The good people over at the Container Gardening forum will explain the error(s) of your ways, thus allowing you to save your African violet.

I agree with armoured - you need all the drainage you can get. Especially with cheap potting soil which is mostly lumber mill waste ("forest product", I believe is the term of art) and not particularly well draining.

Cheers, intrigued as to wheather this is a fail or not.. the plants look to have recovered.. ill update in a year or so 😅

And on a side note, other larg well draining pots with the same 'forrest product' have the same smell..

I'm not sure I understand what's going on exactly, but. Usually a rancid smell will go away after exposure to air (the smell is anaerobic activity) . Maybe hasn't been long enough, maybe over watering, or quite possibly it's not draining well even if it seems like it is (by means of the potting soil retaining too much water suspended). Of course the real test is how the plants do, but you may find later that their roots are subject to rot.

At that my extremely limited container plant knowledge ends.

LOL - reminds me years ago, I had acquired a barrel and had assumed the holes/cracks would be good enough. Anyway, can’t remember exactly what was amiss, but my father was over and drilled some holes in the side - out gushed this rancid flood of water which had built up over the year. Since then, everything grows pretty well in that container!