Sounds like it might be a control problem. Have you read all your manuals? Have you contacted Tekmar tech support? SR

what tom said in toto ... as to water ... take a hand trowel .. and dig a 6 inch hole ... 4 of them ... norths south.. etc... 2 in the foot b all planted ... 2 on the edge ... AND FIND OUT HOW WATER MOVES THRU YOUR SOIL ... both the root ball and soil should be moist... but not sodden ... sodden is worse than dry ... whether 20 gals is a magic number.. no one but you can figure it out.. in your soil.. whatever it is ... in my glacial sand... if i deep watered at planting... and mulched like that ... i would NOT be surprised.. if i did not have to water again all fall ... because after years of diggin holes.. i simply know that it is not drying down below the surface .. do keep checking...as i dont believe you told us where you are.. nor your soil type ... to sum up parts of what tom said... it was a huge transplant.. in leaf ... and dude.. its FALL... leaves shut down and fall off ... and in this circs.. fall color show is not expected ... i am simply never concerned with leaf anomalies this time of year ... especially with the transplant ... actually surprised they havent already fallen off .... due to the insult to the root mass ... water is important.. but a root mass can be twice as big as the tree above.. consider what was cut off ... and the tree needs to re-establish such ... and it will take 3 or 4 years .... and you are responsible for proper watering thru that period ... but that doesnt mean drowning it ... have you looked into one of those gator bags ... i wonder how you measure your 20 gals..... and also understand.. a tree... should NEAR dry in between deep watering ... it forces the roots to extend and look for more ... we dont want to keep the planting hole.. so sodden.. it doesnt start stretching out to find more... what is that pipe that comes out in the first pic??? do pull the mulch and soil back.. and find the root flare ... see link .. take pix to show us ken https://www.google.com/search?q=root+flare&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0CAcQ_AUoAWoVChMI8fbTmoOayAIVEhGSCh2w4wzi&biw=868&bih=745&dpr=0.9

I paid to have an independent, certified flooring inspector come in to evaluate my floors. His final report noted that the pinholes were caused by an improper finish. The flooring contractor applied 2 coats of polyurethane on the same day and did not allow sufficient time for the first coat to fully dry before they applied the second coat. The inspector noted a hazed appearance in numerous areas that were indicative of the previous coat not being fully dry before the second coat was applied. The wood was not a number 2 grade selection and the inspector contacted a technical adviser from the National Wood Flooring Associate and he said that there was nothing inherent to the red oak that would have caused the extensive pinholing in the finish that was observed and that this was due to either incompatible finish products being used or improper application procedures. I had a second company come in and redo the entire refinish - sanding down to bare wood and reapplying stain and 3 coats of poly and there are no pinhole visible on any floors in the house. The fact that the issue could be corrected by completing redoing the work lends credence to the original job having been poorly done. The original company tried applying a 4th coat of polyurethane but this did nothing to fix the pinholes. If you look at page 59 of this PDF, pinholes can appear in the finish of a floor if the previous coat was not fully dry (http://www.crescenthardwood.com/nwfa/ProblemsCauses.pdf). The bottom line was that I was out a lot of money from the first contractor, which was a large reputable company in my area, because they refused to fix the issue or even test to see if their finish job was the issue and had to go through the aggravation of having the entire job redone. The second company came out and sanded the floor of a closet and reapplied stain and 3 coats of poly to ensure that it was the previous finish and not inherent to the wood. The test area showed that when done correctly no pinholes in the finish formed.

The leaves are coming back thanks to you, straw! I put down some langbeinite a week or so ago because the new growth was so light colored. All the old burnt leaves fell off and the light colored leaves in the new growth are starting to green up again. There’s only one new cane coming up from the graft and it’s a cross cane but I’ll take it. This is despite a very slow start (more like no start) after I planted in spring, me withholding fertilizer the last month and a half due to the chilli thrips breakout in my yard, and the weekly sprays with spinosad and neem/soap. It wants to grow. Hoping next year is better and it gets a strong start a lot earlier in the year, but for the time being I’m just grateful I got this bloom!