Hello all! I made an account here because I'm at my wit's end with my poor fiddle.

The Repotting

I repotted four days ago on Thursday because it was still in the nursery soil, which held far too much water. Unfortutely while doing so I had to run to get more supplies after already loosening the roots, which meant they were exposed to air for about an hour and a half. I sprayed them and left a humidifier underneath before leaving and they seemed moist when I got back.

I tried to be gentle but did majorly disrupt them due to having to untangle them to get out all the old soil; however I did not wash them, just manually removed the soil.

I repotted in a container only slightly larger (2 inches in height and 1/2 inch wider) with what would probably be a 3-2-1 mix of fir bark, potting soil, and perlite respectively and gave it a good water. I did not sift any of these before mixing.

The Symptoms

I had to leave for a couple of days, and when I came back yesterday it was majorly drooping, with a lot of browning with the watercolor look characteristic of overwatering. There is some yellowing of the browned leaves as well.

When I woke up today some of the bottom leaves were curling. The top 1-2 leaves on each branch seem fine, but I worry because though drooping is supposedly common post-repot, I'm not sure this level of browning is.

I pulled off some of the lower leaves that are browning. They did not come off easily (needed a harsh pull), but there was very little sap and many of them had browning in the cross-section of the stem where they had been pulled.

The Conditions

The plant is in front of a west-facing window and gets a fair amount of sunlight filtered through leaves. I also have a grow bulb in my overhead light, which is on for some of the day.

My moisture meter yesterday said that on a scale of 1-10 the soil was about a 7, on the line between moist and wet. Definitely better than the previous soil, but probably not ideal. I wonder if it still is moist because of the loss of root hairs to absorb water? But it may be otherwise due to the overwatering symptoms.

It seemed pretty healthy before repotting other than a little edge browning due to the soil being too wet or too dry at times.

The white powder is from a previous diatomaceous earth treatment.

The Dilemma

I am considering repotting in Al's Tapla 5-1-1 mix. My current dilemma is whether another repot would be worth the stress put on the plant given its condition in order to give it better soil, or whether that would probably be fatal and I should just wait it out.

Indeed, is there hope at all for this tree? Or are the symptoms too severe and it is too late?

Any advice would be incredibly appreciated.

Before pulling off lower leaves

After pulling off lower leaves

Top leaves seem fine

Bottom leaves have overwatering symptoms

Further browning

Further browning

Browning and curling

Cross-section browning

Cross-section Browning