The stench of death

What is a person supposed to do when their "cooking" soil goes anaerobic? Add new aerobic microbes? turn the soil every day until the stench subsides? Throw it away and start over?

keep mixing it up. the aerobic bacteria will take over! I just had this problem.

Keep mixing add a fan to blow air on it. Dont keep it in a sealed container.

yes, too deep of a container (like a trash can) will make the lower half of your mix get sour if you don't mix it up. you want to split it up into smaller bins and let it dry and turn it at least once a week. then when its dry you can add a compost tea to fire up the aerobic populations

Great advice from my perspective - I would listen to those above.
G/L and welcome to RIU.
GWN

I was hoping that aerating it would eventually kill off the anaerobic brats...but dang, I don't know if I can stand the smell of it when I'm turning it. Probably doesn't help the fact that this mix is a little on the fishy side (fish meal, fish bone meal and lobster compost).

Thanks for all the great advise!!

Biggobelly said:

I was hoping that aerating it would eventually kill off the anaerobic brats...but dang, I don't know if I can stand the smell of it when I'm turning it. Probably doesn't help the fact that this mix is a little on the fishy side (fish meal, fish bone meal and lobster compost).

Thanks for all the great advise!!

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all I can say is wear gloves when you turn it or your hands will reek like stench for two days no matter how much you wash them.

IMHO don't water the media & turn it over a couple 3 ish times a day with a fan on 24-7.
That should get the Aerobics to take control.

And yet again, more awesome advise! Thanks very much, folks!

Biggobelly said:

And yet again, more awesome advise! Thanks very much, folks!

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empty it all out into a kiddie pool or a tarp, just emptying it will do the turning, and then the added surface area will air it off
keep in mind a LOT of your nitrogen is gonna be lost
may want to add alfalfa meal to the end product once it smells of soil again

ShLUbY said:

all I can say is wear gloves when you turn it or your hands will reek like stench for two days no matter how much you wash them.

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and DON'T walk through it with your boots on...
did a compost mix using crab and shrimp meals in the rain once...


regretted it for the next month or so

Does anaerobic bacteria consume a lot of nitrogen?

DynamiteBob said:

Does anaerobic bacteria consume a lot of nitrogen?

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short answer would be yes, without enough oxygen the nitrogen converts to ammonia, and then it simply evaporates

Yeah. I planned on adding a bit more N after I get it back aerobic again.

ShLUbY said:

yes, too deep of a container (like a trash can) will make the lower half of your mix get sour if you don't mix it up. you want to split it up into smaller bins and let it dry and turn it at least once a week. then when its dry you can add a compost tea to fire up the aerobic populations

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I used to use a plastic 35 gallon drum. I mounted three 2x4's long ways from top to bottom with nails drove in far enough to hold. Like fingers.

I would load my soil and amendments and every few days I would roll it around the drive way for about ten minutes.

This is not in a deep container like a trash can. It is in a large tote.

well still that amount of soil can get compacted and lock out oxygen to the lower portions of the bin. alway good to mix it around several times if its in any kind of plastic container during the activation period.

next time consider some large fabric containers and you'll be less likely to have that happen again.

That's a good idea, ShLUbY. I'll have to give that a shot next batch.

What I've found to work well, is to simply put the mix (fresh or reamended), into the containers you're going to be using and just let it cook in there. Usually, it's 10-15 5gal buckets with drainage holes and saves a LOT of effort trying to keep that much aerated.

I only like to do shovel work once.

Wet

Floor space is a commodity for me. Besides my 6x10 flower room, I have a 4x4 tent for veg and a work bench for my seedlings and clones. They start in Solo cups, then transplanted to 1 or 2 gallon pots, then to 3 gallon then to 5 or 7 gallon pots for flower. I'd like to start and finish in a room, but changing out bulbs is a two person job for me and I am an army of one. Makin' due with what I can...adapt things to fit my circumstances.