I did something stupid- soil question

General Fruit Growing
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In a rush today trying to do too much, I grabbed a bag of compost that had been sitting wet for an unknown amount of time this summer. I smelled it, and it smelled fine, so I used it to mix soil for starfruit, passionfruit and a bunch of citrus seedlings and rooted cuttings. About halfway through the up pottings, I noticed an incredibly faint poop smell when I grabbed a bit of the wet compost. I discarded that handful and grabbed another of the wet stuff and it smelled fine. Then, towards the end of up potting seedlings, I noticed again and did a more thorough investigation of the wet, bagged compost and the wettest part had the faintest smell of anaerobes. I didn’t use it for the last few pots. Then, my brain turned on, and I became rather worried about everything that I potted with it. I didn’t use much in any mix, the poor starfruit got the most since I entirely replaced it’s soil and everything else was an up pot. The other components of the soil mix are pine nugget, coir, perlite and sand, so not any good microbes to counterbalance whatever anaerobes I threw in there. My only experience with root rot is from a native plum this spring that must have come with it because it rotted and died shortly after receiving it, and 2 natives I purchased a few years ago and saw and smelled the rot when I when to plant them. Those 3 plants were trashed.

Would you…

A: leave it all alone and hope for the best

B: un pot, trash all the newly mixed soil and redo?

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I would leave it alone, as long as you got good drainage.

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I do not think it is that much of a deal. Decomposition is natural. It is the wetness that could be an issue.

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By wetness you mean if the potted plants remain wet? I watered everyrhing in and unfortunately, it’s raining now and maybe for the next 2 days.

@smilemore yes, the mix is predominately nugget, so water ran through well when I watered them in.

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I wouldn’t worry about it. I think the aerobic bacteria and fungi will balance things out in a short time. Not sure how pathogenic the anaerobes are anyway - I think it’s more the conditions that can be an issue

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with soil like that i put sticks at the bottom of the pot and only water lightly for a few months, not drenching the pot. mix some sand in with it sometimes. its rainy season now so id try to keep out of down pourings until winter. and if you really want to help supress smell, make your own lactic acid bacteria serum (super easy… rice wash water, milk and time) and put 1 ounce per gallon for watering.

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Interesting wash idea! I’ll have to look into that just as a general trick up the sleeve. I put a layer of nugget at the bottom of every pot, not sure how relevant that is when the mix is always redoninarelt nugget. The smell was incredibly mild and not noticeable in any of the mixes I made. I have a very sensitive sense of smell…it just seemed stupid when I paused to finally think to use bagged, drenched compost that had been tucked away.

Go figure we have barely had rain all year and now there’s hours of downpour and it might not let up for 2 days!

Thanks for the thoughts people. So I’m leaning towards do nothing but I might just change out the Buddhas hand cuttings and Carolina lime soil since that’s not that much and I’m highly invested in those.