repot carefully. Give it as much sunlight as possible - bring it outside while it's warm, then inside at night. Watch the moisture in your mix, and it may make it. Patty S.

John, Don't worry about thinking your are being too assertive... no offense is taken. I'm just genuinely curious as to why the soft water is perceived as being so terrible. I often see many quite firm statements on a variety of topics (water, fertilizer, temperature, sunlight, methods for planting in ground, etc...) related home gardening. There is a sound horticultural basis behind many of these recommendations, but at the same time I see many firm recommendations that for most people likely make no difference one way or the other. I don't see the point of having this huge list of varying do's and don'ts if a large portion of the recommendations either are minimally helpful, or don't really have any impact. When I began growing container citrus several years ago, I started out all gung-ho trying to do everything under the sun that was recommended to make my trees happy especially in winter (grow lights, supplemental heating, boosting the humidity, etc...). The end result invariably was sickly looking trees. I've had much better luck not really doing too much and allowing the trees to acclimate gradually on their own to whatever their current environment happens to be. Getting back to the soft water question. I completely agree that too much sodium chloride will kill plants, especially citrus. I would also add that too much salt of any kind could kill your plants, of course the lethal concentrations will vary quite widely depending on the specific toxicities. An ion exchange water softener does not add sodium chloride to the water. The sodium chloride is just used to regenerate the ion exchange resin by saturating it with sodium ions. The softening process only replaces the magnesium and calcium ions with sodium. The primary anion before and after treatment should remain carbonate, no additional chloride is added. Since sodium carbonate is much more soluble in water than either magnesium or calcium carbonate, one could argue that it would be more difficult to build up high concentrations of it in the container. This is assuming that one flushes their container with excess water on a semi regular basis. Nevertheless, I doubt this aspect really makes much significant difference one way or the other if the container is being flushed with water periodically. While thinking about this whole issue, I also came across several research papers that investigate the effects of salinity on citrus. The primary toxic effects of "salinity" on citrus are increased osmotic stress and specific ion toxicities. Again, if one is flushing their container with water semi-regularly, osmotic stress should never become an issue, as the excess accumulated salts will be washed out regularly. With respect to ion toxicity, the general consensus seems to be that chloride is a more significant issue than sodium. However, the water softening process does not really add any chloride to the the treated water, therefore its concentration is no different than in the untreated water. The concentration of sodium carbonate in the "softened" water is also not really ever going to be that high (in the neighborhood of 200 ppm, if the input water is classified as very hard). I've seen a study (link below) that subjected citrus to salt (sodium chloride and/or calcium chloride) at concentrations up to 6000 ppm. Although the differences in response to the salt challenge were clearly noticeable among the tested cultivars, the most significantly damaged trees only showed a "slight marginal burn" on the leaves. So even assuming there was 200 ppm sodium chloride in the softened water, it would take several months of watering with no flushing of the soil to build up to these high salt concentrations where there are clearly visible toxicity effects. In summary, I do not see any scientific basis for why "softened" water should be perceived as so bad for citrus culture. At the same time, there is not much evidence that it has any significant benefits. In the absence of finding any direct studies investigating this question, I think the issue is largely irrelevant for container citrus culture. If a few basic care practices are observed (mainly not treating your soil as a black hole in which an infinite amount of fertilizer and soluble salts from the water supply can be allowed to accumulate), it shouldn't really matter. I will add one final caveat, if signs of salt toxicity do happen to appear irrespective of the water source, then one should absolutely start trying to isolate and correct the problem. John, I'm curious to know if you have any additional thoughts. In any case, cheers, and thanks for the discussion! -Scott PS Susan, my sincere apologies for taking your thread off on a little tangent. Here is a link that might be useful: Salt tolerance of some citrus

Total agreement with Barb.. That is no insult intended, but the worst soil mix I ever saw posted on these forums for Citrus or any other potted plant.. Did you use soil from outside or compost that you made? Those bugs could be very damaging to any potted plant, especially in the cooler months rapidly coming. What is your Zone and are you grow in? It would be much eaiser for give help if we knew that.. Pics was a very smart tjing to do...Thank you for posting pics because that helps too.. Your best bet to get rid of those bugs once and for all is what Barb said...I was make sure to wash off even teh roots, down to bareroot if you are not scared to do so.. Use a sterile mix, even if it's not the 5.1.1 mix..Even a bagged with, soilless that is with perlite is better than that. Dont' use compost in your pots, it just sours the mix, cause root rot, cyclonic death of your fiborous roots, bugs, and a host of other issues.. If you choose to change your mix asap, it will be ok..If you wait, then I wish you good luck.. It's nice to meet you and hopefully we can help. Mike

Best tasting (in my personal opinion, which is very subjective) Mandarins: Satsuma (from a mature tree, takes years to develop full flavor) closely followed by Shasta Gold and Kishu Some people also really love Page (the aroma reminds me of pine needles, not in a bad way) Minneola Tangelos are of course a classic For oranges, Valencia is the one and only (if grown in a warm climate, because in cooler climates it may not develop full flavor and sweetness) Grapefruits: Duncan has "classic grapefruit flavor", the gold standard by which to measure grapefruit flavor (but is a bit seedy, and some people complain of grapefruit bitterness) Oroblanco is sort of like a milder version of Duncan, less bitterness, but a tiny bit less aroma also, still a great one. It's sweet, and even many people who don't care for grapefruits still think Oroblanco is okay.