Lynn, As I understand it you have two main questions. What should you do now with the transplanted citrus to improve their chances of survival and how/when should you transplant the remaining citrus to improve their chances of survival? I would check the small branches on the repotted citrus for life by cutting off a few tips. If the centers still show green your tree has a good chance of survival. If the centers are not green, continue to trim until you see green. If you see no green, the trees are dead. If your trees are alive, do not over water. The roots have probably been damaged to some extent as others have said. Spray the tops with water frequently, but only the tops, or tent them in vented plastic to increase humidity, again as someone else has said. If they are still alive they will probably resprout. As to the second question: others have well addressed soil composition. Another issue is roots drying out. Oklahoma can be very dry and you took about 20 minutes to repot. I think that this is likely to have caused the problem. Repotting in Spring would probably have the advantage of more humid conditions, personally that would not deter me from Fall planting, but I would take extra care, either using water to get soil out of the roots (as described above), or spritzing with a water bottle frequently and covering exposed sections of root that you are not actively working on with plastic. I hope your plants "bounce back". Cath

Transplant shock and the temperatures will do that. I do not plant or transplant anything here while the temps are in the 100s because all plants will get very stressed under those conditions. Transplanting in the winter, while the plant is dormant, is less stressful. As long as the leaves recover at night, the plants may do fine. Keep them well mulched and keep the soil evenly moist, not wet (i.e., do not overwater). Do not fertilize either.

Hi Ken, I'm in northern MO. The trees came from Home Depot in ball and burlap. I cut the wire frame out and stripped the burlap off the top half of the ball. I then cut four strips in the remaining burlap down as far as I could reach to the bottom of the ball to let the roots grow out. The remaining burlap still held the ball in shape but the slits exposed the roots. I did not amend the soil but simply dug holes about 8'' past the edge of the root ball and back filled with the existing soil. The timeline as I recall was the first two weeks I did not cover the base of the trees and hand watered them every day. After two weeks I sprinkled some Shake N Feed over the soil and then mulched them. It then rained quite a bit and the tree changed color. I then took the mulch off and scrapped away the Shake N Feed. By then the color had faded to what it is now and has stayed that way ever since. The tags did not indicate the exact variety, and simply stated 'Colorado Spruce', but based on the expected height and width ~( 6-10'w x 30'h) I would assume they are some kind of hoopsi. I've stuck my finger in the ground several times. Right now its wet and muddy, but this will be the first dry spell we've had in about a month. I'll get a closer picture and post it.

Hmm I mean transplant shock can differ as far as how long it lasts etc. I'd keep it well watered..maybe add the root hormone to the water. I wouldn't fertilize just yet? If it needs to make roots, idk if that would be too much for it or if you do fertilize use something that has a really low number for the first number maybe? You could prune them some, nothing too severe but maybe a few canes to force it to want to 'grow' perhaps. Whatever you do I'd keep it well watered for a while, adding in the root hormone to help it along. And leave it alone, allow it time to recover esp where it wasn't really taken care of when it was yanked out and afterwards. Let it stay for this season and see what happens next spring.