Ruthie Thanks for the link. It must be better for you to post things once on a website than fill concerned people in individually. You have been in my thoughts since you posted the news. In particular, I love your garden pictures, and hope that the treatments work so you can continue to garden. Good advice about chest X-Rays for EVERYBODY, smokers or not.

Great to see some improvement! I used the same soil method and am having good results. I know some people on here are fancy with soil mixes, but a simple bag of citrus soil and extra perlite seemed easier. As far as spraying the tree, you are right to use Neem at recommended dosages. I almost want to say that you could do without the alcohol. Neem works wonders on its own. Spraying twice a month would be a bit much. You should give it a "shower" once or twice a month with plain water in the bathtub, but only spray when there is something wrong. You can spritz with water whenever you want. Your tree will love any extra humidity. In the future invest in a bottle of liquid seaweed and mix that into a spray bottle as a "treat" for Mr. Meyer. He will benefit from foliage feeding once a month. That is also a natural deterrent against sap sucking insects (at least one of my gardening books says so). I would still expect to get scale or spider mites every winter. Or both. My meyer lemons trunk is pot marked with dead knots of previous branches that totally died back. This is actually the first winter my tree hasnt died back - and im glad because I have put in a lot more effort this year. Being in a cold zone it takes a lot more ambition to keep a lemon tree happy and healthy - it would have to be something sentimental to you or it would get forgotten. Your trees new growth looks good. It will take some time, but more growth is on the way. Any older leaves that are left will probably get dropped at some point as the tree makes way for new growth to replace them. Citrus will drop their older leaves anyways to replace with new better working ones - I think any single leaf has about 1 year of working life. Do you have a temp/humidity meter? If not I would highly recommend purchasing one. For me its the easiest way to know for sure if those needs are being met. Its hard to tell how much a humidifier actually raises ambient humidity around your tree, but keep in mind that if you are getting 'shocks' in the house then it is way too dry for a lemon. Enjoyed your update and pics! Keep up with the tree daily and I hope my advice doesn't turn you into a crazy citrus lady! ;-)

I am horrible at pictures....but I am trying to improve because I am trying to keep a record (after 20 plus years I decide NOW is the time to record what I do in the yard...) So far today, thanks to the forum I resolved my issue of "shade" and I identified one of my hostas... It is Halcyon.

sitting here with tears rolling down my cheeks, i feel so awful for you and your family but grateful i (we here at kt) got a chance to be a part of nathans life. i cant imagine the pain you are going through, but we are here if you need us. many hugs to you and yours. also beautiful poem alisande, have never read anything like it.