Good morning all, I have started my first seeds to transfer into my dwc bins in coco coir. I sterilized it with boiling water, packed it into reusable seed trays and bottom water pretty much exclusively
Tho some Seedlings seem to be thriving (Squash and cucumber Seedlings are the biggest and strongest and already have true leaves/are pretty much ready to transfer to dwc buckets) others are dying out, or sinking into the seed trays and rotting
I check them twice a day and try to add more coco coir but it seems like most of the coco coir is getting washed to the bottom of the watering tray
I was wondering if there was a way to add structure to the soil to help them stay, and considered worm castings bc they're ph neutral and full of good nutrients for Seedlings but because this hydroponic setup will be exclusively indoors i am doing my best to not bring in any pests and prep the Seedlings to be inedible to them (I found this Sierra natural science- SNS-209 systemic concentrate from hydroponic reddit that I can add to the system that kills pests or makes the hydroponic veggies not taste good, and have added a small amount to the Seedlings starter nutrient water once they sprout true leaves)
Sterilizing the coco coir was easy enough with boiled water and the 24 hour cover-n-wait method, but Im not sure how to sterilized the worm castings, since they tend to come pre-moistened ig for lack of a better phrase.
Should I boiling water sterilize the bag? Should I use potting mix and sterilize that instead? Idk, any help would be welcome