Organic compost from local company - tiny little critters found

[CR00]

Hello all.

I got some gardening mix from a local company which offers a gardening mix of 1/3 compost, 1/3 peat moss, and 1/3 vermiculite. I added in worm castings, tomato tone, kelp meal, lime, and azomite.

I've let it cook for about 2 weeks.

I went in to water down the soil before planting in a sprouted seed when I noticed the soil was moving! Right after I watered I noticed many tiny little critters - like small light colored insects. They were moving around and going down back into the soil.

Should I abandon that pot before I get further or should we expect this to some degree?

I'll try to get pics soon.

(FYI - This is an auto seed and I'm attempting to go straight to soil vs transplanting.)

 

[hecno]

@CROO I am in the tropics and don't use compost as such any more . I build soil that composts itself and I get lots of little critters , what I found as the organic matter breaks down you will see a lot less of them [ typically my soils are 6 months old if not older ] . So maybe the compost they use is to young . Depending on the critters they can eat your young shoots .now my micro environment is way different than where you are . Well see if old mate is out of bed . @Eyes on Fire

 

[Eyes on Fire]

are they white or lightly off white to a light brown even? could be spring tails actually.not usually an issue at all if thats what they are.you could use a surfactant as well as some SNS-209. good for young plants and older. could be your compost or the Peat. . .could be several things.And as a rule picture ALWAYS goes hand in hand with queries.and unless your grow spot is hot the vermiculite isnt always the best choice it can sometimes make an issue early or even just too wet for too long. but it'll probably be fine,I tend to like pumic and/or perlite mixture personally. and vermiculite also has small foods and stuff which can sometime also lend to an issue early on. btu again,it'll probably be fine man.you might wanna get a few things together for either a top dress and/or a mellow flowering tea.dressing is for flower too. a granule like your Tone. . but for flower,fed with a mild tea and Mammoth will do fine.

 

[CR00]

thanks, guys. sorry, my ex took my nice digital camera so here's what i have from an iphone:

 

[hecno]

@CROO If that was my soil , I would cook it a lot longer than 2 weeks , From what I can see it would make very good soil with a 3 month or longer cook , can show a close up with it in your hand , just to see the structure a bit better .

 

[Eyes on Fire]

yeah those look like springtails. unless it literally cover and hugely covered and infested you should have zero issues as far as the spring tails go. and with the mild and easy to blend materials should blend easy enough for two to three weeks blend/cook IMO. if you added bone or fish compost or something similar possibly a longer cook would be ideal but unless yu plan on adding things..as is I think it'll be fine personally. those four or five items is all your adding?

 

[CR00]

Thanks hecno. I'm just impatient =)

Plus, this is my 'very first' attempt at growing. So I'm just trying it out and seeing what happens. The fact that I lasted two weeks is a miracle. lol.

EyesOnFire - Yeah, my thought was to stick with this blend. I've come to learn that the local compost company has a potting mix which uses the same ingredients (and ratio) but goes through a finer sifting process. So in hindsight I would've chosen that which would eliminate some of the larger materials that you see. I'm attempting to 'keep it simple' for my first time. I figured I'd go with it and see what happens.

I'm actually really excited! It was pretty darn cool to see the seed pop using the damp paper towel / plates method. I put it in the soil and boom - two days later there's a tiny sprout!

 

[CR00]

hmmm... can't edit my previous post.

try the image again...

 

[hecno]

To give you an idea on well aged soil .

 

[CR00]

Very helpful. Was that recently watered? I tried to get some of the dry material at the bottom for my pic. However, I can tell the difference in finer material of yours vs mine. Very relevant - thanks.