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Friday Favorite: Soil Blocks

June 5th, 2015

This is the first year I’ve used lots of soil blocks in my seed starting and I LOVE them. The seedlings definitely grow better and have much less transplants shock. There is a bit of a learning curve to making and managing them, but one you get it they’re perfect. Yesterday, I got four more flats of summer lettuce and other fall crops going in soil blocks.
soil blocks
I’ll definitely do a long article or a series about them here when I have time to sit down and write it. They are well worth the investment in time and money.

Have you ever used soil blocks?

5 Comments to “Friday Favorite: Soil Blocks”
  1. Justin on June 5, 2015 at 9:39 am

    I’m really looking forward to your full post on this topic. I own two different size soil blockers that I bought from Johnny’s and I’ve never been able to get them to work right.

    For one, I think the soil mix has to be just the right consistency and I’m too cheap to mail-order bags of the Johnny’s mix, so I keep trying variations on your vermiculite-based mix (when I can actually find vermiculite locally). I’ve also tried some store-bought starter mix. Then, getting it just wet enough but not so wet that it sticks to the blockers is also difficult. Then, I always have problems keeping the moisture even and watering and I’m never quite sure how to space the blocks. Half the time, I go to water the tray and the blocks disintegrate. I also find that it uses 3x as much soil mix as plastic cell trays, which can get pretty pricey when you do a lot of trays.

    So yeah…I’m looking forward to your post. :-)

    Reply to Justin's comment

  2. Melanie Allen on June 5, 2015 at 11:01 am

    I’m with Justin, can’t wait for your detailed post.

    Reply to Melanie Allen's comment

  3. Louise on June 6, 2015 at 10:35 am

    Never have used soil blocks. Would love to give them a try; looking, very much so, forward to your further posts on the topic!

    Reply to Louise's comment

  4. Ian Baker on June 6, 2015 at 5:59 pm

    I have never used soil blocks but I remember my dad using them. I have seen a few articles on them recently and have been considering picking up a blocker to try.

    Reply to Ian Baker's comment

  5. Nebraska Dave on June 7, 2015 at 11:10 pm

    Susy, yup, I’m with everyone else. I didn’t get them to hold together and found them disintegrating when watering time came. I just use the small fiber square pots to start plants and then pot them into plastic drinking cups with holes drilled in the bottom. I know the instructions for the fiber pots say that you can just plant the whole thing in the ground but I pull it off when I re pot into the bigger plastic cups. It works for me. The potting soil and the moisture content is not a worry when I do it that way.

    Have a great soil block day.

    Reply to Nebraska Dave's comment

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This is a daily journal of my efforts to cultivate a more simple life, through local eating, gardening and so many other things. We used to live in a small suburban neighborhood Ohio but moved to 153 acres in Liberty, Maine in 2012.

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