Trust me when I say you don't want to find anything in those sticky traps ... it will be alive, it will scream, it will squirm, and it will be awful. Snap traps are far less upsetting for everyone ... the mouse is just dead, and the clean-up crew doesn't have to deal with a screaming, squirming, suffering creature. I'll admit we did have one snaptrap victim vanish ... it was there and seemed dead (not a close inspection (just noted from across the basement), and then a few hours later when we went to clean it up, the trap had moved a foot to by a crevace in the floor - concrete floor, not a way out, just a crevace - and the it was empty. No idea what happened there ... but there was no screaming, no squirming, nothing like a gluetrap. I've cleaned those up at a workplace ... it was traumatizing ... and worse, there were two.

On the contrary, leaves that once were green, then going through the stages of yellowing, browning, eventually turning black is definitely a cue that you are overwatering. Leaves turn black because they are not able to further take up moisture. The roots are sitting in too much water...forcing the plant to draw water up, until such time, the plant is unable to proceed any further. Root rot sets in....the leaves are the first sign of any problem that is caused from such watering practices. At the stage of blackness, it has gone on far too long. Yellow leaves might be the first sign of overwatering---along with other possible causes...but overwatering, being the one biggest reason for trouble, should be thought of first. As the water is no longer able to do anything for the plant....even tho, water is sitting only a few inches away...the leaves are unable to draw any more, they are saturated...and so will turn black. I think one of the easiest ways to have such result is by not having something between the soil and the drainage holes and letting the drainage water sit too long under the plant causing it to draw water it once got rid of, to be drawn back up and if the plant cant use it, it sits there, drowning the roots. Distilled water is a viable choice if you believe the water from your tap has something in it that might cause problems. But there are other sources of water without going the distilled route. Bottled water---very common these days...water that has sat for days in a watering can or water from snow you have brought in and allowed to gain room temperature can be used. Plants react to changes that are abrupt. Cold drafts from floor vents or open doorways can cause yellowing leaves. Too high nighttime temperatures can cause browning tips and edges.

I think you're right, it probably dried out instead of burnt. ===>>> we are getting you there.. but it did burn.. but not from sun.. from root drying .. conifers are trees.. and they need a very specific potting media... when you repot.. you will probably be better off with a cactus media.. rather than a high peat mix which is usually sold for houseplants ... perhasp a new post on that theme when you get to that point.. and timing might be important .... what do the rest of you say about that ???? .. taxo.. they clearly said they were apartment bound with not even a balcony .. they have no outdoor options.. though you are correct that would be best ... please. please.. PLEASE ... transfer your memories to the pot ... trees are NOT HOUSEPLANTS [check out the link] ... sooner or later.. it is going to fail ... but you can always have the pot ... when you repot ... plant a true houseplant in the smaller pot.. and keep the memories alive in that .... and then .. if the repotting fails.. or time just catches up with your apartment tree .... grandma can still be with you ... that is the simplest solution to your conundrum ... good luck ken Here is a link that might be useful: link

First, the plant is seriously starved for light and appears to be over-potted, which would increase the potential for limitations on root health/function. It also looks like there are nutritional issues going on. Please describe you're doing insofar as nutritional supplementation. Whether the soil is new or clean is a secondary consideration to it's structural state. Replacing one water-retentive medium with another water-retentive medium isn't going to improve root health/function unless you get your watering under control. The best way to determine whether or not a large plant needs water is by using a 'tell', which is no more than a 48" dowel rod (5/16" works very well) cut in half and ends sharpened in a pencil sharpener.) I'll leave you something about that after my offering. Imagine you're on a teeter-totter that is 2 miles long and a mile high. As long as we're putting an image in your mind's eye, we might as well put a handrail on both sides so you don't fall from ahigh. Trying to grow in a poor medium is like trying to walk up one side of the seesaw toward the fulcrum. It's hard. If you don't get to the top so you can cross the fulcrum and get to the downhill side, you'll be forever in a battle with your medium for control over your plant's vitality, and you can count on your plants losing a large % of their potential. A good medium is THAT important. Being able to water to beyond the point of saturation (so you're flushing the soil of accumulating dissolved solids [salts] when you water) without the plant having to pay an over-watering tax on vitality (health) due to extended periods of soil saturation, is a key element in helping your plants realize as much of their genetic potential as possible. If you adopt that attribute as a minimum standard for your choice of medium growing suddenly becomes much, much easier. An appropriate medium also makes fertilizing monkey easy, whereas fertilizing soils that are too water retentive usually amounts to a best guess and a wish or prayer. If you're not someone who wants to get overly involved in making your own soils, you can solve the over-watering issue by using ballast to solve excess water retention. While ballast can almost entirely remove excess water retention, it doesn't ensure the high levels of aeration plants thrive on, and it can't prevent the structural collapse of media with very large fractions of fine materials - peat, coir, compost, composted forest products (the equivalent of mystery meat) sand, topsoil, ......, others. You might also find this overview interesting. Using a 'tell' Over-watering saps vitality and is one of the most common plant assassins, so learning to avoid it is worth the small effort. Plants make and store their own energy source – photosynthate - (sugar/glucose). Functioning roots need energy to drive their metabolic processes, and in order to get it, they use oxygen to burn (oxidize) their food. From this, we can see that terrestrial plants need air (oxygen) in the soil to drive root function. Many off-the-shelf soils hold too much water and not enough air to support good root health, which is a prerequisite to a healthy plant. Watering in small sips leads to a build-up of dissolved solids (salts) in the soil, which limits a plant's ability to absorb water – so watering in sips simply moves us to the other horn of a dilemma. It creates another problem that requires resolution. Better, would be to simply adopt a soil that drains well enough to allow watering to beyond the saturation point, so we're flushing the soil of accumulating dissolved solids whenever we water; this, w/o the plant being forced to pay a tax in the form of reduced vitality, due to prolong periods of soil saturation. Sometimes, though, that's not a course we can immediately steer, which makes controlling how often we water a very important factor. In many cases, we can judge whether or not a planting needs watering by hefting the pot. This is especially true if the pot is made from light material, like plastic, but doesn't work (as) well when the pot is made from heavier material, like clay, or when the size/weight of the pot precludes grabbing it with one hand to judge its weight and gauge the need for water. Fingers stuck an inch or two into the soil work ok for shallow pots, but not for deep pots. Deep pots might have 3 or more inches of soil that feels totally dry, while the lower several inches of the soil is 100% saturated. Obviously, the lack of oxygen in the root zone situation can wreak havoc with root health and cause the loss of a very notable measure of your plant's potential. Inexpensive watering meters don't even measure moisture levels, they measure electrical conductivity. Clean the tip and insert it into a cup of distilled water and witness the fact it reads 'DRY'. One of the most reliable methods of checking a planting's need for water is using a 'tell'. You can use a bamboo skewer in a pinch, but a wooden dowel rod of about 5/16” (75-85mm) would work better. They usually come 48” (120cm) long and can usually be cut in half and serve as a pair. Sharpen all 4 ends in a pencil sharpener and slightly blunt the tip so it's about the diameter of the head on a straight pin. Push the wooden tell deep into the soil. Don't worry, it won't harm the root system. If the plant is quite root-bound, you might need to try several places until you find one where you can push it all the way to the pot's bottom. Leave it a few seconds, then withdraw it and inspect the tip for moisture. For most plantings, withhold water until the tell comes out dry or nearly so. If you see signs of wilting, adjust the interval between waterings so drought stress isn't a recurring issue. Al