SOIL Earth dust- stink?

[HobbitGDF]

Hey so I'm using earth dust base, I let it cook for 3 weeks now. I also added perlite, fox farms happy frog soil, plus my spent mushroom substrate (mainly coir and vermiculite).
so after the 3 week cook of the soil, it smells.
like stinks like compost. Is that right or is it off?
Anyone help, I never used the base before. Only boost.
please help asap because I was gonna plant seeds tonight.
Thank you

[ChadWestport]

Not exactly sure what you are referring to, but bad smells can mean mixes have gone anaerobic, which isn't good for roots or for healthy / beneficial microbes. Is this a cannabis thing or a mushroom thing?

[HobbitGDF]

I looked up anaerobic. And that sounds like what I did. Made a tote with 16gal of soil, earth dust and all, but it was soaked in water. Lil to wet.
Can I fix?

[HobbitGDF]

For cannabis. Smells like compost. Poopy.
maybe I had it to wet during the cook. I am going to let it dry a little.
or is there another way to fix it,?

[ChadWestport]

Yes, it can be fixed. First you need to get some oxygen back into the soil, which as you mentioned can be done by letting it dry out. Once it has, you'll need to add back the beneficial microbial life to it, the good microbes (bacteria, fungi, nematodes, protozoa etc) like soil rich in oxygen. The bad ones like it anaerobic.

[HobbitGDF]

Yeah so I removed from the tub and put the soil in each individual 4gal fabric pot
so that should help. So I need re-amend the soil? It killed the good stuff?

So I can re add the earth dust base after it drys and smells better

Thanks

[ChadWestport]

The nutrients are likely there, just the microbes that got wiped out by the anaerobic conditions. If adding more in, be sure to have enough perlite in the mix so that this doesn't become really heavy and compact soil, especially after receiving a few months worth of watering.

[Cali]

Best way to add bennies is doing a compost extract. Look it up it’s easy. That will add life back into the soil. If you already have your amendments in the mix there is no need for more. Compost extract is the key. Look up Joshua Steensland on YouTube he just did that to his garden that had been dry for a year or more and his plants are doing great with no added anything just rehydrated the soil and did a compost extract.

[HobbitGDF]

So I know if it drys it can kill all the good stuff and bad stuff. I thought if I rehydrate the soil it brought it back to life? Is that true?
if that is , when I wet the soil again, wouldn't the baddies revive?
or they dead and dead for good?
Sorry for questions. Just trying to figure this stuff out.

[ChadWestport]

From what I understand is they will come back, but if you have a good air to water ration in the soil, it is no longer anaerobic and that takes away the ideal environment for the bad microbes to thrive.

[HobbitGDF]

Cool, they are already better. I emailed the green sunshine company and they said that it can smell when turning the soil during the cook. Plus with my over watering
so anyway, the 4 pots are already smelling like good soil. I'm not concerned about it at all anymore. To the extent that I planted my 8th grow. Auto gorilla glue x1, auto gorilla cookies x1, auto girl scout cookies x1, & strawberry pie auto. All fastbuds.
I'm stoked.

Plus I have a 2x2x4 on way. I have durban poison sprout (bag seed) photo.
not sprouted yet, also bag seeds- ak47, blueberry cheesecake, kush OG.
idk about them, kinda chasing pollen to make seeds with my autos. .
anyone been doing that?
Makes a fast version but photoperiod right? I guess it could also become auto?
Wanna figure it out ya know. Tknnks for helping man. Really .

[ChadWestport]

From James Loud, who is a well respected breeder, it takes 4 generations for a auto cross to become fully auto offspring. So, your first cross won't produce many true auto plants, but you'll have to hunt for them and continue the breeding. I do like playing with pollen, but my adventures have been using regular photoperiods.

[Cloud]

I use earth dust with every grow and I use new soil evertime and that's fox farm ocean forest. I start the seed in happy frog with no amendments. When time to transplant I mix up my amendments with ocean Forest and don't let it cook. Soil already has nutes in it so no need to cook imo. By time soil nutes gone amendments start kicking in.

[HobbitGDF]

Yeah ok. So I have FFOF soil, and your right. You dont need nutes for like 4-5 weeks. So the base does have time to start cooking during that month. Smart.
Do you use any other nutes or amendments?
Like molasses or anything?

I have a liquid organic nutrient starter kit from
'Meigs fertilizer' plus some powders from them.
So they have great stuff.
Also
Molasses & hydroguard

I only needed the meigs because I didn't use the earth dust base for the already growing plants. Only boost. So I've had issues. Manageable tho.

I'm using autos so I dont transplant.
I have started some photo bag seeds. Og kush, Durban poison (both are sprouted) , blueberry cheesecake and ak47 (them 2 havent popped)
My new run of autos ,- strawberry pie auto, gorilla cookies auto, gorilla glue auto x2 (1 was cracked), & girl scout cookies auto. They all got ED base so they should be ok.
Meigs has formula 1 & 2 dry amendments I might try soon.

[Cloud]

I only use earth dust base and boost a week before I flip to flower and again 4 weeks later. I'm a lazy grower and usually gives me 3-5 oz per plant and all I have to do is water. Oh and michoriza when I transplant. I've been wanting to start using molasses but haven't cause of the lazy thing lol. Also I'm doing my first run of autos in earth dust and looks good so far but they didn't get very big.

[MeEasy]

HobbitGDF I use earth dust to, the boost has molasses in it so there's no need to add it. They use the plant probiotics (link below) if you ever ever feel you have allowed your soil to dry to much you can just put 2-3 shakes on each plant and you're back in business with the same stuff you started with. You can always make tea out of the actual earth dust base during veg and boost during flower to add in a little shot of all the goodies. 1-2 tbs per gallon of water let soak for 24 hours and put it somewhere you'll trip on it every few hours so you can shake or stir it, unless you have a air stone to continuously mix it. Then water it into the girls it will add life and a quick shot of nutrients.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07NBHCQHV/?coliid=I2R46KXVJ4DZWL&colid=3EFOQGELIN2Q5&psc=1

[HobbitGDF]

Ok. No more extra molasses.
I did read that on the bag.
I've made them the tea once, I do have air stone and I use it anyway all the time even with the inline water filter.
Right now I have a small fruit/veggie/mushroom substrate compost pile going right now. But will the freezing cold outside stop the composting process?

When I did make the tea, with boost, I let it sit in bucket with airstone till next day. Well that stuff really fluffed up all foamy and shit. But worked great.

The soil quit stinking same day. It was just from being turned is what Dan or Matt said from GreenSunshineCompany.
no issues.