Do not trust †he moisture meter. Use your trust fingers instead. Dig down a couple of inches into the soil. If it feels dry, water. If it feels moist. Do not water.

I don't know if the soil is fast draining or not. I water until water comes out of the bottom into the plate, but it was very dry, so it took a lot of water. But there is only one hole at the bottom of the pot. I'm afraid the hole isn't large enough. The pot didn't have any holes at first, but my garden guy pointed that out to me (I didn't realize that when I bought it), so he drilled one in. I also had to put a metal grid over the top of the pot, because when I brought it in for the winter, my cat thought it seemed like a good place to dig. I guess I can lift it to check the soil though. Hopefully, the cat didn't pee in it.

I don't think you will gain anything by pulling the plant out to check the soil. Just use your finger. What material is the pot? With only one hole and not knowing the soil, you will want to be careful.

There are several causes for leaf drop. Do I recall correctly that you had a bug problem a while back?

Yes, I had a bug problem before. I think that's ok now. The pot is plastic. I wasn't thinking of pulling the plant out to check the soil. I was referring to lifting the grid off the top of the pot to check the soil.

Ok, great.

Hopefully you can use a finger to check soil moisture.

I had a plant in a plastic pot then decided it didn't have enough holes. I was able to drill a few more near the bottom, didn't even pull the plant out to do it.

I've thought about drilling a few more holes in the bottom of the pot. Maybe I'll try after I've moved the tree outside again.