All containers have perched water of some height no matter the medium used. After watering tilting the container to drain out excess water works well to lower the table.

If you have it in the correct soil, it may not be that. Given the date, are you sure the leaves aren't just dropping due to it being late winter? Or is the usual lack of winter feeding finally falling a little short? Light, perhaps, a bit dim for the period (if outdoors, cloudy, indoors, not well enough lit)?

Just spit-balling as I don't know your tree conditions too well, but there are any number of reasons for a bit of leaf drop.

Out of curiosity do you have the pots in direct contact with the ground or are they elevated above it? Depending on where on the ground you have your pots, etc. your drainage holes could be getting blocked or you could be getting a higher pressure environment under the pot which is impeding drainage. If that's the case, simply elevating the pots can fix your issue. I've seen some pots outdoors have an issue with this while some don't.

Thank you for the comments all.
Silica: I'll probably just start giving them a good tilt after watering from now on.
Morpheuspa: there are several factors in play that could be affecting current YLD, one of which is winter fertilizing not supporting current explosion of buds. But, I've had this problem at other times/seasons, so I know overwatering is a risk I have, regardless of what is causing current issue.
Bonsai citrus: they are in direct contact with the ground and I've often wondered if that's an issue. Maybe I'll start propping them up and see if that changes anything.

10 years later........ back to a new start?

Bob, I hope not back to a new start! Trees are still very healthy and have loads of buds and/or new shoots. Just trying to make sure I have all of my controllable factors optimized, and nip YLD in the bud ;)

"or if I do have a PWT that I will just have to deal with."

As noted previously, a PWT is pretty much inevitable with any container soil media and the more finely textured and moisture retentive the media, the higher the PWT will be. Adding more drainage holes may help but not to any significant degree - a PWT is a soil media issue.

Elevating the container off the ground or wicking could help but you may be best served by using a deeper container where the roots do not penetrate down to PWT depth. Or tilting the container :-)

I am confused about the "10 years later" comment........the original post is only 10 hours old :-)

how big are these trees.. in rather small pots??? ... any chance at a pic or two??

whats your watering schedule ....

why not try tipping the pot BEFORE you water.. and not water if water drains out???

based on the forums you posted in ... these are houseplants??? .. in z9????

perhaps we are missing some facts in the whole scenario???? .. you have honed in on a couple variables ... but perhaps there are others????

ken

One comment: Travis you wrote......"current explosion of buds". If your statement is referring to your tree producing flower buds, then know that the highest time of leaf drop in citrus trees, is during floral bloom.

Appreciate the additional comments folks!
Gardengal: Thank you for the clarification on PWT, I think I probably overestimated how much 5-1-1 would reduce the PWT. In time I will get deeper pots, but for now I think I will just regularly rock the pot after watering. I think these pots are borderline too big for these trees right now, which is maybe why water is staying in them longer than I expect. The trees are only starting their second season with me, they are not big trees.
Ken: I probably shouldn't have tagged this in the houseplants forum because they are outdoors. I did so because I saw much of the 5-1-1 and PWT chatter seemed to happen in that forum, and I thought the concepts would apply whether indoor or outdoor. You are correct that there are many variables here and I'm less concerned about solving this particular instance of YLD because I think on the whole my trees are healthy. I was mostly wondering if my drainage hole situation could be causing a higher PWT or if I just need to adapt a little to the properties of my mix. Based on posts above, I am going with the latter.
Silica: Yes, both trees are covered in flower buds and/or new leaves. Only a few buds have opened so far. This is my first season of active flowering with both trees, so I'm not sure what to expect in terms of YLD related to flowering. It's not hard for me to imagine that reduced fertilizing over the winter left them under prepared for this new growth. We also got several days of rain (rare for Phoenix) that may have contributed to them getting a little water logged. I assumed 5-1-1 mix, they could take it. I also haven't added any vinegar to my hard water, so there could be pH issues as well. 😕

I found these black metal cooking trivets on clearance at Walmart. They’re round, like a spiral & have little button like 1/2” tall “feet” that I set my full sun plants’ containers, like cacti, on those trivets b/c only my front & side yard get full sun- that way pots aren’t sitting directly on the ground. My part shade/ shade plants go on our wood deck. I try to line the drain holes up to where there isnt a wood slat under it, that way the water just runs thru the pot & under the porch. I don’t use plant stands b/c they kept blowing over. these are all my houseplants that only come inside for winter.

I am so cheap that I use small rocks, four to six per pot, under each pot to hold them off the patio.

Hey, it works.

Travis, I see both the buds and leaves competing for nutrients.

By the way, it is not that easy finding the perfect soilless mix for our trees year round. If using the 5.1.1, you will find it does drain much more readily than most mixes but them one has to watch their watering in winter because any mix stays moist longer then and then in summer, where the same mix could dry out rather too rapidly depending where you live and what kind of light and temps the pots are exposed to.

Have a good day Travais

Always appreciate your comments Mike! I followed your recommendation to add some vinegar to the water. That, along with monitoring my watering more closely and giving these trees some time to adjust to the new season, will help I'm sure.

Fun fact: If you have hard water (I don't, but it works as a washer cleaner as well and works better and cheaper than commercial softeners) you can use vinegar in your washing machine as a fabric softener. I mix 2-4 oz in an old softener bottle, fill the rest with water, and use as if it were fabric softener.

For those with extremely hard water, you can safely go as high as 1/4 cup pure white (or cider, but white is much cheaper even if cider smells better) vinegar in your softener cup to soften laundry, and keep the washer clean and fresh smelling.

I have a water softener in the house, otherwise I would totally try that!