Help! 30-year-old plant about to die ):

[youcanhelpmyplant]

Hello

I hope you are well

First things first: I'd really appreciate your help here, I don't have any clue what to do. And thanks for letting me post a question as a new member right away.

My mother raised an avocado more than 30 years ago, she gave it to me 2 years ago and it seemed to be very happy until recently. Now it looks as if it is about to die ):

three months ago:

now:

maybe good to know:

• Before it started to be worse, it was slightly tilted, so we took it out of the pot and inserted it back at an angle (so it was straight). This might be the point at which it went downhill, but not 100% sure.
• It did not want to take a lot of water recently. In the last month, we only gave it very(!) little water. The soil is still wet. There is no water at the bottom. (if there is too much water, it can flow out of the pot, into the next pot)
• I removed leaves that looked dead one month ago, and two months ago. Now I left them (as you can see in the pictures)
• We also did not give it any fertilizer
• It is quite cold and dry in our apartment at the moment, maybe 18°C (64°F).
  • but if I remember correctly, it started to get worse before it got cold (winter).

What would you do to save the avocado?

Things we considered (but as stated, we really have no clue):
-cut it drastically
-put it into new soil
-put some granular things at the bottom of the pot (so the roots do not touch the superfluous water)
-bigger pot
-all of the above

Again, thank you so much for your help in advance. It would mean a lot to us if you could help us. Also, I am happy to keep you posted about the progress.

I am also happy to provide you with further information.

Kindly,
Leo

 

[cpp gardener]

Very impressive to grow an Avocado indoors so long! After that much time the roots may be blocking the drain hole.
Give it a bigger pot with a cactus-type mix. Don't disturb the existing roots, just add fresh soil around and below the root-ball. When you water it in, really SOAK it. Remove any dead branches and leaves. Give it as much light as you possibly can. If you have to use grow-lights to get it through the winter go ahead. You can put gravel underneath the POT, but not in the pot to catch the extra water. Then go back to what you were doing before, it seems to have worked well.

 

[Oliver Buckle]

Very impressive to grow an Avocado indoors so long!

That was my first thought as well, so I looked up the life expectancy, it is in hundreds of years, you have a baby

Reading what cpp says I wonder how much you disturbed it when you straightened it up, but that is a pretty small looking pot. I should follow his advice, and disturb the roots as little as possible when doing it.

 

[youcanhelpmyplant]

Hi

Thank you so much for your answers

I removed the dead branches. Basically all of them were dead ):
It also got a new and bigger pot and new soil and fertilizer. When I put it in the new pot, I saw that many of the roots were also dead, they just fell off. They had cactus-style soil at the market, but it was waaay to expensive to fill the pot, so they recommended using normal soil and putting some granular things in there. The water does not run through easily, so this probably is suboptimal I guess..

more light at this point probably just does not matter anymore as there are no leaves on it anymore.

who knows, maybe it wants to grow some new leaves, but my hopes are slim ):

Again, Thank you very much

Best,
Leo

 

[Mike Allen]

Briefly. Removing a plant, especially one of such age and stature from it's pot. I would certainly check out the roots. Replacing compost with new would be next. Also of importance. Move it away from the radiator and if siting it in a corner, then periodic rotating will benefit it.