Be sure not to over water it, that can be worst then not enough water in my opinion, they just need to be moist for a young plant and you have plenty of mulch to keep the moisture in the soil unless it's really hot there . If you have really good draining soil you might be alright watering often if it's really hot and sunny, but you would need at least 5" per hour from your perc test. It's probably going though root shock which is common. I've seen where people paint the trunk white if it's going to be exposed to a lot of direct sun light, I see a lot of exposed trunk at the base. I also read not to add fertilizer when planting a young tree it might burn the roots, instead add it 3 months after planting?

I just got a similar size Mexicola 2 weeks ago but since I'm just going into winter in zone 8b Florida I'm keeping it inside my home till March when I will plant it. Here's a pic of mine, its leaves are somewhat droopy also, I water mine about every 3 days but the water runs wright thought the pot.

Thanks I guess I just need to be patient. I do have fast draining sandy soil but I noticed when I transplanted it the soil in the pot was really wet so I'll let it dry out for a bit and see what happens.

So the tree has been in the ground for 7 weeks now. It lost most of its inner leaves but kept the outer leaves. Seems to be healthy overall but still no sign of new growth. I also straightened out the trunk a bit which hopefully should give it better support when bigger.

So the tree has been growing nicely and putting out new leaves but almost all the new leaves have been showing some sort of issue. There's brown stretching through the veins and then causing holes. Seems to be a fungus? Any idea what this problem is and how to fix it? Thanks

Have you had any hail?

Nope. Seems to be more an internal issue rather than an external physical damage. The damage is growing through the veins, starting when the leaves are young.

So it's been almost a year and the tree is still alive but not really doing great. Almost all of the original leaves and even branches fell off but it put out three new lower branches which look really good. What worries me is the top is dying. I cut off the top that clearly died, you can still see a little of the dead wood under the slice. I'm worried that the dead wood will continue moving down the tree, but at the same time those lower branches are putting out nice new leaves. Do you think the lower branches will keep the tree going? Should I cut off anymore from the top? Thanks

So it's been almost a year and the tree is still alive but not really doing great. Almost all of the original leaves and even branches fell off but it put out three new lower branches which look really good. What worries me is the top is dying. I cut off the top that clearly died, you can still see a little of the dead wood under the slice. I'm worried that the dead wood will continue moving down the tree, but at the same time those lower branches are putting out nice new leaves. Do you think the lower branches will keep the tree going? Should I cut off anymore from the top? Thanks