My girls are about 4 feet out of 5 gallon buckets and the top halves are very healthy and flourishing! But the bottom halves are all dead, Is it a case of root rot? and will a transplant to the ground help?
Most likely root bound a plant that size is pushing it in a five gallon, I got plants slightly taller than that in twenty and twenty fives that is what a four to five foot plant should be in if not bigger if you can.