Update on soil blocks
Well, it’s 5/1 and I wanted to give a quick update on the soil blocks. All in all everything went really well. The blocks themselves were simple to make and the seeds seemed to get a good and quick start. The potting up to the 2″ block was no big deal either.
So far we’ve been able to transplant everything except the tomatoes. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to get any peppers up and growing and that was a shame. Luckily however I was able to pick up two 6 packs of nice organic starts at the Chattanooga Market for $3 apiece.
The basil starts were near perfect along with the kale, collards, and cabbage. My only concern was for the bok choi and that was due to the fact that I started them too early. A 2″ soil block is not very much dirt and the bok choi went to seed before I could transplant them. Also, this relates to my only concern for the tomatoes and that is that they are looking a little yellow and starved for space. I thought a good 2 month lead time would be perfect, but in reality that’s too long. I think it won’t be much of a problem because as soon as I can get out and till up last fall’s cover crops the tomatoes will be planted. It’s rainy the next couple of days here so it will still probably be a week or more before things dry out enough.
Also, one last update…I decided to use fish emulsion every 2 weeks for my starts. The fish emulsion did seem to kick start things and keep everything green and lush. I’ve never used the emulsion before and once you get past the rank smell it’s good stuff. Also, it was dirt cheap at only $5 for a decent sized bottle and I should be able to use it all summer on my tomatoes. A good product and I recommend it.
