Oops I did not see my original post on the same subject.

A large 5-gallon bucket with water like Mike said works best for me. Let it sit in there for a while, and then slowly swirl it around until soil falls away. You want to keep as many of the fragile roots as possible.

The first (top) date on your yellow tag is the graft date, or planting date (could be either); the second date (T-date) is the date it was consigned to the retailer. If your tree is grafted, the new growth still looks like Meyer; if it is a rooted cutting, of course it is Meyer. BTW, I am attached to all of my 30,000 Meyers, as well as all my garden plants and trees; when one dies (and they DO die sometimes), it is like losing a family member. Must be something in my blood, or at least in my education.

Sorry to hear that Denise :( How large is your tree and what size pot has it been in for these last 2 years? It doesn't sound like your tree is declining but I can understand wanting to throw it out too. When I saw new root tips poking out of my tree during last fall's inadequate repot, I had watered it in a unique way to try to push root growth. The watering method I came up with is an option you can try if you want. Back then, I had read Tapla's thread about water perching, how tall the perched level is, and how it's bad for container growing. I had seen my tree's rootball break in a storm and I wanted the roots to regrow further down into the pot because the tree kept wanting to flop over. It would take a long time for the container to start drying out too with the deep soak/dry method. So I watered with a wicking method as if it was a training program to try to encourage the roots to push its limit. I set my tree on top of milk crate and put a bottle of water directly underneath the tree and crate. Then I put one end of a shoelace into the bottom hole of the tree pot and fed the shoelace through one of the crate holes into the bottle of water. The tree sat on top of the crate for the rest of summer and fall with the bottle of water underneath. The perched water starts where ever the bottled water level is and extend upwards. I added just enough water so the perched level ended right on the very bottom tip of the broken rootball. The roots initially get their drink but as the water in the bottle decreased, the perched water level would drop down too. So my theory was that the perched water would be a dangling carrot and always be barely out of range from the roots. Growing a centimeter or two every so often shouldn't be too demanding for the tree. It wicked that way for a few months into fall then got repot and that's where I saw small new root tips pointing out of the broken rootball. Then indoors for winter it was watered normally from above once every 1-2 weeks with a long neglectful drought period sometime in mid-winter lol. I've had my tree since last August until now, not long at all. So this watering method may or may not work for you but it definitely made it easier to keep it hydrated during the extremely hot weather.