The composting process will make all things new again, so put it right in.

Curious why it's smelling bad though. Possible the container mix is too fine grained and doesn't drain, so it's getting anaerobic?

How are the tomatoes?

tomatoes are good!

If you know about earth boxes there is no drainage the water just wicks up into the roots and dirt.

Sour - I would check for too much water. Tip the earthbox toward the side with the drain. Does brown water immediately pour out?

This can happen if you use the boxes without the covers. You don't want rain water in the box. The whole process is based on the water moving UP through wicking, not DOWN through gravity. Water is put in through the tube into the three gallon well. If it is getting rain water as well, that that water can get held in the soil (there is no where for it to drain if the well is already full) and kill the roots and get you in to a smelly situation with rotting compost and roots at the bottom.

If you don't have covers (they are cheap to replace via Amazon) then after every rain tip the earthboxes to get rid of about a gallon of water to prevent saturation.

One other tip for next year - Earthboxes don't usually use compost. They are containers and don't have all the organisms that are available in garden soil to break organic things down. You want a good well-draining potting medium. Save the organic compost for the garden beds where you have a whole ecosystem to break it down. Use synthetic fertilizer in containers.

They have covers.

Thanks for the info. Maybe using some compost wasn't a good idea. We did a mixture of soils. Maybe shouldn't water every day??

Will try something different next yr.