A dowel rod is a round piece of wood - like a pencil. You can get one at a hdwe store & sharpen it in a pencil sharpener. Alternately, us a 12" wooden skewer - they come pre-sharpened. * Move the plant to a spot where you can repeatedly and thoroughly flush the soil with water that hasn't passed through the softener. * Flush the soil up to 10 times with at least as much water as the volume of the container the plant is in. You cannot overdo it. * After flushing, tilt the container at a 45* angle and wait for the container to stop draining. This drains a considerable amount more water than allowing the container to rest on its bottom. * After draining has stopped, remove the plant from it's pot and set on newspapers to drain. If the plant is small, a few hours is fine - if large, allow it to rest on the papers over night. * With a utility knife, slash deep vertical cuts into the root mass and an 'X' on the bottom. Alternately, you can remove an inch or two of the roots/soil from the bottom. * Pot up into a slightly larger pot and fill in around the roots with a soil similar to what you currently have in the root mass. Use a wick in the bottom of the pot if you are going to be able to lift the pot above the collection saucer (best). Ideally, the wick will dancle 2-3" below the bottom of the pot w/o contacting the water in the collection saucer. (I know - a lot to ask) ;o) This wick will 'fool' the water into 'thinking' the pot is deeper than it is. Water will move down the wick 'looking' for the bottom of the pot, and droip off the end. This will go a long way toward eliminating the specter of root rot and allowing you to water copiously enough to flush the soil each time you water to help gurad against salt accumulation. * A few days after you've repotted, fertilize with 1/2 the recommended strength of Miracle-Gro 24-8-16 (granular/box), Miracle-Gro 12-4-8 (liquid/yellow jug), or Foliage-Pro 9-3-6 (best, but you'd probably need to order online) * Give it all the light you can, and try to keep soil temps @ 65-75* That's the standard plan for bringing Ficus back from the brink. I'm not sure how many it's worked for, but I know it's more than I can guess at .... lots. ;o) Best luck!! I'll be around if you still have questions. Al

Is that aphids and white fly? I am having a hard time visually. When you touch the leaves do white things fly around? Get a magnifying glass and look at the leaf are things crawling? It looks like the above to me and if it is you will need to kill them. I have never seen fungus look like that. So you will need to check pronto before you loose your plants. Then get back to us.

Thanks again! ksrogers, you say that Neem oil is okay for herbs? But how does it wash off, and won't it leave a bad taste? I have fungus gnat in my soil (from having the pots indoors!). I was told at a nursery that I should repot it and throw away the old soil. I'm going to do this, but I've read that putting sand/perlite on the surface will make it seem dry, so the adults don't lay eggs. Do you think that yellow sticky traps will solve the problem, because I think of them as more of an indicator that there is a problem than a solution in itself. I had a whitefly infestation last winter (indoors), and had used sticky traps, but it didn't actually stop the infestation :( flora, I think I understand what you mean about outdoors being better. Though indoors, I used an oscillating fan on the seedlings for a couple of hours in the evenings, to make them stronger (though I don't know if it had an effect or not). I also do try to bottom water (though I was not for the basil because the pot is large!), but I water the top at the same time I bottom water, so the whole soil gets completely soaked. Is this bad in general? Should I just get the bottom half wet and leave the top drier? (That might discourage gnats from laying eggs.) Anyway, I was told at the nursery that basil has tricky watering requirements, and I should water more frequently and lightly; they are very susceptible to root rotting she said. And I think she meant to water from the top. I was surprised, because houseplants you water less frequently and deeply (but she's something of an expert, so I trust her advice). Cheers

@ Rococo....Yellow is gone. I did three washes ranging between 160-200F. Combo and variance of Tide boost, British Ariel powder tablet and Grab Green. I think with continued hot washes and strong(ish) powder detergent with oxi bleach and a bleach activator...they might be ok! :)