1020 Trays vs Soil Blocking - General Gardening - Growing Fruit

I’m starting to run low on trays and inserts for starting my seeds and was shocked at the price increase. I’m wondering if I should buy more or just start Soil Blocking. Looks like soil blocking tools are around $35-40 each and I could abandon the tray inserts. What’s the best source for trays & inserts (I don’t mind buying in commercial amounts)? Has anyone switched to Soil Blocking, are you happy with it, and what potting medium are you using for Soil Blocking?

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@AndySmith

Do some of these work for you Trays & Flats – Greenhouse Megastore . Everything is more expensive.

I would take a chance and buy these in quantity 100+ Greenhouse Trays (No Holes) - Volume Pricing Available - Grower's Solution

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I’m not AndySmith, but soil blocking is just what it sounds like. Instead of seed starting in cells in trays, you use a special tool to pack a soil mix into blocks that are separated from each other. You plant your seed in it and it grows just like it would in a cell in a tray. With blocking you have to have your mix dialed in. Too loose and your blocks crumble. Too dense and the roots can’t penetrate and growth is inhibited. Some people absolutely swear by blocking. Some people get frustrated with it and go back to plastic trays.

I got interested in it from YouTube video’s from “Flower Hill Farm” (she’s only about 20 miles away from our location). If you search that channel and look for Nicole’s videos on starting seed you’ll see her preparing a lot of soil blocks and sewing seed. I’m interested because it would eliminate the need for tray / cell inserts and disposal of that plastic after planting out, but I can see where it could become cumbersome.

I picked up a blocker when it was on sale at A. M. Leonard - got it for about $29. I’ve done some test runs with ProMix BX and it seems to work pretty well although I do feel like I have to compress the soil more than I might like to get them to stick together. I think it might work better with a little compost mixed in.

I’ll be giving it a try this spring with some of my seed starts. I like the idea of not using so much single use plastic and I also like the idea that if you separate the blocks with air between them you get air pruning and should get a better root system that in plastic cells where the roots can circle, etc. We’ll see.

There are a lot of recipes out there for different mixes to use in blocking, but it seemed over-complicated to me. I’m trying straight ProMix and then will see where I go from there.

I’m very skeptical of soil blocking. Root oxygenation is a major goal of the growing setup for most young plant production, and I would think intentionally compressing the soil for blocks must produce a less oxygenated growing medium. I know that you can grow plants in soil blocks, but I would expect less success (higher failure rates and less vigor) compared to using a loose mixture in containers.
However, I’m just making logical inferences based on what I know about soil compression. If someone has empirical evidence to the contrary, I’m certainly willing to learn I’m wrong!

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