Ammonia smelling soil... ??

Was having PH problems with a plant... I corrected the problem and once the plant started to recover i repotted it...

Here is the weird part...

The soil that broke free from what was left of the root mass smelled bad as expected but when i really put my nose to it i smelled the distinct smell of ammonia...

WTH caused that... ??

I think that your plant was causing it. Or maybe it was the nutes.. Did you put any nutes in it.

The ammonia smell is from the roots being unhappy. Ive had it happen to my plants when they werent getting enough oxygen or the PH was off. What stage is your plant at? If its still vegging i would recommend you cut half the root ball off to stimulate root growth, give them ph balanced water and vitamins for about a week before going back to regular feeding. If you notice your older leaves turning yellow this is because your roots are unable to take up nutes. DONT feed them more nutes....the roots are rotting at this point and the plant is using its stored energy to make more roots. Whatever you do don't let the plant get waterlogged.

So the rotting roots caused the ammonia smell... ??

There was almost no root ball remaining when i repotted... You could see the roots at the bottom of the pot were skinny and brown and detached from the plant... Not sure if the completely detached themselves or just broke of when i pulled the plant out of the old pot...

At any rate its doing fine now... I was just wondering what caused the ammonia smell... I just found it strange... =]

Thanks...