Down To Earth: The Perfect Soil Block

Saturday, March 22, 2014

The Perfect Soil Block

It's seed planting time! Time to plant Broccoli, Brussel's Sprouts, Cauliflower, Cabbage, Fennel, Herbs, Lettuce, Spinach, Kale, Swiss Chard, and Kohlrabi. It's a big job......

First, the prep work.....I always try to use high quality potting soil and new seeds....I do a good job with the soil, but I am guilty of using old seeds sometimes.....don"t judge me..... I just have trouble throwing seeds away! The next thing I do is prepare some Sphagnum Moss.

Sphagnum moss consists of the dried plants growing atop sphagnum peat bogs. When ground, this moss can be used for starting seeds and appears to have the ability to suppress certain seedling diseases.

Note that I use "Sphagnum Moss", not Sphagnum Peat Moss. It's hairy with long strands and it's very dry and brittle, so I wear protection to keep most of it out of my lungs and eyes....

I rub it between my gloved hands.....

And sift it.....

Until it's all been reduced to a fine powder....

Then I set it aside to use on the surface of my soil blocks. Instead of using plastic pots for planting the bulk of my seeds I like to use soil blocks.....

There are a lot of advantages to using soil blocks if you are starting lots of seeds. You don't have to buy store and store pots, plants don't get root bound because the roots pull back when they reach the air, plants go through minimal transplant shock, and most importantly......there is virtually no cleanup on transplant day!!

If you aren't starting lots of seeds you probably would not want to invest the money in the soil block makers as they are quite expensive. This is the 4 inch model....

It is sort of like a cookie cutter.....this is the bottom...

And when you depress the lever mechanism it pushes out the cookies....I mean the soil blocks....Sorry.

And this is the 3/4 inch model.....

It works the same way...

And makes the cutest little soil blocks ever!!

The 3/4 inch soil blocks fit nicely into the tops of the 2 inch blocks if you want to transplant them once indoors before finally transplanting them outdoors, but I never use them that way. I like to plant lettuce, spinach,and herbs in the 3/4 inch blocks and everything else in the 2 inch blocks....then they go directly outdoors in April.

Although I love the soil block method I must admit that I have had a lot of trouble consistently making nicely shaped blocks.....the soil usually ends up getting stuck in the block maker and it won't come out, so the blocks end up looking like this....

I knew there was a way to do this right because every once in a while I make some really nice ones, so this time I became determined to figure out the perfect technique.

I tried semi-dry soil...

I tried super-wet soil....

I tried "charging" the block maker with dry Sphagnum Moss before making blocks....

I'm embarrassed to say that I even tried Pam....

Nothing was really working....but I kept trying and trying, and I finally found that the key is following this technique: charging the block maker with Sphagnum Moss, using really wet soil, filling the block maker full and tight, and then depressing the lever TWICE with a firm, crisp action......and......voila!!!