What Is Soil Blocking?
Tired of cluttering up your kitchen counters, windowsills and shelves with grow pots? Soil blocking is a clever way to use your space, reduce single-use plastics and produce healthier plants that can take off after transplanting outside.
See more: How to Start a Vegetable Garden From Seeds
How Do Soil Blocks Work?
Soil blocking is a seed starting technique that relies on planting seeds in cubes of soil rather than cell trays or pots. The potting soil acts as both the growing medium and the container. Soil blockers, which are often metal tools, are used to create the soil blocks. While the technique has only recently started to gain popularity in the United States, it’s been around for more than 2,000 years.
Benefits of Soil Blocking
If you want to produce stronger and healthier plants from seed, soil blocking is well worth the effort. It comes with a learning curve, but many gardeners quickly become avid fans of this seed-starting method because of its many benefits, including:
Stronger Root Systems
This technique is kinder on seedlings because the block allows the roots to air prune rather than circle around themselves and grow root bound. You also don’t have to worry about damaging the roots when you transplant them into the garden, whereas containers require squeezing, shaking and jostling to remove seedlings from their pots. With less shock to their root systems, plants started in soil blocks are healthier and stronger. They also show more vigorous growth when transplanted outside.
Fewer Single-Use Plastics
Because this method uses the growing medium as the container, you can say farewell to disposable seed starting pots. If you decide you like this way of starting your seeds, you may never need to buy containers again. This not only spares the landfill but saves money, too (which most gardeners are happy to use on more seeds instead).
See more: 10 Ways to Make Your Garden More Eco-Friendly
Faster Seed Starting
Learning how to make the blocks takes practice and patience. But once you master your blocking technique, you’ll be off to a great start. You can very quickly make hundreds of soil blocks in a single blocking session, which means more readily available space for all the seeds you want to start this spring.
Efficient Use of Space
Want to start as many seeds as possible but don’t have a lot of space to dedicate to containers? Soil blocking is the most efficient answer. You can fit approximately 300 ¾-inch blocks or 35 2-inch blocks on a single cookie sheet. This makes soil blocking an excellent method for anyone lacking in indoor seed-starting space.
Equipment Needed for Soil Blocking
Interested in attempting this seed-starting technique at home? Here are the basic materials you need to get started:
- Potting mix (growing medium)
- Soil blockers (to create blocks)
- Potting tray (to hold potting mix while making blocks)
- Bottom trays (to hold blocks once made)