That is black rot. If you want to fight it with copper you will need to spray quite a few times, and most importantly early in the season. Do a copper spray when the vines are dormant, and at 1" shoots, 6", and 12" plus a few more sprays after that. There are other things that are more effective than copper, I think Immunox is one of them. Scott

Thanks for the respones. Janet I'll make post as i procede and let ya'll know how it goes with old Jack. I did check more closely yesterday evening and I'll take pictures this evening and post the pictures tomorrow of what the stem system looks like now. I pulled the weeds from around the base and there is two woody stems that are alive and one thats dead. The dead one is about 2 inches long and really appears there's no life in it what so ever. The two live stems are very woody and are long and both have blooms on them now. No mulch and the ground is very hard. I drilled a couple of small hole's in a 5 gal bucket and left it to drip at the base of the plant. The woody stem is about the size of my pointer finger. Hemnancy and buyorsell yes if it was my Clematis I would cut it all the way back and hope for the best, while pampering it along. I know mom is a bit semimetal when it comes to her plants because someone gave her this plant. But she didn't know about the different types of Clematis and how to care for them. I think she just thought put it in the ground and it would grow. I think i'll also plant her another Jack on the other end of the small fence she has her jack on now since I have an extra Jack i'm growning out in a 2 gal pot that i potted up last summer. I had bought a jackmanii from Lowes 2 years ago that i planted in a large pot, I really don't think its a jackmanii tho. I think it was miss labled and it has already outgrown its pot and its trellis. I have another jackmanii I planted out by a trellis at my house and its only about a foot tall right now. I also have a Romona still in a pot that going on two years that really needs a home. In the pot it has close to 8 blooms on it right now. I just really wanted to try and make her old jackmanii better for her. I'll post pictures tomorrow (Thursday). Sandy

I have only had a few avocado, and all were in the ground, so my experience may not be relevant to such an old tree in a pot. All my avocado responded to severe pruning by coming back even stronger, taller and more lush. My current one was ~30' tall and it broke under the weight of fruit, so I cut it back to a 8' stump and today less than 2 years later I have to keep removing fruit to keep it from breaking again as it's nearly 30' tall again! This fall I plan on whacking it yet another time. On the down side I lose a year of fruit by doing this.

I'd be interest to know what is considered a "good avocado soil" :-) IME with containerized trees - and I've grown a lot of all types - it matters very little what kind of specific soil it is as long as it is free draining and with enough texture (ie, bark fines) to avoid compaction or collapse. I would caution against adding sand to container potting soil. Unless a very coarse builders' sand - similar to cherrystone granite grit - the texture is too fine and slows good drainage rather than improves it. I would also suggest that the tree is showing cold damage and perhaps some dryness as well. They will not be as cold tolerant in a container as they would in the ground and could easily suffer some damage at 36F. And I always recommend watering enough at any given time so the water runs freely from the drain holes. You want the potting media fully saturated then allowed to dry moderately before watering again. No schedule!! Just as needed, determined by testing.