The flowers and fruit is set on the newer branches only. No. While it may seem that way it is more weather related than anything else. There is a strong correlation between age of the plant and air temperatures. Many varieties when planted while the weather is still cool will bloom and set fruit while the plant is still quite young and small, well before it begins to climb. In fact many ask if they are supposed to remove that early fruit for the health of the plant but are advised to just leave it. That same plant, planted much later and hit with excessive heat will continue to grow but it will not bloom or set fruit until it gets a break in the weather and it may be quite tall by then. The older bottom leaves and branches don't seem to contribute anything except that they are close to the ground and shaded. They are also shading the plants roots, helping to keep them cool, which is an important role. Should they be pruned? If diseased, yes but otherwise, normally no, there is no reason to do so and pruning the plant is stressful for it. Your real issue is the aphids, not the plant's new or old growth or the location of the leaves. So you need to treat the aphids and let the plant do what comes naturally for it. There are any number of aphid treatments available including simply squishing them by hand, hosing them off with water, insecticides both organic and non-organic, and cutting back on high N fertilizers. But removing leaves because they have aphids isn't usually one of them. Dave

Hi kimmsr, I would say my soil does not hold moisture particularly well, even though we do amend it and add organic matter every year. On the other hand, it does appear to drain well. A 10"x10" hole I dug two days ago and filled with water was drained in less than 10 minutes.The native soil is clay. We live in a very dry climate east of San Diego, where we are lucky to see rain once during the summer. It did happen to rain just a few days ago, and I can already see that my entire garden loved it, including the squash, which as of today show 85% new growth. Yay! As for the pH, I have no idea. I thnk it's time to invest in a soil test kit. In addition to ants, I see some roly-polies, some white flies, an ocassional pincher bug, and some weird tiny blackish bugs that emerged from the base of one of my Black Krim tomato plants that I pulled yesterday as it was doing poorly. I know I will have to spray all the plants with Neem at the bases now as I am sure these little bugs must have moved on to all my healthy tomato roots. I also saw them on my peach tree. My garden also shows evidence of visiting spiders. I really do not like to spray my garden with anything, but Neem has been quite gentle and I do want a harvest! Yesterday I got brave and chopped off two long yellow stems from one of the squash plants. It meant sacrificing some new growth and one new baby squash but this is still a bit of an experiment, after all. I may trim again today and bury the end of one stem in the soil just to see what happens. The older squash is sort of a funny color, with yellowish tinge in spots instead of the overall nice deep tan color I am used to. I hope it still tastes good! :)

I was having similar issues with my Meyer Lemon, except I wasn't getting much fruit at all. 90% of my leaves had leaf miners, the leaves were all mottled, wrinkly, turning yellow/brown. It was a mess!! I got tired of it, so I "hard pruned"(only very little leaves left) the leaves/branches, 6 weeks later, new leaves and all sorts of blooms are coming up. This is the best and fullest this tree has looked in the four years I've had it. Not saying the leafminers won't be back, because I know they will, but at least I'll enjoy the lush look of it while it lasts, LOL... In your case, I'm not sure what to tell you, I know that pruning the branches will promote more new branches, but since your tree is full of fruits, I'm sure you don't want to prune them now. Maybe you should google "citrus leafminers" and see if that is what your tree has? Good luck! Maybe others can offer more help... Here is a pic of my tree(6 weeks or so) after I hard pruned it...the new leaves/blooms finally filling in nicely...

tsmith2579, There is no draft our pellet stove blower is blowing in a different direction. The plastic pot has the drip pan attached on the bottom so if there is a little excess water that's where it goes and it probably does sit there until it evaporates. I do have it in the sunniest part of the house with 2 plant lights on them. Are the halogen shop lamp better than the plant lights? Are plastic pots ok to plant orange trees in? Right now I have them planted in potting soil and a little peat moss,and I am in the process of transplanting them into more drainable soil because I don't know what else to try because of leaves and baby fruit falling off. Any other suggestions?