Kind soil mold????

Okay so I am a chic who will give something a try at least once. So I ordered some "Kind Soil" and upon opening it this a.m. I noticed this moldy smelling spider web looking s**t!! I typically make my own soil mix but out of pure laziness thought I would try something new. This can't be right, or can it???? My ladies won't see a drop of this soil until I get some answers. Anybody have experience with this soil brand other than people from the company who post here? Holla back! Maybe it's a fluke and I just got a bad batch???

thats a good thing, healthy soil.

I'm pretty sure that's supposed to be in there, fungi to break down organic matter and for root heath, but I could be wrong...

Thanks. So this is "beneficial bacteria"??? 'Cause I'm telling ya if I could upload the funky smell that's emanating from that bag ... It's like a food that smells so funky you really don't wanna put it in your mouth but when you do it's heavenly ya know??? I am hoping for a heavenly result if I decide to use this 'cause with my work schedule and 10 ladies growing I am trying to keep things a little bit simpler. Not too much simpler 'cause spending time loving on my garden is therapeutic but ... when I am not there I want them to be
loved well by their soil! Have you PERSONALLY tried this soil?

Chicsgro2 said:

Thanks. So this is "beneficial bacteria"??? 'Cause I'm telling ya if I could upload the funky smell that's emanating from that bag ... It's like a food that smells so funky you really don't wanna put it in your mouth but when you do it's heavenly ya know??? I am hoping for a heavenly result if I decide to use this 'cause with my work schedule and 10 ladies growing I am trying to keep things a little bit simpler. Not too much simpler 'cause spending time loving on my garden is therapeutic but ... when I am not there I want them to be
loved well by their soil! Have you PERSONALLY tried this soil?

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It's likely the soil has gone a little anaerobic in the bag, which is causing the smell, especially if it's pre-amended. my guess is if you turn it out into a tote, or bin, and mix it up to aerate, the bad smell will be gone in a day or so. If you turn it like this for a few days, you should be able to tell when it's good to use, it'll get that clean, healthy, earthy smell.

And the web you can see is fungus, it is a good thing, apart from attracting fungus gnat lol

DonBrennon said:

It's likely the soil has gone a little anaerobic in the bag, which is causing the smell, especially if it's pre-amended. my guess is if you turn it out into a tote, or bin, and mix it up to aerate, the bad smell will be gone in a day or so. If you turn it like this for a few days, you should be able to tell when it's good to use, it'll get that clean, healthy, earthy smell.

And the web you can see is fungus, it is a good thing, apart from attracting fungus gnat lol

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Thank you all for the great feedback. I thought about pouring the soil out and letting it "air out" so to speak, but just wanted to be sure this wasn't "BAD MOLD" first 'cause I am extremely particular about what I allow anywhere near my grow space. I even wear a particular pair of shoes when I am in there so that I don't bring any bulls**t from the outside in!! Obsessive? Maybe a bit I'll admit but I love my girls that much! LOL! I'm sure many of you feel the same.

Chicsgro2 said:

Thanks. So this is "beneficial bacteria"??? 'Cause I'm telling ya if I could upload the funky smell that's emanating from that bag ... It's like a food that smells so funky you really don't wanna put it in your mouth but when you do it's heavenly ya know??? I am hoping for a heavenly result if I decide to use this 'cause with my work schedule and 10 ladies growing I am trying to keep things a little bit simpler. Not too much simpler 'cause spending time loving on my garden is therapeutic but ... when I am not there I want them to be
loved well by their soil! Have you PERSONALLY tried this soil?

Click to expand...

You could always pasturize the soil to be safe

MjAeJdIiK said:

You could always pasturize the soil to be safe

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Excellent idea!!! See? THAT is why I love this place!! Likeminded people to share with will help me grow better medicine and avoid potentially harmful or unnecessary mistakes. I've never pasturized/baked my soils before so I totally forgot about reading that in the past! That would make me feel much better about using this new soil. Thanks MjAeJkliK!

Wow, this is 'organics'............pasteurize your soil????..............I'm currently mixing a topdress to apply in a week or two and I've just mixed a cup of flour and half a cup of brown sugar in, just to get exactly that type of fungal growth going. The bad smell you're getting will be from bad anaerobic bacteria, if you aerate the soil, you will destroy the environment they need to survive and good bacteria will re-colonize.

It's called living soil, what are you gonna do? kill everything, then shell out a load of $$$$'s to re-introduce good microbes?

DonBrennon said:

Wow, this is 'organics'............pasteurize your soil????..............I'm currently mixing a topdress to apply in a week or two and I've just mixed a cup of flour and half a cup of brown sugar in, just to get exactly that type of fungal growth going. The bad smell you're getting will be from bad anaerobic bacteria, if you aerate the soil, you will destroy the environment they need to survive and good bacteria will re-colonize.
And if you read my first comment you will see that I said I'm pretty sure that's supposed to be in there.....
It's called living soil, what are you gonna do? kill everything, then shell out a load of $$$$'s to re-introduce good microbes?

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Well... She's worried that maybe there is something bad in there. If she pasturizes correctly then she won't kill the good microbes, just the bad, right? I know nothing of that soil, so odk what's supposed to be going on with it. I do agree that the bad smell is from bacteria just like you said, and that it won't smell if its aired out, well, I'm not really disagreeing with you at all really... Except that a proper pasteurization won't kill beneficial microbs

Soils fine now grow some big buds!

MjAeJdIiK said:

You could always pasturize the soil to be safe

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Mushrooms and Organic living soil are completely different! I have had trouble with growing mushrooms since I started organic soil because the what is good for the soil is bad for mushrooms, Trichoderma ect... My soil smells like sour milk, and I was excited!

MjAeJdIiK said:

Well... She's worried that maybe there is something bad in there. If she pasturizes correctly then she won't kill the good microbes, just the bad, right? I know nothing of that soil, so odk what's supposed to be going on with it. I do agree that the bad smell is from bacteria just like you said, and that it won't smell if its aired out, well, I'm not really disagreeing with you at all really... Except that a proper pasteurization won't kill beneficial microbs

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A 'proper pasteurization' will kill your benefical microbes just as fast as the bad ones. Please stop spouting erronious information. Enough heat kills microbes, period. It makes no distinction.

Wet

Jesus ... You guys are a bunch of fucking douche bags! First off the op never said she had living soil , just cause its organic doesn't mean its living, correct? Second, if you see my first response I said that I was pretty sure its supposed to be in there but I wasn't positive. Again not once was mentioned that it was a living soil. So I said you COULD pasteurize it to be safe if she was that worried. And I guess its possible that everyone at the mushroom forum I'm a member of is wrong in telling me pasteurizing kills bad microbes and not the good ones, I have only ever trusted what they told me because they were excellent mushroom cultivators.. So my bad. But still you don't have to flame me assholes.

DonBrennon said:

It's likely the soil has gone a little anaerobic in the bag, which is causing the smell, especially if it's pre-amended. my guess is if you turn it out into a tote, or bin, and mix it up to aerate, the bad smell will be gone in a day or so. If you turn it like this for a few days, you should be able to tell when it's good to use, it'll get that clean, healthy, earthy smell.

And the web you can see is fungus, it is a good thing, apart from attracting fungus gnat lol

Click to expand...

Hey, seems op has their answer and this questions benefitz them as well. I made my own soil, and have it sitting in a thick storage tote in a bathroom. I saw fungus gnats in it after I watered it a little. I added alittle bit of Diameticous Earth ontop to help, whats your thoughts?

DonBrennon said:

Wow, this is 'organics'............pasteurize your soil????..............I'm currently mixing a topdress to apply in a week or two and I've just mixed a cup of flour and half a cup of brown sugar in, just to get exactly that type of fungal growth going. The bad smell you're getting will be from bad anaerobic bacteria, if you aerate the soil, you will destroy the environment they need to survive and good bacteria will re-colonize.

It's called living soil, what are you gonna do? kill everything, then shell out a load of $$$$'s to re-introduce good microbes?

Click to expand...

oh no, I don't want to kill everything. I sat still and did nothing with the soil today so I could research more about this. The soil IS fine to use as is, however it is my understanding that if I had chosen to pasturize at 140 degrees beneficial microbes would survive, and any fungi, diseases, insects (anything unwanted in the soil) would die. Keeping the bag open today reduced the strong odor significantly. I am putting one of my seedlings in the soil tomorrow with a seedling mix as a top layer. I will test how she does for a week before putting the other girls in. We are all here to learn, test, experiment so we can pass knowledge along. Let's not fight, let's respect one another 'cause no matter what info. we get here we should always research and test for ourselves. Much peace and grow love to all, and thanks for the feedback.

MjAeJdIiK said:

Jesus ... You guys are a bunch of fucking douche bags! First off the op never said she had living soil , just cause its organic doesn't mean its living, correct? Second, if you see my first response I said that I was pretty sure its supposed to be in there but I wasn't positive. Again not once was mentioned that it was a living soil. So I said you COULD pasteurize it to be safe if she was that worried. And I guess its possible that everyone at the mushroom forum I'm a member of is wrong in telling me pasteurizing kills bad microbes and not the good ones, I have only ever trusted what they told me because they were excellent mushroom cultivators.. So my bad. But still you don't have to flame me assholes.

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I agree ... no flaming needed. You were not incorrect in your suggestion. At the end of the day we all have to learn on our own. I believe in giving thumbs up to good suggestions that I have read about or heard of before, but I still research for myself to see how it works in my grow room. Let's all take a toke and chill, it's all peace up in here y'all.

Kind Sir said:

Hey, seems op has their answer and this questions benefitz them as well. I made my own soil, and have it sitting in a thick storage tote in a bathroom. I saw fungus gnats in it after I watered it a little. I added alittle bit of Diameticous Earth ontop to help, whats your thoughts?

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I have not used DE personally but read somewhere that when used in organic soil it must be FOOD GRADE.

Kind Sir said:

Hey, seems op has their answer and this questions benefitz them as well. I made my own soil, and have it sitting in a thick storage tote in a bathroom. I saw fungus gnats in it after I watered it a little. I added alittle bit of Diameticous Earth ontop to help, whats your thoughts?

Click to expand...

IME, DE is pretty ineffective against f gnat. The problem with DE is it loses effectiveness as soon as it gets damp. I'm currently battling an f gnat infestation, I've tried DE, mosquito bits, predatory mites, sticky traps and I'm waiting on some nematode to arrive through the post. I'm hoping these will finally nail em

Chicsgro2 said:

I agree ... no flaming needed. You were not incorrect in your suggestion. At the end of the day we all have to learn on our own. I believe in giving thumbs up to good suggestions that I have read about or heard of before, but I still research for myself to see how it works in my grow room. Let's all take a toke and chill, it's all peace up in here y'all.

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were you planning on layering the soil or mixing it in with a humus source?
More than likely the smell was from it being anaerobic, I've heard people say that before, about the "kindsoil", with smells of ammonia.

attempting to sterilize it would be pointless, in my opinion. There isn't going to be anything detrimental to the plant from an anaerobic mix, other than the fact that the soil is likely to be acidic, and the nutrients partially used up/wasted from the anaerobic activity.