Soil Blocks
Here are my seed blocks, more to come when I get the time to post. The basics are that these are from a mini 20 seed block maker, 3/4″ in size, and this is less than 72 hours after putting the seeds in. The seeds that have already sprouted are cabbage, top right, kale, top left, and collards, bottom left. The soil mix is straight Pro-Mix BX with a little added compost from our heap. The blocks were simple to make and I’m misting them morning and night and adding a clear cover for heat and humidity. Hard to argue with 72 hr sprouts. I’ll pot these on to 2″ blocks once I see two leaves on each block.
UPDATE: I wanted to quickly give my reasoning behind the soil blocks. Last Spring I purchased a bunch of plastic trays and cell flats and a soilless grow mix. The intention was to start seeds in the greenhouse, which is now defunct, and transplant almost everything except cucumbers. Well, it didn’t work out so well for a number of reasons, mostly which were my own fault, but for the transplants that did make it, largely the butternut squash plants, it was an exercise in frustration. There is essentially no way possible to extract a transplant from a plastic flat. By way of a lot of cursing and shredding of the plastic flats I finally managed to extract the plants, but the flats were of course a lost cause.
For this season I initially decided to go back to the tried and true Jiffy peat pellets. I pretty much had decided that 6 of the Jiffy greenhouse 72 peat cell systems would work. Total cost there was about $30. My next thought went to where I would move all 432 (hopeful) transplants and I could come up with nothing better than back to the plastic flats I already had. And of course this would require another few bags of soil mix and the good stuff there is pricey. I figured up that I would be in $30 for the Jiffy systems and then another $50 for soil mix, for a grand total of $80. I wasn’t thrilled by this and therefore kept putting it off.
Well, when I was placing my recent Johnny’s order I clicked the link on the soil block makers and started doing some research. It was quickly evident that this is the preferred method overall and the only real obstruction to doing it was the soil block maker itself. Some more quick research, using this, and using Johnny’s as a comparison, it looked like the soil block makers would cost me about $60 for the mini 20 3/4″ unit and then the 2″ unit. Adding to this would of course be the soilless mix and I had already scouted out Pro-Mix which goes for $24 here in Chattanooga.
I eventually decided on ordering the soil blocks with the idea being that it’s probably the best way to start transplants overall and the idea of not fighting with more plastic seemed like a win-win. Quickly, the whole idea behind a soil block is that it doesn’t create root bound transplants which allows the plant to start growing immediately once placed in the garden.
So fast forward to today and I’ve now started 200 3/4″ soil blocks. The actual making of the block was simple and they’re holding together well. Like I said above, the cabbage, kale, and collards sprouted first, and now I have leeks and spinach starting to come up also. The blocks are as wet today (6 days after starting them) as they were right after I made them. I’m going to have to create some 2″ blocks to pot-on the cabbage, collards, and kale, and I will probably do that in the next 5 or 6 days. I don’t expect any hassle out of the 2″ unit. Also, the 3.8 cu ft bag of Pro-Mix looks like it’s going to be more than enough to start everything that I want to start. Those first 200 blocks hardly used any soil at all. I’d say I have probably 95% of the bag left in total.
My only concern now is that the 1.5″ soil blocker might be needed to ease the whole process. I’m going to deal with just the 3/4″ and 2″ units this year, but I can see myself buying the 1.5″ unit after this season. The 1.5″ unit won’t accept a 3/4″ block to pot on, and that’s the only reason I didn’t go with it initially. For tomatoes and pepers, and other plants that must be started 8+ weeks before the last frost, the only real solution is to first use the 3/4″ block and then pot on to the 2″. This allows for adequate space to grow a decent sized transplant. However, for most other seeds, everything could be started directly in the 1.5″ block and never be moved. This would be less hassle overall I think. We’ll see how well everything does from here and then I’ll decide what to do. Email me at rphagan3 at gmail dot com with any questions.
