Germinated seed disappears! I had to post this. Be gentle my first post.

[BaireDu]

I germinated seeds in a paper towel inside a plastic baggie on a heat pad. Bam! Over night I had 6 pop. Tap roots 1/2" long. ( Me smiling ).
I planted them in soil mixing in Wiggle Worm - worm castings. (maybe 1/4 Of the mix) In a solo cup planting the seed about 3/4" into the soil and watered them returning them back to the heat pad with plastic rap covering the tops. Well........... One poppped 1/2" out of the soil within 36 hours, the other about 48 hours ( Me Really smiling ). 7 days later the other 4, NOTHING! ( Me Frowning ) I had to know? Using a awl, I Very delicately slowly moved the soil around to find the seed like a archaeologist on a dig, placing a little bit of soil at a time on a sheet of paper to find the seed. After checking 3 of the cups "ALL" the same, no sign of the seed at all, "disappeared" ( me shaking my fist in the air ).........
My last cup to check. Finally I find a seed. But something strange, no tap root sticking out of the seed? Using a magnifying glass I pry apart the seed, inside finding tiny...tiny little roundish, white things crawling on the inside, eating it! I also have a little sprout from a week earlier about a 1" tall but it lost the two little leafs that pop out with it. I never lost the two little top leafs of the plant, Ever. Same way as checking the seeds I find Tiny little white worms all around the tap root of this plant with bite marks on the root! ( I'm Looking at it with the Magnifying glass ). Next I replant it in new soil! NO WIggle worm castings this time. NEXT I get a cup of the Wiggle Worm casting to check. Well I find what looks like clear round Tiny....Tiny eggs? I also see a Tiny....TINY white looking snail shaped shell? Knat eggs and larva?????? I contacted the company, tried to send some pictures explaining what is going on. They agreed to replace the 2 - 30lb bags. But loosing these (would have been plants)................. Is it even safe to use after this or maybe just use this stuff to make tea?????

 

[TorturedSoul]

One reason I'm leery of using "organics" is that the stuff rarely arrives in a sterile state. After all, the entire premise is that the gardener, instead of feeding the plants directly, feeds the microbial life, which then excretes/secretes waste products that the plants can consume.

You could dampen the material well, then place a shallow layer (4" or less) of it in some sort of container or tray (maybe a glass casserole dish?), preheat your oven to 180°F - 200°F, and stick the container of soil in it. Goal being to raise the temperature of the soil to 180°F and hold it at that temperature for 30 minutes, which should kill most things in it. Lightly covering your container with a lid or aluminum foil may be helpful in keeping it from drying out during the process.

The above might cause your kitchen to have an interesting odor, but it shouldn't be too extreme. I'd probably open a window, but I'd do that anyway when using the oven in non-Winter conditions.

If you intend to use sterilized material in an "organic" grow, you'd need to reinoculate it, of course.