Possible soil contamination

The only time I've had questionable FFOF it was from a smaller garden center and stored outside. It was soaking wet, moldy and full of fungal gnats. I returned it, got my money back and advised them to cover / store inside.

BNW

 

Yes 100 percent bad soil. Take it back to the store . They will exchange it for you .

 

Bad media definitely. Its totally a thing.
Bought 3 things from a hydro shop that, it turns out stores media outside.
The case of 144 6" Grodan cubes had rice root aphids, and destroyed many of our mothers. Fortunately we got clean cuts from each, so the genetics weren't lost. There was also some kind of weird horned bug we never identified.
The 1.5" propagation cubes had massive fungus gnat eggs that became larvae quickly. With the naked eye, you could see them crawling out of the rockwool. These cubes also developed white mold and algae within 2 days of getting wet. The $350 seedpack of #1 Stunna and the $300 seedpack of Rainbow Belts 3.0 that went in to those cubes did horribly. Within 2 days of transplanting they started to look severely screwed up. Its been 5 weeks and have as much plant mass as they should have had weeks ago.
The unwrapped propagation cubes came with seemingly all of the above.

So yeah, bad media.

 

my opinion is those plants look just fine, are you keeping them warm? if you think they are slowing down , might be the weather, but they look just fine, the bag of soil looks like mycelium growing on it, nothing wrong with that, if the bag smells of like rotten it could be anerobic, but i doubt , those bags have air holes, even if it was on the bottom of the pallet it would have only to many nutrients from the rain running down and gravity taking it all to bottom bag , do a slurry test on it if you think it is bad , but i doubt and ive used a many of those bags , many many and never had a bad bag , some claim they had knats , but what would you expect from a bag of soil left outside , if it was stored outside and the bag had knats, just tells me the soil is viable and it is needing dried out a bit , so treat it 2 times to kill any larvae and let it dry and then take inside your house or what not.
another thing and im sure you know that with the ocean forest , dont feed them plants for a bit, in the cups nothing but ph water at 250 ppm, when you up pot into the same soil that will also need nothing but water for at the least a couple weeks

 

I would take the other side of this debate and say soil doesn't have a shelf life per say.....but proper storage will reduce the risk of X problems.... IE - water logged soil with infested fungus gnat larve

But if I properly dry out the soil and stop the breeding cycle of the gnats larve, the soil will be OK.

 

If you suspect root aphids you can mix in some neem meal. Neem meal contains azadirachtin. It slows or stops the aphid’s molting process which in turn acts as a insect growth regulator. Healthy soil microbiology will also keep root aphids in check. I believe @old shol4evr is correct. It looks like fungal hyphae, Probably caused by the soil becoming too wet from improper storage. If the soil smells like septic. Let it dry out and it will become aerobic once again.

 

Some education about rice root aphids for anyone interested.
https://webdoc.agsci.colostate.edu/hempinsects/PDFs/Rice Root Aphid extra info.pdf

 

that why i like to mix my own soil recipe by hand and get down on my hands and knees and get dirty i inspect every clump and mix in my own perlite and dry nutrients your plants do look fine Malik i hope you get something going soon with your string of bad luck i wouldnt chance that nasty bag get rid of it maybe try making a soil and letting it cook for a good 45 days for your next grow after this

 

That's some crappy luck.