I tried soil blocks last year and had 100% germination with verbena bonariensis which made me super happy! I germinated them in the 3/4" blocks and then moved them up to 3" pots. Other flowers and veggies were also successful but I think they would have been fine for either method. However, I do agree that soil blocking requires far more work than just regular seed starting. I think I will do a mix this year of regular and soil blocking, reserving the soil blocking for those plants that I want more of and just regular seed starting for those varieties where I only want/need a few. As always, I appreciate your wonderful and inspiring garden videos. You have really helped me to understand that the joy comes from the journey and learning opportunities along the way whether they are successful or failures.
I have been researching soil blocking but my garden is small and the more I read about the subject I realize that it is better for farmers or cut flowers growers as you mentioned, and it does requires watering twice per day so I desire to go with another method that seems more simple and inexpensive.
I live in a townhouse, and I love my soil blocks. it saves money on soil and supplies in the long run, and I find my plants are a lot healthier using the air pruning.
I think the cilantro should do well. I’ve had cilantro overwinter even with snow sitting on top of it but it doesn’t get as cold here so the cover will definitely help for your colder weather. I hope you get some germination otherwise you’ll at least have an early start for next spring. Good luck little plants 🌱!
My mom used to do something similar to your raised bed hoop house. I guess it was like a cold frame because she used old windows instead of plastic. She also filled empty soda bottles with water and put them around the edges of the frame. During the day the water would heat up from the sun and help keep the plants a little warmer at night. Of course our zone is much warmer than yours.
I was not a huge fan of soil blocks either. I may try it again for next year, but they seems to stop growing at a certain height. I just didn’t have time to try to move them up to bigger blocks. It was faster to transplant to a bigger pot. Drying out was also an issue.
I have found soil blocking to be more work than my regular way of starting seeds and having to source the correct ingredients was too much of a hassle as compared to just buying a bag of potting mix. The results were not worth the added work. I have gardened for 40+ years and tried every method out there and you just have to find what works for you. Trends come and go, but I have found and researched that some root disturbance when potting up and transplanting is actually good for the plant, it toughens them up and makes them hardier. They can go through a brief slow down but that is when they are beefing up their roots in the soil which in the long run is for the best. So sticking to what works for you and keeping the joy in it is more important than the latest thing. We have been getting snow since mid-November then it froze so I haven't seen my soil again until yesterday. We got tons of rain which washed away the icy mess and I felt such joy walking through the muddy garden to see what was what. It is to rain non-stop until after next week but as long as it isn't snow I will not complain.
Great video. I'm in zone 6 in the mountains of AZ. Yes, AZ does have mountains and cold temps 😳 Would you be able to share a link to the Amazon store where you ordered the plastic for the hoops? I like the opaque quality and the heaviness of it. Thank you!
Can’t wait to get updates on your hoop house and see how it’s going to work out . Thanks to you I have a hoop house also that my husband built for me , don’t have the plastic yet, but soon I’ll be ordering
I’m sure you’ll have things germinating! Especially things that love cool spring weather. I want to use soil blocks because my indoor growing space isn’t big enough for all the cell trays and pots. I have to plant the garden out all at once because the heat hits too suddenly here in SC. Everything goes into survival mode once it hits 90. This year that happened in March unfortunately. It usually happens in June or July. I missed out on things like peas, cantaloupe, and cool herbs. The watermelons and okra never really ripened because the cold came early. I’m going to start things now and throw seed down in case we have another year like this one.
Great video,I've been gardening a long time, and alot of my trays are from the beginning and still work well. I thought about soil blocking , but I think it will just add more work
It appears David likes you a whole lot! I heard you mention milk - be careful giving David milk. Some cats are lactose intolerant and milk will cause them to have diarrhea. Testing to see if those cool weather crops will sprout under plastic - you are a scientist at heart!
No soil blocks for me..I have up graded to good quality plastic trays and pots... love them. They should last for years ...I've also found that the peat free pots dryout and brake apart..they were a real pain. Love your channel
You have “adopted” David 😊 I think your cilantro will be fine. You know you can sow cold tolerant flower seeds where you want them to grow and later thin them out. That saves you time than by growing them indoors 😊
So many things one can do! It is hard for me to put seeds for flowers the year before, mainly because I don’t know if I would want them there next year, I like to play with the placement of my annual flowers here and there… I know, I’m weird like that!
I've never tried soil blocks and probably never will for the same reasons as you mentioned and the fact that it would be hard on my hands. Plus I like to give away extra seedlings and it's not easy to give soil blocks away. Hope the cilantro does well. I'd add an extra frost blanket under the hoops if the weather gets too cold. Also, David is a girl 😆 and cats are lactose intolerant.
I probably won't bother trying soil blocks either - I already upgraded to much better seed starting pots in pretty colors, so might as well use those! - plus it's just for my front and back yard 😁 Love that you still have plants growing - we got a hard freeze and lots of snow in early November that still hasn't let up - so my carrots & sprouting broccoli are frozen. I probably won't attempt a fall garden next year since it keeps snowing earlier each year 😐 (z6 , NE WA)
Can you start seeds under the hoop house or just put in pre started plants? I. The newsletter I would like to see updates on your projects and notices in advance on when you will be doing your seed starting. Thanks!
No milk for the kitty please! It's a myth that milk is good for cats. Most cats are lactose intolerant. While they may like the taste, it can cause stomach cramps just like in people. But I agree with you about soil blocks. The concept is great (the root pruning part) but I have enough to deal with when starting seeds indoors 😁. So adding another step of making soil blocks is more than I want to handle. I've haven't tried a hoop house yet but am planning to this spring to get a head start on some lettuce, as an experiment. It will be interesting to see how yours does over the winter. I am also in zone 5 in northern Illinois.
I have only ever used small pots or winter sowed seeds. I thought the soil blocks looked like too many steps for me and I didn't want to have to have a special soil blend.
My favorite way of starting seeds is using single containers from Bootstrap Farmer. I also use their watering trays and domes to keep the humidity in when they're really small. Even better you can keep them outdoors with the humidity domes and open the vents during the day. Then when it's time to plant out, I can just lay out the trays in the area where I'm working. Soil blocking just seems like so much extra work. The money saved doesn't seem worth it to me.
I think you did the soil blocking in the wrong way, is effective if only use the 20 3/4 blocker cause is space saver and the seedlings don’t need to be potted up. Plus you can transplant 4 weeks after sowing, using the 2 inch blocker is just a waste of time. I myself have 1500 seedlings under grow lights to be transplanted in January 11 they been there for a week and the growth is just beyond expectations.
I'm a huge fan of the soil blocks as well, never going back to regular cell trays. The space savings, and soil savings alone are big winners for me. I do start a few things in the 2" but only if the seeds are too big for the smaller ones. And will pay up tomatoes, peppers and some of my bedding plants that want to grow bigger to plant out. But my seedlings are healthier in the blocks.
I don't know, I try several seeds in them and every time the growth seem stunt for me, I remember the moment I transplanted my coleus from a 2" soil block to a larger container they double in size quickly, it just doesn't work for me unfortunately but I appreciate your comment.
I'm trying this year for the first time. Using fort vee mix for the blocks and have saw some using caprilary mats to help with watering. I may try some that way as I have some of the self watering trays and could put the blocks on the mat. Going to be trial and error lol
![[Part 1] ทารกน้อยถูกทิ้ง👶 หญิงชราเก็บขวดขายเลี้ยงดูเขาจนโต #โลกการละคร](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/nPTDvFCExks/mqdefault.jpg)
Thank you for your honest opinion about soil blocks. Love your channel.
My pleasure!
I tried soil blocks last year and had 100% germination with verbena bonariensis which made me super happy! I germinated them in the 3/4" blocks and then moved them up to 3" pots. Other flowers and veggies were also successful but I think they would have been fine for either method. However, I do agree that soil blocking requires far more work than just regular seed starting. I think I will do a mix this year of regular and soil blocking, reserving the soil blocking for those plants that I want more of and just regular seed starting for those varieties where I only want/need a few. As always, I appreciate your wonderful and inspiring garden videos. You have really helped me to understand that the joy comes from the journey and learning opportunities along the way whether they are successful or failures.
I have been researching soil blocking but my garden is small and the more I read about the subject I realize that it is better for farmers or cut flowers growers as you mentioned, and it does requires watering twice per day so I desire to go with another method that seems more simple and inexpensive.
I live in a townhouse, and I love my soil blocks. it saves money on soil and supplies in the long run, and I find my plants are a lot healthier using the air pruning.
I think the cilantro should do well. I’ve had cilantro overwinter even with snow sitting on top of it but it doesn’t get as cold here so the cover will definitely help for your colder weather.
I hope you get some germination otherwise you’ll at least have an early start for next spring. Good luck little plants 🌱!
Thank you! ❤️❤️
My mom used to do something similar to your raised bed hoop house. I guess it was like a cold frame because she used old windows instead of plastic. She also filled empty soda bottles with water and put them around the edges of the frame. During the day the water would heat up from the sun and help keep the plants a little warmer at night. Of course our zone is much warmer than yours.
I wanted to do something like it, using windows on top with straw bales around them, I waited too long to find those things unfortunately.
I was not a huge fan of soil blocks either. I may try it again for next year, but they seems to stop growing at a certain height. I just didn’t have time to try to move them up to bigger blocks. It was faster to transplant to a bigger pot. Drying out was also an issue.
I agree! I like my seedlings to be on the bigger side too so they limited the grow for me
I have had good luck with Napa Cabbage in cold weather. Korean seeds work well and its great to eat Napa raw or cooked. Thank you for your sharing.
Thanks for the tips! Fingers crossed!
I have found soil blocking to be more work than my regular way of starting seeds and having to source the correct ingredients was too much of a hassle as compared to just buying a bag of potting mix. The results were not worth the added work. I have gardened for 40+ years and tried every method out there and you just have to find what works for you. Trends come and go, but I have found and researched that some root disturbance when potting up and transplanting is actually good for the plant, it toughens them up and makes them hardier. They can go through a brief slow down but that is when they are beefing up their roots in the soil which in the long run is for the best. So sticking to what works for you and keeping the joy in it is more important than the latest thing. We have been getting snow since mid-November then it froze so I haven't seen my soil again until yesterday. We got tons of rain which washed away the icy mess and I felt such joy walking through the muddy garden to see what was what. It is to rain non-stop until after next week but as long as it isn't snow I will not complain.
Great video. I'm in zone 6 in the mountains of AZ. Yes, AZ does have mountains and cold temps 😳
Would you be able to share a link to the Amazon store where you ordered the plastic for the hoops? I like the opaque quality and the heaviness of it. Thank you!
Absolutely! It is very heavy and thick - amzn.to/3hmu62i
I’m doing soil blocking this year. I’ll follow up in time on it.. Nice hoop cover! Have fun good luck!
Thank you so much!
Can’t wait to get updates on your hoop house and see how it’s going to work out . Thanks to you I have a hoop house also that my husband built for me , don’t have the plastic yet, but soon I’ll be ordering
Fun fun fun!
I’m sure you’ll have things germinating! Especially things that love cool spring weather. I want to use soil blocks because my indoor growing space isn’t big enough for all the cell trays and pots. I have to plant the garden out all at once because the heat hits too suddenly here in SC. Everything goes into survival mode once it hits 90. This year that happened in March unfortunately. It usually happens in June or July. I missed out on things like peas, cantaloupe, and cool herbs. The watermelons and okra never really ripened because the cold came early. I’m going to start things now and throw seed down in case we have another year like this one.
Good luck friend!
Great video,I've been gardening a long time, and alot of my trays are from the beginning and still work well. I thought about soil blocking , but I think it will just add more work
Soil blocking is great, but definitely mor time consuming.
I rooted some grocery store cilantro in water in about two days. Much easier than growing herbs from seed this time of year
It appears David likes you a whole lot! I heard you mention milk - be careful giving David milk. Some cats are lactose intolerant and milk will cause them to have diarrhea. Testing to see if those cool weather crops will sprout under plastic - you are a scientist at heart!
I didn't think about the milk hurting it. Thank you!
I totally.agree
Blocks.are.a pain
No soil blocks for me..I have up graded to good quality plastic trays and pots... love them. They should last for years ...I've also found that the peat free pots dryout and brake apart..they were a real pain. Love your channel
I LOVE my containers from bootstrap, I got quite a few this fall and I cannot wait to use them :)
You have “adopted” David 😊 I think your cilantro will be fine. You know you can sow cold tolerant flower seeds where you want them to grow and later thin them out. That saves you time than by growing them indoors 😊
So many things one can do! It is hard for me to put seeds for flowers the year before, mainly because I don’t know if I would want them there next year, I like to play with the placement of my annual flowers here and there… I know, I’m weird like that!
I've never tried soil blocks and probably never will for the same reasons as you mentioned and the fact that it would be hard on my hands. Plus I like to give away extra seedlings and it's not easy to give soil blocks away.
Hope the cilantro does well. I'd add an extra frost blanket under the hoops if the weather gets too cold.
Also, David is a girl 😆 and cats are lactose intolerant.
I do a seelling sale in the spring with soil blocks. It works fine. I love mine. Never going back to cell trays personally.
@@BramptonGardener Oh that's cool. How do you "package" them for it?
The frost blanket is a great idea, I am sure I have a few in my garage.
@@andrea-bero I just use small boxes. They pick what they want and in it goes. By the time they are ready for sale the blocks are very solid.
I probably won't bother trying soil blocks either - I already upgraded to much better seed starting pots in pretty colors, so might as well use those! - plus it's just for my front and back yard 😁
Love that you still have plants growing - we got a hard freeze and lots of snow in early November that still hasn't let up - so my carrots & sprouting broccoli are frozen. I probably won't attempt a fall garden next year since it keeps snowing earlier each year 😐 (z6 , NE WA)
The weather was definitely a factor for lots of my struggles this year 😒
Can you start seeds under the hoop house or just put in pre started plants? I. The newsletter I would like to see updates on your projects and notices in advance on when you will be doing your seed starting. Thanks!
Yes you can! I added a bunch of lettuce, spinach and beets under there this time, we will see if something comes up.
soil blocks just took too much time for me to make. i went back to using my trays
Soil blocks seem entirely too fiddley for me. Then again I either direct sow or start seeds in old yogurt cups! 😃
Great technique too!
No milk for the kitty please! It's a myth that milk is good for cats. Most cats are lactose intolerant. While they may like the taste, it can cause stomach cramps just like in people.
But I agree with you about soil blocks. The concept is great (the root pruning part) but I have enough to deal with when starting seeds indoors 😁.
So adding another step of making soil blocks is more than I want to handle.
I've haven't tried a hoop house yet but am planning to this spring to get a head start on some lettuce, as an experiment.
It will be interesting to see how yours does over the winter. I am also in zone 5 in northern Illinois.
I think David may be a Diane according to the coloring.
Somebody else told me that and I was like WHAAAAAT! lol
That kitty is prob keeping your garden clear of critters
I have only ever used small pots or winter sowed seeds. I thought the soil blocks looked like too many steps for me and I didn't want to have to have a special soil blend.
It’s a very cool technique just not one for me.
I looked at it researched it and there’s no way that I can get used to it. Newsletter yes ma’am 24:07
It’s a great technique just not for me!
My favorite way of starting seeds is using single containers from Bootstrap Farmer. I also use their watering trays and domes to keep the humidity in when they're really small. Even better you can keep them outdoors with the humidity domes and open the vents during the day. Then when it's time to plant out, I can just lay out the trays in the area where I'm working. Soil blocking just seems like so much extra work. The money saved doesn't seem worth it to me.
Thank you! I have tons of bootstrap farmer goodies and I love them as well.
Your plants in terra cotta might do ok, but several of my terracotta pots themselves cracked and broke in the freeze/thaw of winter ☹️
I think these will be fine.
I am in IND and 6a. My carrots look like that.
I am THE worse at growing them, I am not sure why :(
I don’t think soul blocks would be for me either.
I think you did the soil blocking in the wrong way, is effective if only use the 20 3/4 blocker cause is space saver and the seedlings don’t need to be potted up. Plus you can transplant 4 weeks after sowing, using the 2 inch blocker is just a waste of time.
I myself have 1500 seedlings under grow lights to be transplanted in January 11 they been there for a week and the growth is just beyond expectations.
I'm a huge fan of the soil blocks as well, never going back to regular cell trays. The space savings, and soil savings alone are big winners for me.
I do start a few things in the 2" but only if the seeds are too big for the smaller ones. And will pay up tomatoes, peppers and some of my bedding plants that want to grow bigger to plant out.
But my seedlings are healthier in the blocks.
I don't know, I try several seeds in them and every time the growth seem stunt for me, I remember the moment I transplanted my coleus from a 2" soil block to a larger container they double in size quickly, it just doesn't work for me unfortunately but I appreciate your comment.
I'm trying this year for the first time. Using fort vee mix for the blocks and have saw some using caprilary mats to help with watering. I may try some that way as I have some of the self watering trays and could put the blocks on the mat. Going to be trial and error lol