Pakistan Gardening Forum

few days back i remove the soil from few of my pots and i noticed that the soil beneath the pots is Black in Color and smelling like i opened a sewer.. literally the smell is unbearable.. i suppose its due to lack of drainage but the thing i wana ask is that is that soil is unusable now.. or i can use it again after letting it dry in the sun ?
what is the main reason behind that ?
What should i do in future to avoid this issue ?
i can show pics if required?

Better not to use it.

new gardener wrote:few days back i remove the soil from few of my pots and i noticed that the soil beneath the pots is Black in Color and smelling like i opened a sewer.. literally the smell is unbearable.. i suppose its due to lack of drainage but the thing i wana ask is that is that soil is unusable now.. or i can use it again after letting it dry in the sun ?
what is the main reason behind that ?
What should i do in future to avoid this issue ?
:idea: i can show pics if required?

You are right...it is due to poor drainage (and a lack of oxygen that causes such odours). Do you place broken clay-pot pieces inside to cover the bottom pot holes? I am surprised that your plants didn't die if the soil was so badly water-logged. I would have rather air-dried those pots for few days before refilling them with fresh earth.

The soil can be spread elsewhere in open air for 1-2 weeks in full sunlight and the foul odour will go away. May not be a good idea to reuse it for pots, but spread it here and there if you have a lawn.

I personally not recommend the pot dranage hole to be covered by any thing. I donot also cover it and in fews days after filling the pot with soil there will be excessive water drainage and there will not be any fuss around because of soil. And please always do goddai.

thanks all for helpful advises.. i should probably let it dry for weeks..
personally i do the same as Mstansir do normally but only few pots got this problem . may b due to the blockage of drainage hole..