The first two pictures is both plants in March 2019. The last few photos is this month.

It’s on an 2 gallon per hr drip emitter. It’s hooked up on to a drip irrigation system. The system is off because we have been getting rain lately. I live in a hot and humid climate, so I run my system every other day in the summer or once a day if it’s really hot. But like I stated, the system is off. We have been getting rain lately and that’s been keeping my plants happy. Our temp is 60s day/ 40s at night.

Inspect the original potting soil ball to see if it is moist all the way through. Or too wet.

It is saturated all the way through. although we did get rain early this morning.

I wouldn't expect rain to do that unless it was an absolute deluge.

we have been getting rain almost every week here. But the yellowing and drooping of the leaves started before that. During that time they were on drip. The roots are not overly saturated. Perhaps I should had clarified that. The other magnolia is doing fine. They both get the same amount of light and water. I really think it was the staking that damaged some of the roots. That’s when it started showing some stress. I’m trying to figure it what to do to help it along and bounce back.

Update on the magnolia. It is still on a decline, although it’s still pushing out new growth. I hope that it will rebound next spring, if not I’m going to have to replace it.

The other one is still thriving and doing pretty great.

I’m going to hit it will a last dose of Wildroot Organic Mycorrhizal fungi, kelp, humic acid and molasses at the roots to help it along.

The minor amount of root damage that might be caused by the insertion of such a skinny stake is not going to cause the entire top of the staked plant to go progressively downhill over a period of time afterward.

One thing I can see in your pictures is that the affected plant is planted too deeply. Just maybe that has something to do with it.

Fertilizing sick plants doesn't do anything unless they are suffering from a lack of a substance that happens to be in the particular product used. And that substance is present in the product in an adequate amount to do the job.

The soil in this location is pretty bad. It’s hard clay. I’ve been amending it over time with a diy soil conditioner that I got from one of the lawn forums. That solution contains different percentage of humic acid, kelp, molasses, yucca extract and sodium laureth sulfate solution. I did amended this garden bed soil with some organic compost that I got from a local nursery last year (Mixed 50% native and 50% compost). Also, you can’t see it, but the magnolias And hollies are on a slope. The plant is not planted at soil level but a little above. Since the soil in this location is bad I need to mound all my plants to get good drainage here. I did however put pine bark mulch over the plant, just to cover the exposed roots.

You think I should still dig it up and check to see if its sitting in watering? Maybe the roots hit clay and can’t grow deeper? ugh, I don’t know. I planted these as a 1 gal container. Maybe I didn’t amend enough of the soils around It?

Ugh, you’re right Embothrium. I went back and looked at pictures and videos to look at the placement of the nursery tag, and it appears that I have overtime buried the tree in mulch. I have mulch this area twice with fresh mulch and some how over mulched this tree. The other magolia seems to be a little over mulch as well. Tomorrow if it’s not raining, I will remove the mulch from the base and level the area out.

Update:

well, the tree was indeed a little over mulched. I also had to bring it up a little so that it was at level with the other plants in that bed. As I was taking the shrub out to be replanted, the soil underneath was super hard clay! It couldn’t root out past the hard clay and the soil around it was holding too much water. Anyways, as I was amending the soil in that spot, and digging a new hole, 3/4 of the roots snapped off. So, the tree is a goner!

On the bright side, it wasn’t a total waste. I took some cuttings (a lot!).

I guess I know what plant I’ll be planting next fall. I also will be amending that are area overtime between now and next fall.

Thanks for for the help.