I'm not an expert. Having said that, 2 things come to mind. Placement of the pots, as far as direct sun on the pots, as soil temperature might be having an effect. Take the temp using a digital thermometer, like the kind you use for cooking. The other is moisture which you talked about...Where I live (Fresno) I have been experimenting with container gardening and hydroponics for several years. Too much sun in a rewood container and the plants might as well be set on fire because they dry out so fast and get so hot. I got this idea from earthboxes and hydroponics so it is not original - I buy plastic drip pans, the kind you set under pots, cut a hole in them and a sliver from the hole to the edge . I set the drip pans over the container the plant is in (the plant grows through the hole; the slit allows you to remove the pan without disturbing the plant). I buy extra large pans and they provide shade to the pot, like an umbrella. They also seem to reduce the watering. I generally don't use redwood containers in full sun because the heat of the sun causes the container to suck all the moisture out of the soil; I'm doing more hydroponic oriented stuff using soil ( I know using soil with hydroponics violates the definition of hydroponics; what is the correct term?)and plastic is better for this use. I learned to always line redwood with something. After a few years of using redwood containers I began fitting them with cheap plastic pots. That helped to reduce watering. It also helped the redwood last an incredibly long time. I have geraniums on my full sun patio, planted in plastic containers inside redwood window boxes. They are watered twice a day by timed drip irrigation. The setup is 14 years old now, the geraniums are beautiful, the boxes are in good shape and I couldn't be happier with how they look. Hope this helps - Hal

Thanks for the reply. I was careful when I planted the tree to fill the hole with water before setting the tree as per the instructions. When I "drilled down" with the hose there was two spots that seemed "hollow" once I got through the surface. I moved the hose with the water running down in there to get the soil to move around. The weird thing is that when I tamped down the soil to make sure it was packed well with no air pockets, the water seemed to pool at the surface. After a few minutes it would no longer pool when I stepped on it. Is it possible that there is something constricting water drainage a foot or two below the surface? If so, what might it be? I will sit tight for a couple weeks and may check for air pockets again and see what happens. Thanks again for your help. Tammy

Hello Josh, I live in western Oregon and re-potted in early June because thats when I finally got all the parts of the mix. I did some miner root prune but not much. I soaked the mix for 24 hours prior to re-potting. I did the re-pot in the shade and sprayed the roots with water. I put the tree in shade for two weeks and only fertilized very weekly the first week. I watered the tree every other day to keep moist and soaked for an hour at the weak fertilizing. After the second week I placed the tree into the sun and fertilized with FP at full strength. At that time I also mixed in some oscomote plus with calcium. I also placed a wick at the bottom of the terracotta pot. Everything looked good until a week ago when the leaves started to droop then fall off. It has been windy here but I staked the tree so the roots would be stable. At the same time I re-potted a 7 month old key lime I grew from seed and it is doing fine. It went into the exact same mix and was treated in the exact same way, infact I pruned it more heavy removing much of the tap root. Like I said I read everything here that I could and I believe I did everything right.

I grow 6 satsuma so I think you made a great choice. I find they are very tough and forgiving. Three years ago I put my first plants into the MG product and I had some problems. Looking back with a few years behind me, the problem was me learning to properly water citrus. The MG soil compacted and retained too much water in the base of the pots and caused root rot. You may be a better at watering and this may not be a n issue with you. After I killed my clemntine, I pulled the satsuma from the MG potting mix and put into a 511. The satsuma was in the MG mix for about two weeks. You are in a similar climate to us and should have a lot of warm days left with evenings in the 40. Based on my experience with satsuma and where you are located, I would replant the satsuma in the 511 and it should be fine. I would not worry about the fruit. A lot of satsuma are fully ripe when the they are just turning from green. I have been eating some from my tress at about that same color and they are ripe.