it's been raining a lot for last month or so it seems. my older leaves are turning yellow and falling off. they are in 10 gal tub and was repotted to this last june. i'm sure the root is bound. what can i do short of root prune? last year when i repotted them in june, they took a month to bounce back. i don't want to do that again.

i just fertilize and gave lime yesterday.

It been my experience when bottom leaves turn yellow first its sign of too much water.

When top leaves turn yellow its sign of not enough .

When it rains a lot if tree is rootbound rain will not help alleviate problem cause it will run down the sides and out the drain holes.

Try lifting pot and get feel for its weight and then fill 3g bucket of water and water that pot then feel it weight if its not real heavy its indication that the water is not getting into the heart of the rootball and running around it to least resistance.

A tree rootfeeder with its aluminum rod pushed into heart of rootball and turned on will help if down all around in many spots.

Either way tree will not die if you water it a lot until proper rootpruning when dormant.

Pretty typical, not a big problem. Just the tree adjusting to current conditions. As long as the terminal bud is good and/or there is new growth forming, not too worry too much.

The simplist way to get your soil evenly wet, is to water it well with a mixture of Liquid dish detergent/soap (any kind will work,) and water.

Mix it at a rate of 1 teaspoon of soap per gallon of water.  Mix, and pour.
(To avoid foaming, add the soap to the water, not the water to the soap!)

Since dish soap is a surfactant, so it makes water 100x more absorbable into the soil.
I've used this mixture for over 20 years, and it's never harmed any plant I've used it on. So it's completely safe on plants
It will almost instantly cause dried peatmoss to absorb water and at a greater compacity !  So less water will be needed in the future.

If it's rootbound you could always just put it in a larger pot for the rest of this year then root prune when dormant.