I would like to share a weird experience I had mixing up some citrus potting mix last night for my new Smith Red Valencia. I pre-wetted the mix in a big bucket while I shook and combed the Four Winds wood shavings off the root ball and when I went to pot up the tree I found that the soil mix was acting like a gel! It simply would not drain at all; I let it sit for thirty minutes and water was dripping out extremely slowly - like a leaky faucet. If I pushed on the top of the soil it would release water and if I let it sit the water absorbed back into the mix. I ended up having to throw out a few gallons of soil and starting over - the moral of the story being soak your mix in a pot with drainage holes and not a bucket. I spoke with my spouse who is an engineer and apparently soaking an absorbent material with no drainage can sometimes make that material behave like a water holding gel.

Note: this is probably only relevant for those of us amending high quality potting soil, I don't think this could ever happen with reptibark 5-1-1.