Once this happened- after I mixed my media which is 40%clay and 60% sand and potted my waterlily. After a week the pot started to give out a very strong sulphur like odor. When I dug it up the clay was black and smelled horrible. It happened to another gardener also in my neighborhood. I don’t think it was organic matter because I mixed the clay with water and drain the top water many times before making the media. There is only one thing so far that actually survives in that soil Typha angustifolia
LokiLB
It went anoxic. You need to add something to help get more oxygen into the soil. Maybe go heavier on the sand or get larger grained sand.
Zelderons_Armor
And if you find correcting the soil drainage does not help, mix some limestone sand or gravel in to help neutralize the PH back to a more reasonable baseline.
EarthExtreme6324
Add vermiculite, perlite, or even sand/pepples to aerate more and improve drainage.
mistermaster415
Sorry to hear that it killed your plans, what did you have planned?
5 Comments
Once this happened- after I mixed my media which is 40%clay and 60% sand and potted my waterlily. After a week the pot started to give out a very strong sulphur like odor. When I dug it up the clay was black and smelled horrible. It happened to another gardener also in my neighborhood. I don’t think it was organic matter because I mixed the clay with water and drain the top water many times before making the media. There is only one thing so far that actually survives in that soil Typha angustifolia
It went anoxic. You need to add something to help get more oxygen into the soil. Maybe go heavier on the sand or get larger grained sand.
And if you find correcting the soil drainage does not help, mix some limestone sand or gravel in to help neutralize the PH back to a more reasonable baseline.
Add vermiculite, perlite, or even sand/pepples to aerate more and improve drainage.
Sorry to hear that it killed your plans, what did you have planned?