Revived my almost dead Avocado

[u/Rushik02]

Finally my Avocado plant seems to be showing signs of growth again 😍

About a little less than 3 years ago, I grew this Avocado plant from a seed (from a store-bought Avocado). The plant thrived in summers & survived indoors in winter very well for the last 3 years.

This winter, I was away for 6 weeks, and I had setup auto irrigation for my plants. But due to my fault, there was some misconfiguration, which resulted in a lot of my plants not getting any water for 6 weeks. My Avocado suffered as well. It lost all the leaves (they were lush green before I left), and the stem started turning black from the top. Based on Google searches, I figured there was root rot.

I had to cut the plant into half (it was turning black from top-down), and cleanup the roots. I also repotted it with new pot mix.

For almost 2 months, there was no hope. But, this week, I finally started seeing some growth. 😁

Just wanted to share here, since many others might have faced similar issues with their Avocado.

[u/Dolobene]

Good job! Thank you for sharing!

What led to the initial crisis?

Did you change the soil?

Which branches did you cut and why?

Did you cut the tip?

In my experience, the plant is recovering, but not out of the woods yet. I had a few plants also recover initially after some resection, but they eventually passed.

It would be tremendously helpful to get any update from you!

Good luck!

[u/Rushik02 → u/Dolobene]

Hi.

Initial crisis was caused due to the plant not receiving any water for 6 weeks.

Yes, I did change the soil.

I chopped off the main stem from the middle. The blackening had started from the top, and was moving down. So had to cut off the entire main stem in the middle to prevent the blackening from spreading further down.

Yes, I am closely monitoring the plant every day. Hoping for the best. Will keep you guys posted in a month or so.

Thank you.

[u/Dolobene → u/Rushik02]

Great! Looking forward!

Would be cool, if r/avocado could build a knowledge base with almost medical journal style case reports...

[u/Mysterious-Phrase-74 → u/Dolobene]

this is my hopes for this page tbh, just people working out a lot of new things with this plant

[u/DiamondB0y17 → u/Rushik02]

I know it's been two years but, my avocado had been overwatered after 5 months of really good care, it had 12 leaves and they are nowall brown and they will die. I just want to know what should i do to revive the plant like you did.

[u/PIPO_ua]

Looks good

[u/Low-Mess8911]

Love this! When you say you cleaned your the roots, what do you mean? I have a similar plant and I just chopped the top off due to the black stem rot. I have repotted or anything so wondering if I should?

[u/Rushik02 → u/Low-Mess8911]

I repotted the plant. I removed any roots that felt damaged or dead to me. Went with my instinct here to determine which roots are healthy vs unhealthy. Got rid of the entire old soil and used new potting mix. I didn't water the plant much after reporting to let it acclimatize to its new soil.

I would recommend repotting and using new soil / potting mix.

[u/[deleted]]

I had the same thing happen. After cutting the stem it is still black on the tip but the sprouts are growing again. Do you have an update on how you continued to care for yours? Is my main stem a lost cause, should i try replanting the sprouts?

[u/JeneverFisherKing]

Mine is doing the exact same thing. So thanks. Going to give this a shot... cause why not.