I tipped my plant out of its pot because it was wilting even though the soil was wet, and the roots are brown, mushy and smell awful. Some of them just fell apart in my hand. Is it worth trying to save, or should I bin it?

Brown mushy roots that smell bad are rot, and it spreads while it sits in wet mix. Cut back to firm pale tissue and repot fast. Here is the full rescue.

How do I save a plant with root rot?

Worth trying, and the hard part is already done: you got it out of the pot and looked. Brown, mushy, foul-smelling roots are rot, and rot keeps spreading while it sits in wet mix, so the useful thing now is speed.

What has happened

Waterlogged mix starves roots of oxygen. They die, opportunistic organisms move into the dead tissue, and the damage climbs from there. The cruel part is that a plant with rotting roots wilts exactly like a thirsty one, so the instinct is to water more, which finishes it off. Any firm, pale, springy root you can find is living tissue, and that is what you are rescuing.

How to fix it

Cut away every dead root. Rinse the root ball clean under the tap, then trim back to firm pale tissue with clean scissors. Be ruthless. Mush left behind simply restarts the problem.
Repot into fresh, fast-draining mix. Never reuse the old soil. Pick a pot only just big enough for the roots that survived, with real drainage holes, because a large pot holds water the reduced root system cannot use.
Rebuild the soil life. Fresh mix is biologically empty. Microbes at the feeding-chart rate helps re-establish the root partners that healthy soil depends on.

What to expect

Trim some top growth to match the roots you removed, keep it out of direct sun, and water sparingly. Expect no new growth for several weeks. That is normal, not failure.

Start here: why is my plant dying? — the four checks and the five things that kill nearly every houseplant.

Answers are written by AI and safety-checked by code before they post — no feeding doses, no medical advice, anything toxic to cats or dogs flagged. No human reads a question or an answer before it goes up, so treat this as good, careful guidance rather than professional or veterinary advice. If the plant is precious, or you suspect a spreading pest or disease, get human eyes on it too.