Odor coming from soil of my ferns

Discussion in 'Indoor and Greenhouse Plants' started by Goma, Aug 7, 2018.

  1. Goma

    Goma New Member

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    Hi everyone!

    I have three ferns for about 2 months now and I dun goofed majorly already and want to fix it.

    I've had a fern before and it died due to not enough water. So this time I tried putting them on water-filled dishes with pebbles, misting and watering them often. I'm pretty sure I've over-done it, as they have started to get brown/black leaves and an the soil/roots started to emit an odor. The soil they were in was too packed, the hole in the bottom sometimes blocked by water, and the layer of gravel on the bottom of the pot too small. The odor comes directly from the center of the plant at the soil level. Its not VERY unpleasant, but something is wrong.

    What I've done over the past couple of days, which has not fixed the issue:
    -put them outside in plastic containers instead of the glazed clay ones they were in before to let them air out without any watering (for about 2 days) - during this period like 20% of their leaves turned dark or dried out, I cut these off today
    -repotted them today in plastic containers with more holes at the bottom and with more gravel on the bottom layer - this you can see on the picture

    UpKL9Ft.jpg

    what can I do? they still have the smell. air out again until the smell disappears? treatment with fungicide?

    I've read around a bit, and if I can get the smell to disappear I want to repot in 1/3 soil, 1/3 humus, 1/3 sharp sand + some charcoal which apparently absorbs smells + some lime which apparently makes the soil alkaline - is this a good plan?

    Thanks.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Aug 21, 2018
  2. wcutler

    wcutler Paragon of Plants Forums Moderator VCBF Cherry Scout 10 Years

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    When you repotted them, did you already use new soil?
    I see that some ferns prefer more acidic soil, so I'm not sure about the lime. These ferns are not all that fussy, though I know that's not your experience yet, but they really don't look too bad. If you haven't changed the soil, you may as well go ahead with your plan, removing what you can of the old soil. I've read some things lately saying that the gravel at the bottom is not recommended. If you have drainage holes at the bottom, and you don't leave the pot sitting in water, there is no reason to fill the bottom with gravel. When you have repotted the plants, feel how heavy they are before you water them, water them with warm (or not very cold) water, make sure you pour out any water in the trays, and feel how heavy they are when they have all the water they can take. You probably don't want them to get lighter than they were before you watered them, but you don't want to water them again when they still feel as heavy as they are after you water them. If you miss watering them and they get too dry, you will need to soak them for a bit, as any water you add will run right through.

    These are kind of messy plants - they will always lose old leaves (all plants do that) and leaflets will keep dropping off. Those things are not signs that anything is wrong. As long as you are getting new leaves, they should be ok.
     
  3. Goma

    Goma New Member

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    Thank you for the reply!

    I used new soil when I repotted them, and tried to get rid of as much of the old soil as possible (but since they have these small capillary-like roots I didn't succeed very much), but there still is an odor coming from the center. So I treat this as a temporary measure until I can find a way to make the soil smelling like roses again.

    Thanks for the watering tips, I'll try more holes and no gravel :)
     

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