Well, on gross appearances it kinda does look like what I think of as a "circulation" problem--the leaves don't look like they are getting the water that they need to maintain turgor. Frequently that is an uptake problem at the root level and something that a lot of misting isn't going to fix. Two things stand out to me: the fact that you have had trouble getting water to penetrate the soil and then the finding the bottom drenched. It isn't clear tho if you have been maybe allowing the container to sit in a dish of water? And I am not sure what you mean by "aerate"--is that like poking holes into the soil?

In general, a lot of the problems that container growers face originate from growing in a poor media--usually something that doesn't allow enough air to the roots, contributing to root rot. The other issue with small-particulate and especially peat-based soils is that when they do finally dry out (and often very irregularly) they get a little hydrophobic and then it becomes difficult to saturate the rootball fully again--you're dumping in all this water, but its not going to all the fine roots that need it for uptake. Essentially, lousy or broken-down soils lead to either too much water retention or to difficulty delivering water again once it is needed again. And, in a good growing medium, you dont need to actively "aerate" (if I am interpreting that right)--the soil will have enough air in it already. You may wish to read the link below on that.

A few other questions--the plant is only 2 months old to you--but have you recently repotted it? The soil looks a little chunky from that pic but if it isnt wetting well then it prolly has a large peat component or at least has lots of too-small particles. There are some roots sticking out of the soil--does the plant seem like it is too rootbound? (That would make it hard to get enough water and also hints at that possibility the soil is broken down with time.) Also, when was the fertilizer applied?--do you think you applied too much and "oversalted" the plant? Since you mention holes, you may wish to check for insects, though I doubt that is the issue--from the holes I see I would suspect the plant's own thorns poking those in a breeze--my Lisbons are full of those :)

A simple thing to do is to carefully slide the plant out of its container and examine the condiition of the soil and any roots you can see. If the soil is really saturated in the bottom parts of the container you may wish to insert a wick and be judicious in watering until you are ready to do the ultimate treatment--change the media to something better. If the plant is bone-dry the way I'd handle that is to soak the whole thing--container and all--in a bucket of water for a few hours.

A note of caution--it's easy to assume the problem is compacted/poor soils and too much water retention, but underwatering is an issue as well. I had a beautiful Jaffa orange in soil that wasn't great but not terrible either, and I was waiting for a better time of year to repot it. It started to look acutely bad in hot weather and I watered the heck out of it, thinking that if if didn't perk up I had bad root rot. Well, with no response, I took it out expecting nasty roots and instead the rootball was very dry--compacted soil didnt allow enough water *in*. Surprise surprise.

I cannot say enough good things about both the link I have provided below as well as the author--it is, in my humble opinion, the best summary of that type of information I have ever seen, and Al is an extremely cool dude.

HTH.

Here is a link that might be useful: Follow me to some great info--ain't no bug-eatin' here :)