Aloe Thraskii crown ro

[MarkAck]

* I live in Los Angeles and we had a lot of rain during the Winter. My aloe tree that I believe is an aloe thraskii developed crown rot. New leaves start to emerge over the past 4 months but they ultimately died after the were likely killed by the moist brown collar in the center. I’ve tried to pick out this moist area but probably not as deeply as I should have as I’m hesitant and don’t know what I’m doing.

I’m not sure if this is a Sisyphean feat that is destined to fail or is the plant salvageable?
The existing leaves seem healthy. This weekend I dug it up to see if drying out the roots would help.
I’ve not used a fungicide to the central brown area.

Any assistance would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks.

[mcvansoest]

If new growth keeps failing you clearly do not have the rot under control as you yourself surmised. If by now that area of the plant has not yet dried out you need to be a little more rigorous in trying to remove the rotting area. It may require sacrificing the top layer of the remaining leaves, but if you do not address this soon, come cooler/wetter times of the year this will likely get worse and actually kill the plant.
If this were my plant I would dig a little deeper to get most of that rotting tissue out and then apply sulphur powder to make the area dry out and callous and then hopefully new leaves will survive and the plant will recover.
If you succeed in stopping the rot, you will have to protect the plant from overhead moisture for a while.

I am not sure I would have advised disturbing the roots on the plant, given that it was trying to push out new leaves suggests to me the roots were not the issue.

Those are my two cents. Good luck, I hope you manage to save the plant.

[MarkAck]

Thanks I appreciate your reply and you’re generously sharing your experience. I will try and carefully excavate the central moist area. I think I’ll use and exact knife and tweezers in an attempt to try not to damage the inner collar of healthy leaf but as you suggested it might be the cost of doing business.
I’ve never used sulfur powder. Do you have a brand to suggest and would that product offer suggestions on dosing, frequency and precautions like don’t apply if >85 degrees or give it more shade while it’s getting its sulfur highlights, etc?
Thanks again and happy Sunday.

[edds]

If you excavate the central area you are going to leave a depression or crater where water can collect. So it would be best under cover if you go down this root.

You also need to cut well back into healthy tissue in my experience to have any chance of stopping rot with any succulents so I'm not sure excavating will do the trick - you may need to cut the stem off lower down.

[MarkAck]

Thanks again for the advise with the crown rot of my aloe traskii
I excavated the center portion and covered it when it rained and now 7 months later it is making a nice comeback.

(sorry for the earlier posting with the image being sideways. It’s now corrected)