Ask-a-Dave's-Gardener: Encore Azaleas, 1 by Lsch7

Lsch7 wrote:
I planted 10 Encore Azaleas a month or so ago. They are not doing well. One morning, I watered them, then, that night, it rained. The next day, one of the plants had a big brown, dry-looking patch. I cut that part out. The next day, more of it had turned brown. I assume it was overwatered. I used a moisture meter which showed it was wet, so I haven\'t been watering. Since then, more of the plants have been getting the same problem. Again, I have not been watering because the moisture meter shows dry the first couple of inches and wet further down. It\'s been a couple of weeks since I\'ve watered and we\'ve had very little rain, yet my moisture meter says it\'s wet. Could it be giving me a false reading?(it broke today, so I\'m back to using my finger to test) It makes no sense that the soil could still be wet. This is Florida and the soil is sandy. And, they\'re in full sun. I know the soil is alkaline, so I\'ve added soil acidifier, which isn\'t likely to help if I\'m not able to water it in. When I planted them, I filled in around the plants with a mix of top soil, Black Kow and sandy soil from the hole. I have some left over Miracle Gro potting soil and am thinking about replacing the soil around one of the plants with that. I don\'t know if it will help or not. Any suggestions would be appreciated.