8 years old? in 5 gallon pot? My first thought is you have no more soil left in that pot thus, no nutrients, no fertilizer no nothing gets going to the leaves. No wonder it is dying on you. If that is my tree I will do some drastic change to invigorate that tree. Otherwise you will lose it completely. I only started buying and taking care of citrus in 2002 and most of them outgrew wine barrel pots so I transferred them to the ground. One of them is over 12 feet in height. With me a 5 gallon only last a year or less. Then I planted them into 7 1/2 10 15 and 25 gallon all in 4 year time. How big is your tree anyway and what is the diameter of the trunk? I need to know because I usually go from 5 to 7 1/2 gallon. Then 10 gallon. If that is my tree I would start from the scratch. I would prune it drastically and leave 2 or 3 main branches. Then I would get me a very free draining soil 1/3 sand 1/3 peat 1/3 pine bark a little bit of steer manure and perlite and vermiculite and some top soil. I would also if I see that the roots are all tied up together, hack the roots longitudally at 3 equal space to encourage new root growth. Then put it in the shade after soaking it with water preferably with osmosis filtered water beause the pH is slightly acidic. Don't fertilize at this time until you see new growth comes up. then use the miracle grow 30 10 10 azealia rodo fertilizer at 1/2 strength. That is if that is my tree. Lots of people will tell you different.

If you are up this morning, feeling pretty good, except for maybe some monday blues, you are running probably 85/15. A loose healthy number, 85 being a healthy system having no problem dealing with 15% everyday bacteria. The numbers shift a bit if your system is working hard dealing with a 'bug', or the common cold. As a home cook, it is being responsible to make safe decisions if a family member is not feeling well. Or if cooking for a crowd. I remember the NYTimes article. Choices explained. The original question was answered and i think a good choice was made to dump it. Sure you can boil it over and over and 'kill' it. Killing any flavor or food value as well. Our chili was chilled quickly but i still give any re-heats a good time on the stove. We have all dealt with foodborne pathogens. Those little 6-24hr unexplained 'bugs'. Or just a grumbly stomach. Others are more obvious and memorable. I've had a few. Not from our home that i've traced. Usually having eaten something out or at work. Why i like to serve buffet style for a crowd keeping everything hot/cold. Or serve right from the warm oven, in smaller serving dishes, passed around the table that can be re-filled when empty. Ha ha. Mr Sleeven IS sleevendog. We signed up with his screen name when shopping for my garden hog tractor. I remember seeing the other forums, "oh look, cooking people..." 'Sleeven' is a sneaky rascal person in the Newfoundland dictionary. I actually think it has one 'e', as in sleven. Not only is it spelled wrong, it isn't even me. : ) I agree about the hand sanitizers. Creep texture and where does it go?...I don't mind seeing them all over though. I've been in many NYC elevators with sneezy walking flu bombs.

G - for some reason your most recent post shows up in the 'Activity' tab on my user page, but not here. I sort of deduced you were in some manner a part of the medical care community by way of your phraseology. Edited to say: The lost post showed up around 5PM Christmas Eve - strange, that. .... I always find it fascinating to see evidence of how our physiology and pathophysiology is really not that fundamentally different from our green relatives. Like how animals will occasionally find walling off (like plants do in CODIT) to be the most viable - or only - way to control an infection (e.g. abscesses or TBC granulomas). Or the whole thing about the ability to fend off (opportunistic) infections/infestations as a function of overall vitality levels you reference over and over. I see many similarities as well, even with my pitifully limited knowledge compared to yours, and it makes me tend to want to draw parallels and comparisons between plants and animals. The problem with doing that, even if the equivalence offers a path to instant understanding, is, a lot of folks know what anthropomorphism is and have often point to it as a logical fallacy. I often refer to and get away with using phrases like 'plant central and its chemical messengers' because it saves a ton of writing and I'm pedantic enough as it is. I use those terms to convey the idea that, for the most part, plants' responses to their world are more orderly (until they can't be) than it would seem. To illustrate that I'm intentionally being anthropomorphic, I usually recognize it in advance by setting the word/phrase apart with "quotes" or an 'apostrophe', which seems to work reasonably well. But to get back to the topic at hand: Yes ....... "Older plants that become infected often remain viable for a period after infection but usually die. Often, seemingly healthy basal shoots or leaves will occur, only to collapse from the infection after a short time when the pathogen spreads systemically into the new growth." That's the most fitting description of what I have seen happening with my plant. And while you have avoided spelling it out so far (or well, maybe you did: "followed by involvement and death of the whole organism") my conclusion is that what I have at hand is a systemic infection that is too advanced now to be controlled. Sooo, aside from sitting the plant under some lights and hoping for a miracle I guess I should look at getting another set of cuttings from the mother plant for a second try... I'm not sure what additional info you're looking for, but: For vascular wilt diseases, think of the xylem as where the battle takes place. Vascular wilts can also be bacterial or caused by water molds (oomycetes). Usually the pathogen enters through a compromised root or through cracks that often form at root laterals, but there are several other POEs, like stomata, hydathodes, insect penetrations, grafting, notching, poor pruning practices ..... Even though both xylem and phloem are accessible to the pathogen, and the phloem is rich in sugars, it usually 'chooses' xylem tracheary elements that provide a nutritionally poor environment. It's widely thought that this occurs because the high osmotic pressure of living phloem cells makes penetration difficult. Symptoms of the disease are usually made manifest acropetally, which is why I wasn't convinced the disease was localized in the termination of the foliage. Which leads me to my next set of questions: - Can these fungal pathogens survive outside a host for some time? Definitely. Spores can survive (even over-winter outdoors) in soil, plant debris, dead host tissues (bark, .....) an infected water source, in insect vectors. Spores can also form a hard mass that includes a food source, and the pathogen can survive as mycelium/ hyphae. As in: Can I reuse the pot and soil mix for the new cuttings or do I have to treat them in some way beforehand (with heat for example)? Right now I feel like just letting them dry out completely should suffice. Given the persistence of the pathogen, you shouldn't reuse the soil or the pot w/o treating it. I would clean the pot thoroughly and soak in a .05% solution of water/sodium hyperchlorite (9 parts water: 1 part household bleach @ 5.25% so-hypo). Rinse thoroughly and allow to dry in full sun. You can reuse the soil w/o worry about fungal infections if you bring a pot of water to a boil, add the soil, cover the pot, return water to a boil, turn the burner off and allow to cool w/o removing the lid, strain, allow to dry. - Can you give me a quick reminder for the correct handling of cuttings? I remember the following: Make clean cuts with a sharp blade to avoid jagged or crushed edges (another parallel to human medicine) and sprinkle the cuts with cinnamon. Best to use something razor sharp - I'm thinking scalpels, for you. I normally use a straight edge razor blade (I buy in boxes of 100) or any of 3 high carbon steel tools I keep sharp on a 3,000 grit water stone to way beyond shaving sharp. For better results, skip the cinnamon - flowers of sulfur is widely available and much more effective as a fungicide. No need to use anything else on propagules if you're using a rooting aid that includes a prophylactic fungicide. Be sure to include at least one node of the trunk for each cutting. Depending on the distance between nodes, 2-3 nodes beneath the soil line is best. At least 2 nodes above the soil line is a good call, too. If one of the distal nodes fail to push a branch from the leaf axil, you have a spare/spares. If you want a single stem and you see more than one axillary branch, rub one off after roots are established enough that you won't be breaking a bunch of roots if the propagule is disturbed, rub one axillary branch off (or snip with sharp scissors) and retain the preexisting leaf for the time being (food factory). I use mostly gritty mix for cuttings, and the uppermost of the nodes covered by soil will tend toward going dry unless the propagule is tented, you're diligent about spritzing (the soil) to keep the top moist, or you covering it (soil). I often cut a slit in Al foil and fashion a loose cover from that in order to ensure the entire soil mass remains moist. If ever you're using a medium that supports a perched water column, please to be sure the proximal end of the propagule is not submerged in the perched water (hypoxia/ anoxia). Cut leaves in half to reduce foliage that has to be supported. This is often a judgment call, but it's better to err on the side of too much reduction of foliage rather than not enough. The drought stress can cause abscission of ALL of the foliage, which is very counterproductive and to be avoided. You'll often hear that NO foliage should be removed, but those with a long history of repotting and propagation know that you have to be able to adjust your thinking at times, so there is no hard/fast rule when it comes to adjusting the volume of foliage to arrive at the desired end. Plant immediately in soil (I'll use the 5:1:1 mix now) and water daily until enough roots have formed. Hold back fertilizer until there's new growth. Depending on the plant material, it's sometimes better to wait for callus to form over the wound before you stick the propagule. For instance, dormant deciduous cuttings, most evergreen cuttings, and a good measure of succulents do best by waiting an appropriate interval for that plant. I've pruned Aeonium in Feb and left the snippings on a paper towel on the basement work bench. Roots grew from the stems and the snippings too right off in mid-May when I decided they'd earned the right to remain viable by virtue of their mulishness. After taking the cuttings I won't be able to plant them for a day and I'll have to transport them. What would be the best way to handle that? Wrap the cut ends in a clean paper towel? Dry or wet? A moist paper towel in a bag or simply lay the cuttings on their side and cover with the moistened medium you intend to use. Whew! You really made me think!I hope that was what you were looking for. Al

Thanks for the reply, Shawna! I just removed the leaf with black spot next to the stem, which was already beginning to shrivel (as you can see below). Most of the leaves that have fallen off so far also had black spots on them and close to the stem -- as you can see in the image below on the right, there are still a lot of darker spots along the stem where the leaves used to be. And most of the remaining leaves have black spots on them, but it's hard to see if they also have spots next to the steam since they're so close together. As for water, I haven't watered it since my initial post. Overall, I have watered it twice since I got it. However, as someone who is new to succulents, I'm still figuring out how to tell when each plant is thirsty. I also use gritty mix so the medium always looks/feels dry. From what I've seen of scale (from Google searches at least) it looks like white-ish bumps. I haven't noticed anything like that on my pachyveria. However, I have since talked to someone who had the same issues with their pachyveria (the black spots on the leaves and close to the stem) and they told me that their plant continued to decline due to what they think was a bacterial infection. Do you think spraying it with alcohol or insecticide soap would still help? Thanks for the reply too, Rina! I'm still not sure if I should be spraying it since (as I mention above) I think it might be infected with a bacteria (at least according to someone who had the exact same issue -- and who said that nothing they did managed to save their plant). Overall, the top leaves seem stable, but almost all of them have dark spots at this point. I feel so helpless watching it decline like this :(