Soil blocks for growing seed

Hi Bobbyt

I’ve never tried soil blocks, for the confusion/art you talk about.

I have grown peat free for the last couple of years. I find coir has got quite expensive unless you are just buying the tiny plugs.

Do you have the space to be buying all the ingredients to make your own mix?

I have been using Westland new horizon compost for seeds and have found this ok, it has a fine fibrous texture and contains coir. I do find that hungry seedlings like squash need a little feeding before they are ready to plant out. So it may work in a block press.

Thanks Ema and Jezza, I found coir blocks for £3.50 each which makes about 9 litres per block, I'm not mass producing - probably use 2 x blocks and mix with the seed compost and vermiculite, plus some garden soil as well in the recipe I mentioned with fish, blood and bone for nutrients. I'll only need a plastic container and a soil sieve to mix them up in, and just use a bucket to activate the coir, so not a lot of space required really.

I've since found a couple of Youtube videos and looks like the mix works quite well from their experience. I can always experiment between now and planting time to see if the blocks are ok. Thanks for the replies.

Thanks Ralph, that is helpful. I'll try some soil mixes in the next couple of weeks, am waiting until the temperature gets away from freezing point to save my hands being numb !

I have the 4 x 50mm soil blocker. I'll try different levels of 'wetness' and mixture ratios, then leave and check after a while to see if they hold together. I intend using these for most of my seedlings to see how it goes. Cheers. Rob

I'm pleased you mentioned this topic because when i was tidying out my tool shed  i found my old block maker I've had that for years and i think as I've got some well rotted horse manure i can make a mix up with peat or compost that mite bind together to make a block anyway its worth a try

The secret seems to be adding far more water than you would think to a mixture of fibrous material mixed with loam and some drainage/aeration medium. I am still experimenting at the moment, but when I have something I am happy with... and if it ever stops raining, I will post some pictures and my recipe.

Ralph.   

yes i would be interested if you can crack this Ralph and i will do the same when i start making my blocks if it works should we patent it

Now, there's a thought. All we need is a snappy name, and we could make a fortune 

Ralph

that's some blocks Jezza and from what your saying its compaction that keeps the blocks together and was the blocks sowed with an automatic seed sower?

what did you sow in the blocks?

Bit warmer today - 9 deg - so decided to try out the new soil blocker. Never used one before, but looked at advice on here and Youtube.
So, the soil mix I tried was 3 parts coco coir (bought some 9ltr blocks to try), 2 parts seed compost - which I sieved first - I was surprised how many solid big lumps were in there, thought seed compost was supposed to be fine ! 1 part vermiculite - probably should've bought smaller size, but it seemed ok - and one part soil (shop bought bag). Mixed it up into quite a wet mix, and seems to work ok. I have attached a pic to see. I plan to put them on top of a layer of wetted cardboard in a seed tray. When I want to use them for real, I will add a nutrient as well to the mix. Not sure what will happen after a few days, the plan is, as long as they are kept damp, they should hold together until the roots do that job.

I did pick them up and move them just to see if I could, and they didn't fall apart, so good result I think. Can anyone see any flaws in my plan at the moment? I'm tempted to try a few seeds in them, but may be a bit cold yet for anything to germinate. I have a heater mat coming soon, so maybe leek seeds in the blocks may work then in the greenhouse?