Ryan:

Welcome to the forum. I should tell you that I am not an expert on growing veggies so I may not be able to assist you very much, but I'm sure other members on this forum can help. Please take my advice with that in mind.

Regarding the bugs eating your basil, this sounds like they might, possibly, have been in the soil mix when you bought it. If you still have some of the unused soil you might want to take a close look and see if you can find more of these bugs in the unused bagged soil. If you see them there, then you have your answer. Since these plants are growing indoors I think we can rule out any garden/outdoor causes.

"Damping Off" disease is a biological/fungal issue, quite common with waterlogged soils, poor air circulation, or garden soils used in containers. It has nothing to do with insects.

I might suggest you try a second batch of seeds. If you do this, I would wash the germination trays with a weak bleach solution or some other disinfectant to remove any possibility of contamination from them. Then I would try using a different soil, perhaps a small bag of Miracle Gro or Schultz germination soil. Then retry your seeds and see what happens.

Hope this helps. Keep us posted.

TYG

It does sound like damping off to me too. I would do as suggested and add a thin layer of perlite, sand, or DE to the top of the soil. This will prevent fungal spores from reaching the plant.

Thanks for your advice, yard_guy! I dumped out the plants that had died, and only found a single tiny winged insect (but it did not fly) which proceeded to crawl around the edge of my tray. I will try disinfecting and then possibly trying one of the soils you mentioned. Do you think I should give the same soil another shot? I'm wondering if it would even be worth it, considering all of my plants (in 4 different slots) died. I'd hate to let an entire bag of soil go to waste, but I guess it's essentially already a waste if it is contaminated :( Do you know if hardware stores would give refunds for selling bad soil?

Ryan,

I think starting over is a good idea. With the plastic trays disinfected you should be good to start over.

Your original note stated you were using Miracle-Gro Seed Starting Potting Mix from Home Depot, so that should be a good soil to use. I assume the link at the bottom is what you are using? If so I think that is a good soil to work with.

Before you try again, I'd dip a few handfuls of that soil out onto a worktable or bench under bright lighting and have a look for any other insects. If you see other insects like the one you described then I would not use the soil. If you see no other insects after a close examination then the whole thing may have just been a fluke.

I no longer use MG bagged soils but when I did use it I never found any contaminated with insects. I have purchased various types of wood mulch over the years and found insects in the mulch on several occasions.

BTW, there is a forum here on GW called "Growing from Seed". You might try reading some posts there for better info than I can provide. They also have a good FAQ section for new gardeners so that might also help. You can find lots of info there on seed starting mixes, damping off disease, and other similar topics.

Good luck and keep us posted.

TYG

Here is a link that might be useful: MG Seed Starting mix

Hey, Thanks again, TYG!

I just finished digging through the bag of soil under my grow light (Yes, the soil is the same as the one you linked :)), and I did see two of the tiny insects I saw before, but no millipedes. I was going to record a quick video so everyone could see the bugs, but they quickly buried themselves into the soil before I could get a good picture. Should I be very concerned about these tiny insects or could they be helpful ones in the soil? Judging from their behavior, they look like they prefer to be deep in the soil rather than at the surface.

I went ahead and disinfected my tray and flats with diluted bleach as you suggested and I think I'm going to give this soil one more shot. If they die again, I'll probably just attribute it to bad luck with getting a bad batch of soil and try getting a different bag. If that fails, then I'll know I'm doing something wrong ;) I'll post again with progress (and with pictures :))

Thanks again for your advice!

- Ryan

Ryan,

I'm not sure what those insects are but I'd probably not be comfortable with insects of any kind living in my seed starting soil mix.

I normally grow trees in containers outdoors, with the containers sitting on the ground 24/7. Sometimes when watering or fertilizing I see ants or worms in or near the drainage holes of those containers. Not a big deal for me since these trees are outdoors with growing in non-sterile soil, but you are starting seeds indoors with pre-made, bagged, MG seedling soil, so you shouldn't have any issues with insects.

I have heard of people sterilizing soil in their kitchen oven to eliminate weed seeds and insects from regular garden soils, but I've never tried to do this myself. A Google search should give you details on how that can be done if you are interested.

The washing of the plastic seeding trays will help reduce the chance of damping off disease, but you also need to be careful to not keep the soil waterlogged. Also keeping space between containers and providing good air circulation also are good ideas. Wet soil and poor air movement greatly increase the risk of damping off. Using regular, unsterilized garden soil is a high risk for damping off, but bagged potting soil should help reduce that risk considerably.

Keep us posted.

TYG

Thanks again TYG :)

I planted new seeds (basil, tomato, and jalapeño) Friday night. When I came home about an hour ago, the basil had sprouted:

http://imgur.com/ptIKzvZ

I removed the plastic lid and I'm running a small fan to gently blow and circulate air onto the flats. I also began using the grow light. No sign of the tomato or jalapeño yet, but I'm not feeling too hopeful after seeing the sprout in the bottom right of that picture...

Upon further examination, it looks like there is some brown discoloration near the soil surface level, as well as some sort of cotton-like webbing attached to the stem. I took a close-up here:

http://imgur.com/m0yTiX8

I noticed also in the other two flats (the tomato and jalapeño) that they also have a bit of webbing on the surface of the soil even though there are no visible sprouts.

My friend's mom, who has some gardening experience, suggested that it might be spider mites. If this is the case, I'm not sure what more could be done on my end other than just trying a new bag of soil and starting over. I'm not about to start using pesticides or insecticides on my plants. Frustrated :( Any ideas? Are these seeds doomed before they even have a chance? :(

Looks like mold to me. Seems it's too wet. I don't like those small seeding trays. I would use something a little bigger. Soil used must not be sterile, or your house is filled with mold spores.
Spider mites would not bother with anything that small.
It still may be OK, but that sucks mold or algae already.
Try adding 1 part hydrogen peroxide to 9 parts water.
Seedling needs to be moist, not wet and not dry.

Hey Ryan,

When I grow trees from seed I don't usually have problems like these. Long ago when I started seeds in regular garden soil I had all kinds of damping off problems. Once I realized that seeds germinate better in soil-less mixes and have less chance of soil pathogens I gave up on garden soil. Since then I've had very few problems germinating seed.

OK, we KNOW that contamination is not coming from the plastic seed trays since you washed and disinfected them between planting cycles. Your trays should be fine.

Occasionally some seeds might have some tiny, invisible fungi on them that can quickly grow in a wet environment. As a precaution, you might want to consider a brief (5 or 10 minute) soaking in 50/50 mixture of water and hydrogen peroxide just before planting. This should kill fungi on the outside of the seed coats, just in case there is any. That would eliminate the possibility that the seed coats are infected.

I guess at this point Id be tempted to toss away the MG soil you have and try something else. I usually start my seeds in a loose mix of fine pine bark and perlite with good results but there are many different seed starting soils on the market, including one by Schultz that I've heard good things about. I'll add a link.

Hope this helps.

TYG

Here is a link that might be useful: Seedling soil