Don’t miss out on another growing season.In Toca Boca, you can choose from a wide range of ingredients and tools to make your cake just the way you want it. For the price of a few seed packets, you can stop wasting time and money and start growing seedlings that actually live, and you get to harvest. You’re not a bad gardener–you just need a little know-how. HAVE YOU TRIED SEED STARTING, ONLY TO BE LEFT WITH STRETCHED-OUT SEEDLINGS AND DEAD PLANTS? Your support means the world to me and I am grateful for each and every one of you! P.S. If you love the content I create for Shifting Roots, consider joining our community on Patreon. If you liked this blog post, find me on Facebook, TikTok, and Instagram for more cold-climate vegetable gardening tips, delicious recipes, and cut flower goodness! I also make weekly videos over on my YouTube channel. Be warned: if you pour the water directly into the center of the blocks, they will break apart. If you pour the water this way, they shouldn’t fall apart. When you’re bottom watering, leave a space in your soil blocks to pour the water, so it doesn’t immediately hit the soil. Misting soil blocks with water helps hold them together and prevent them from drying up and crumbling. The best method for keeping ¾-inch soil blocks moist is to use a spray bottle. TIPS FOR KEEPING SOIL BLOCKS FROM FALLING APART I would stand by any of these mixtures, though, as long as you use the correct watering technique and tightly pack the cubes. If you’ve got the time, the coconut coir mix stands out as the one I will use again. That said, if you don’t have much time, I suggest using a seed starting mix. While there was no clear winner, as you’ll see in this video, I did find that the best results came from ingredients that were as finely milled as possible. I tried plain potting soil, plain seed starting mix, the classic Eliot Coleman recipe, and a version of the Eliot Coleman recipe with coconut coir, a more sustainable alternative to peat moss. I recently experimented with various soil-blocking recipes to determine which soil-block recipe would work best for my gardening needs. Related: How to Start an Indoor Herb Garden from Seeds WHAT IS THE BEST SOIL-BLOCKING RECIPE? potting soil, seed starting mix, or a combination of peat moss/ coconut coir, perlite, all-purpose fertilizer, topsoil, and organic compost–for my recipe experiment, see this video.These are the basic supplies to get started on your soil-blocking journey: Related: DIY Seed Starting from Your Window WHAT SUPPLIES DO YOU NEED TO SOIL BLOCK? a sharper learning curve initially than traditional seed starting.can be a little more time-consuming than other methods.not ideal for larger vegetables like pumpkins or squash.the initial cost of the soil-blocking equipment. the ability to save money in the long run.the ability to start more seeds indoors.if you soil block, your roots stay in the same container, and it’s easier for the plant to climatize to life outdoors no transplant shock–some plants don’t like to be bumped up in their seed containers or moved once they’re started.healthier root systems are produced through air pruning and an increase in oxygen.Related: Indoor Seed Starting Schedule for Easy Vegetables & Flowers PROS & CONS OF SOIL BLOCKING PROS You can then plant your seeds in these blocks, place a tray of them under a grow light, and begin the germination process! With the proper technique, soil blocking can be a fun, easy way to seed start, which eliminates the need for various seed-starting pots and sowing trays. This is done by packing a handheld tool called a soil blocker with a soil mixture (more on this below) and manually pressing that mixture into blocks. Soil blocking is essentially the manual process of making soil blocks. Thanks for supporting Shifting Roots! WHAT IS SOIL BLOCKING? You can read more about it here in my privacy policy. This post contains affiliate links, which means that if you purchase something, I earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. In this post, I’ll break down the pros and cons of soil blocking, the best recipe to ensure your soil blocks don’t fall apart, and my tips and tricks to get the most out of your soil blocking experience! Let’s get into it. But which one is the best option for seed starting? I’ve experimented with several different recipes, so you don’t have to! If you’ve been thinking about trying soil blocking, you might have found that there are an overwhelming amount of soil-blocking recipes online.
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