Best Seed Starting Method: Seed Trays vs. Soil Blocking

[@minivanmachoman]

I have been soil blocking for 3 seasons now and it's the best way to start seedlings that I have found. I use mainly the 1.5 and 2 inch blockers for almost all my starts. I will use the 3/4" and pot up to the 2 inch for toms and peppers and I have had consistently strong starts with minimal transplant shock, if at all. Also, I have found that my starts really need minimal hardening off and are much more resilient overall. Minimal plastic too! I start all my 3/4" blocks on $1.25 cookie trays (I can get 120 of those little blocks on one tray!) from dollar tree and then once I need to block up, I have bootstrap farmer super thick 10x20s. For watering, I fill the cookie trays (or 10x20s) halfways up and let the blocks suck up the water. I let the blocks semi dry out and then water them. Seems to keep fungi and algae at bay. I have also noticed that I get better overall germination rates, faster germination rates, and overall faster seedling growth (up to 25% faster time to transplant size on average). If a seed packet says 6-8 weeks to transplant, it is definitely on the 4-5 week side of things. I use Eliot Coleman's soil block mix with the exception of the greensand, I use an organic granular fertilizer that it crush up to a fine powder. Cheaper and easier. This works very well for my starts! Great video! Thanks for the information! Happy Blocking!

[@LittleFarmLand]

Thanks so much for sharing your methods and I’m happy to hear soil blocking works so well for you too!

[@irish-ne6ic]

What brand of soil block did you purchase? The A store has many, some with bad reviews. Ladbrooke/England has the set $92+ but looks different from yours. Can the link for your purchase be added here or Instagram, please & thank you?

[@irish-ne6ic]

Thank you for your quick response. Both of you are awesome. Continual success. God bless.

[@LittleFarmLand]

No problem! Glad we could connect.

[@ackerhacker291]

Have you ever tried stainless steel trays? I'm interested to know if this is a problem for the plants. If not, you would only have to buy them once in your life and could do everything without plastic

[@LittleFarmLand]

Absolutely you can! I think there’s another commentor here or it was on our Instagram who said they use stainless steel cookie sheets. The biggest reason why we didn’t do it is because of cost but if cost isn’t an issue, it will work just fine.

[@firehorsewoman414]

@@LittleFarmLandI suggest looking at restaurant equipment auctions. Sometimes they have things that would be really useful for growing - rimmed baking sheets - metal ones and sometimes melamine cafeteria style trays, or dishwasher plastic crates that are useful for growing bulb flowers if you sell flowers, rack systems. Just never know what you can find on those things and sometimes for very cheap. Just remember to calculate the buyer’s premium (usually 15%) and sales tax (for us in Texas that is 8.25% if not ag exempt) so if you bid $100 an item and win it, you will end up paying $123.25. Also be careful if you are bidding on a lot, say 10 crates, that you know if your bid price is for the lot (all 10) or your bid price is per item so whatever you bid x10. Sure that most people know this, but just in case someone tries this who has never bought at an auction before.