Anybody have experience with soil blocking?

[Alan]

I'm getting ready to buy a set of soil blockers to use in the greenhouses for starting plants. Does anybody here have any experience using them? Any ideas or tips?

I will probably be using mostly sifted compost and vermicompost along with steamed rice hulls (to kill the live grain) for making the soil blocks. Should provide a disease free and already fertile medium and soil amendment for growing seeds. Time will tell.

[plantsnobin]

hey Alan, don't buy one yet. I have one around here somewhere I think, if you are just talking about the small one that makes 4 small sqaure ones. I will have to hunt it down, hope I didn't pitch it.

[cff]

I made a few soil blockers out in my shop out of scrap steel tubing - your soil mixture will need a binder to hold it together or it some of the dirt blocks will fall apart.

I used a small % of Blood meal - blood and water make a fantastic glue, as a matter of fact if you look at a sheet of plywood the dark glue used to hold the ply's together is none other than cheap blood meal.

[canadamike]

Bloodmeal is a nice trick, the vermicompost maydo it perfectly though. I use peat moss, compost and vermicullite, it works perfectly. I use the small nine blocks one and the other too. The small 9 one is my favorite. I strongly recommend that you use some long wine corks that you drill in the center to use as a larger handles, otherwise when you make a lot it becomes painfull....

Don't make the mistake to try to put as much as you can in your containers ( whatever the name is in english, we say plateau in french), as it becomes one mass, defeating the purpose...

Don't overdo the ''transplanting of the small ones in the biger ones'' too, apart from maters, taters, celery and cucurbits, unless I forget something else, many things can be grown large enough in the small 9 cells, like cabbages and lettuces, chicories, herbs and such, just plant them at a smaller stage...