Hi everyone this is my first post here but I recently purchased a azelea from a local on facebook market place. I am worried about the tree after researching and i will post pictures below. Here are my concerns:
1.soil - this looks like regular pot soil and i feel like it should be in the soil i saw in the azelea videos. However it is mid fall ? and it seems like it is to late to repot .
2. The leaves are not fully green and i am not sure what phase the tree is in, if i can prune some of the branchs and set the structure.
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The leaves are a result of lace bug damage. If they’re active in your area, spraying at the right time of year can prevent that. Check with your local Ag extension. Nothing you can do about it this year. Thankfully next year’s growth will be fine.
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thank you so much, i did more reading and i thought it was chlorosis, i tested the soil and it was not acid enough.
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I too would be interested to hear when a report would be best and what to pot in. Assuming that distressed foliage would be helped by fresh soil, but would it be best to treat first and then repot the following year?
You can repot in the spring but you will need to restrict the flowering. The advantage of this is you will get a full years vegetative growth. If you want the full amount of flowers then repotting is best done when the majority of flowers are spent (normally June). Satsuki have another huge period of growth after flowering and the watering will need to follow suit. During the fall (or Autumn as we call it in the UK 
) the older, summer leaves change colour and drop off. If, where you live you experience warm days and cool nights the old leaves will all change colour at the same time giving the tree a nice two tone colour. Otherwise they do it in dribs and drabs and the tree looks untidy.
The repotting medium is Kanuma which is ericaceous. Depending upon your local weather you can add a bit of pumice to retain more water. Hope this helps
At this point I am more concerned about restoring the tree to full health than i am about flowering or developing it as bonsai .
If you are concerned with the flowers taking too much energy and slowing down the recovery then I wouuld dis-bud it now and simply monitor your watering through the winter, repot in spring to allow it a full years growth.
Please do not remove the buds. As far as I know, the buds are very important to grow in the spring after the winter dormancy . If you want to give the leaf mass more strength, remove the flowers immediately after opening in summer.
And the best time to repot is early spring. I have been repotting at this time for years and have no problem with growth and flowering.
I agree wit satsuki. Repot in kanuma this spring if it is strong enough but don’t bare root it. If you still think it’s week remove the flowers as they open and just let it grow next season and style it the next year. Pruning a weak tree or even repotting is usually a bad move.