Wife said my homemade soils smells like dirty diapers.

I made some soil about 2 weeks ago and then put it in a trash can to cook. I have turned it twice already. It has a bad smell but I was thinking it was the neem, fishbone and fish meal. I took it out of the trash can and put it on a trap, thinking it might be too wet. When I grab a hand full squeeze it and it sticks together. When I break it back up with my hand it falls apart nicely. Any idea what the smell is. Could it be anaerobic .

Sounds ok. Just let it keep cooking

Are there drainage holes in the trash can bottom? If no, I'd say there's a good chance it's anaerobic.

My wife banned all fish stuff from inside years ago, so IDK. But even using neem and alfalfa the cooking mix has an Oh-Dear, but doesn't stink. Strong, but not nasty.

Get some air to it and that nasty smell should decrease.

Usually stinky = anaerobic, but a little time and air will get rid of the smell. It was probably too damp at some point. I'm glad I don't grow in my house because I use a lot of fish stuff and numerous manures...lol

cindysid said:

Usually stinky = anaerobic, but a little time and air will get rid of the smell. It was probably too damp at some point. I'm glad I don't grow in my house because I use a lot of fish stuff and numerous manures...lol

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Yeah it likely went anaerobic from what it sounds like. Guanos, bone/blood meals, and fish meal will make things stink, but nothing like a dirty diaper/sewage, usually that's your soil turning anaerobic from a lack of oxygen and/or too much moisture.

Your soil isn't dead though, just gonna set you back a few days/week or so but you'll be fine. Just empty the trash cans onto a tarp or something to work with, then turn your soil with a rake or shovel for a good couple of minutes until things are evened out. Keep turning it until some of the moisture goes away, making sure it all gets an even amount of air. Eventually you can moisten things up again once the smell goes away and you can just put them back in the trash cans and proceed as normal. You'll just need to repeat this process until your soil is fully cooked or else you risk having this happen again.

Let me recommend a product called "Grower's Recharge" to help you out. It contains a bunch of beneficial fungi/bacteria and you mix around a tsp or so into a gallon of water to reinoculate pretty much anything. I always use the stuff to inoculate new soil, reinoculate old soil, and even as just a routine maintenance for my no-till pots. It's great stuff and it will last you quite a while and it is a lot easier than making compost teas.

I am always amazed at how bad Neem Meal smells...nothing to do with your problem..just an observation.

kratos015 said:

Yeah it likely went anaerobic from what it sounds like. Guanos, bone/blood meals, and fish meal will make things stink, but nothing like a dirty diaper/sewage, usually that's your soil turning anaerobic from a lack of oxygen and/or too much moisture.

Your soil isn't dead though, just gonna set you back a few days/week or so but you'll be fine. Just empty the trash cans onto a tarp or something to work with, then turn your soil with a rake or shovel for a good couple of minutes until things are evened out. Keep turning it until some of the moisture goes away, making sure it all gets an even amount of air. Eventually you can moisten things up again once the smell goes away and you can just put them back in the trash cans and proceed as normal. You'll just need to repeat this process until your soil is fully cooked or else you risk having this happen again.

Let me recommend a product called "Grower's Recharge" to help you out. It contains a bunch of beneficial fungi/bacteria and you mix around a tsp or so into a gallon of water to reinoculate pretty much anything. I always use the stuff to inoculate new soil, reinoculate old soil, and even as just a routine maintenance for my no-till pots. It's great stuff and it will last you quite a while and it is a lot easier than making compost teas.

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Aw I was totally with you until you recommended the Recharge --- does it? I mean really contain beneficial bacteria and fungi?!

calliandra said:

Aw I was totally with you until you recommended the Recharge --- does it? I mean really contain beneficial bacteria and fungi?!

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It does from what I can tell, and on Amazon the product has near unanimous 5 star reviews over 120 reviews. Do you have any particular experience or studies that show Recharge is a crap product? Not trying to be a smartass, just curious. The stuff has worked wonders so far for inoculating my soil, with this stuff I haven't made a tea in years. Has a bunch of different kinds of fungi and bacteria in it, as well as some kelp, molasses, humic and fulvic acids and amino acids. Really great stuff from what I can tell, comes from some company in CO.

Again, not trying to be an ass when I ask if you have experience using the stuff or not, just curious is all. Or perhaps you think I'm a shill for them? Because I can assure you I'm not

kratos015 said:

It does from what I can tell, and on Amazon the product has near unanimous 5 star reviews over 120 reviews. Do you have any particular experience or studies that show Recharge is a crap product? Not trying to be a smartass, just curious. The stuff has worked wonders so far for inoculating my soil, with this stuff I haven't made a tea in years. Has a bunch of different kinds of fungi and bacteria in it, as well as some kelp, molasses, humic and fulvic acids and amino acids. Really great stuff from what I can tell, comes from some company in CO.

Again, not trying to be an ass when I ask if you have experience using the stuff or not, just curious is all. Or perhaps you think I'm a shill for them? Because I can assure you I'm not

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Oh nooo, I'm not going any of the directions you suggested!
And I've never been anywhere near Recharge itself either, it's not sold where I live.

I'm just very skeptical when it comes to packaged products saying they contain beneficials, because I am currently gaining some knowledge in soil microbiology, and have been looking at bagged composts and VC, a VERY sad sight, often containing lots of anaerobes instead of the aerobic food web we thought we were buying. So reviews and what people say don't really count much, but whether they're there when you look at that Recharge under the microscope.
So I thought I'd ask, you never know, right?

From your description I would guess that what's doing the heavy lifting is more likely to be the humics, fulvics, and kelp, but otoh if it's a dry product, the microbes could also be surviving in dormant stages...
So I'm just curious too

calliandra said:

Oh nooo, I'm not going any of the directions you suggested!
And I've never been anywhere near Recharge itself either, it's not sold where I live.

I'm just very skeptical when it comes to packaged products saying they contain beneficials, because I am currently gaining some knowledge in soil microbiology, and have been looking at bagged composts and VC, a VERY sad sight, often containing lots of anaerobes instead of the aerobic food web we thought we were buying. So reviews and what people say don't really count much, but whether they're there when you look at that Recharge under the microscope.
So I thought I'd ask, you never know, right?

From your description I would guess that what's doing the heavy lifting is more likely to be the humics, fulvics, and kelp, but otoh if it's a dry product, the microbes could also be surviving in dormant stages...
So I'm just curious too

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My bad, I hope I didn't make it seem like that!

I haven't looked at the product under a microscope and with you having pointed that out it does actually have me curious now too! Although I remember seeing a thread on here about someone that was actually cultivating beneficials and even storing them somewhat long term. So I had just always figured that the microbes were in fact dormant with the water, organic matter, and acids being what activate them again? I just know that it's done great things for me and seems to be working as advertised if nothing else. My wife has veggies growing outdoors in some pretty crappy soil she got second hand, but with the recharge and some of my spare amendments they're doing pretty well now.

I'm always leery of posting about products for fear of coming off as a shill, but I also know that I tend to look up certain products to see what results others are getting with them on the various grow forums. I'm no growing master and doubt I ever will be, but so long as I keep an open mind I will never stop learning

jbooley said:

I made some soil about 2 weeks ago and then put it in a trash can to cook. I have turned it twice already. It has a bad smell but I was thinking it was the neem, fishbone and fish meal. I took it out of the trash can and put it on a trap, thinking it might be too wet. When I grab a hand full squeeze it and it sticks together. When I break it back up with my hand it falls apart nicely. Any idea what the smell is. Could it be anaerobic .

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if it smells like dirty dipers/manure then you are definitely anaerobic. I had a friend mix in a trash can and it did the exact same thing. let it dry out, remoisten it, and then keep it in a more shallow tote, or get some fabric containers

Earthworm castings or tea to recharge bacteria, and myco fungi inoculations. It will rock! But yeah,dry it out until the ammonia smell goes away.

I let it dry out for a couple of days and then put it into a can that I drilled holes in. The smell is gone now.

JB

I eat a lot of greens and rip nasty shit farts that horrify a multitude of my wife's senses. Her inflamed and damaged nostril hairs are unable to smell any of the fish bone meal, manures, or neem cake in my soil. I suggest you follow a similar formula. Stir fry broccoli really does the trick. Use lots of sesame oil.

It smells like earth now. I just dumped it out on a tarp again tonight just to give it a good turning.

poop smell is ok, likely just N breaking down, esp if you turned it about 1x a week....as you have seen. People who say all bad smells are anaerobic are not correct.

jbooley said:

It smells like earth now. I just dumped it out on a tarp again tonight just to give it a good turning.

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Good to hear. Carry on.