Hey buddy!! I use to use them and the problems I had to deal with using extra light was unsurmountable..Not worth it for me.. If you are forced to use them and do not want to, then you have two choices..One, do not grow plants that need lot's of sunlight...Or two, grow them, but expect to work hard at avoiding many problems associated with them.. That is where some will come in here and help..The ones that use lights and soley rely on them may have had and still might much more succees than I ever did.. The PESTS are a givin for most..That is why you hear all this talk of sprays, homemade recipes and or chemical being used my most all winter long!!!! I only use them regular flourescent lights over my clivias in the cellar for a couple of hours now to help them grow in perfect symetrical shape, while my expensive ones just sit turned off all winter.... We can talk later..I will e-mail you when home later..:-) Mike

Hi, y'all! Mike, glad to know your mom is getting better. Dave is doing good, I think. We've now stabilized his weight and we actually now have to watch for him not to gain it back, wick is a good sign. He's started working out and lifting again, although still taking it easy. Me, I'm exhausted all the time, these days. I don't know if it's the it's seasons changing or what, but I'm dragging myself all day long, LOL. I might have to bring my trees in a couple of days early. I was shooting for Thursday or this week end, but my area has just been issued a freeze warning for tonight. Regardless of the forecast that says mid 40's, the risk of a dip into the 20's or lower 30's is a possibility, overnight. The possibility is slim, but that would zap my Meyers for sure, so I can't really risk it. They'll be coming in tonight. Sadly, I just watered and fertilized this morning before I saw the forecast, so I won't be able to give the soil one last good Neem drench before bringing the trees inside tonight. I neemed the whole trees for the third consecutive week last Thursday, and I also drenched the soil then, so I really should be fine. I guess I can always add some Neem to my first indoor watering, 10 days or so after i bring the trees inside. I also gave both trees a good insecticidal spray this morning (garden safe), just in case something crept in since I neemed last Thursday. I hesitated to Neem them again, but decided against it, they've been getting it weekly for 3 weeks in a row and they just got doused in garden safe insecticidal soap, hope that's enough. I'll be washing the pots later this afternoon before bringing them in. I'll do my best for the underside of the pot, but I don't promise anything. Those suckers are heavy. I'll settle for tilting the pot and spraying some insecticidal soap on the underside. other than that, the trees look healthy, despite a few leaves here and there that show some kind of a deficiency. I snapped a few pics, hold on. See what I mean? A few leaves are trying to tell me something, but I dont know what. What do you tHink? Besides those few leaves, they look happy. They are ready to go in. They are just moving across the window threshold. They have been against the deck wall all week in constant shade, and another week in partial shade before that, so they've gotten used to less light already. To recap: 1. Do you think I should Neem the trees again for a 4th time before they come in? 2. What's with the few discolored leaves? 3. Can I add some Neem to my next watering, which will also be my first indoor watering of the season? . God bless, y'all, and thanks for listening! . Atheen PS: just washed the outside of the pots really well with soap and water, including the underside of the pots. Oh, and Mike, I remembered to check if there was still a wick dangling out from under the pot, and the answer is yes, there is one, albeit very short. Also, my back just died. Gonna need to revive it in order to bring the trees in tonight... Thus killing it again, LOL

Spanish fly, it's almost that time to start thinking about putting yours in cold rooms. Crazy right? Where does time go. I have enjoyed many of your picture through this past summer.) Well, mine are all up on my flat roof and sprayed for the last time. Please no one get me wrong, I am not a huge fan of using chemicals on anything at all except my succulents and only sprayed in a limited area when they are all confined. This is why I am a huge user of fish emulsion which does a fantastic job on all my plants unless I miss one here or there which always happens. This chemical spray is a back up since I refuse to loose anymore come January or February and only to be caught of guard. For touch ups, or pop up issues if one should arise , that is where the Safer Soaps come in handy which I keep a constant supply of. Mike

Bill, really nice dendrobium there. I feel truly the laziest person on this thread. I just bring them in! I don't have too many succulents, cacti , hoya or citrus so I guess it is a bit different. It is too early to think of the great move indoors around these parts luckily and I am bummed y'all have to start doing it already. I had a bad experience spraying soap on a nicely blooming dipladenia vine that I sprayed throughly and moved indoors. It promptly died on me. I guess I may have been a little too enthusiastic. I do have some outbreaks of aphids or an occasional thrips infestation(only on a dipladenia I have now had for almost 3 years, it took me a while to figure out it were thrips that were largely preventing blooms). Soap appears to do little for aphids. Eventually it bayer 3 in 1 or just live with it. I am lucky to not have too many mite issues, currently they just bleach the leaves on a nobile orchid. I bring in several jasmines, chrysanthemums, an avocado, some peppers and chillies, mint, pentas, snapdragons, verbena, penstemons, rozanne (perhaps I should leave the last two outdoors), kalanchoe, thanksgiving cactii, butterfly pea and my favorite purslane (they are excellent workhorses and overwinter nicely and even bloom most of the time. I have kept my orchids indoors except miltoniposis (which like it too cool for summer indoors) after some diastrous losses to bacterial and fungal infections this and previous summers.