I'm so glad I took the plunge and got soil blockers a few years ago. It feels good to avoid the plastic, and the plants are so healthy. It does take awhile to get the hang of forming them and watering them, but even in year 1 when I was learning, most of my plants in soil blocks did great.
Adequate funding and public trust in the government is the critical combination for seeing our way forward in these non-stop fire seasons. It’s tragic when a Rx burn gets away and destroys homes but what most people don’t know is a forest district’s funding is tied to getting so many acres burned annually even when it means burning on days too windy and dry, now that’s a bad prescription. We need to trust the experts and when those in charge make a mistake like what lead to the Cerro Grande fire in 2000 and the Las Conchas or Calf Canyon fires more recently public trust also goes up in flames. Thank you for reminding us fire is essential, as is discernment for when to use it.
totally agreed, as a someone who was raised and lives in Cali and comes from a family with park rangers, we cant afford to have more things like this fire. we gotta work with the experts. Prescribed Burns sound scary but are insanely important
I live and have lived my whole life on the west coast, currently northwestern Oregon. I have seen, heard and felt the devastation of forest fires, brush fires and careless ditch fires. Thank you for bringing light to the importance of proper forest/fire management. Having carefully planned burns to get rid of dry underbrush is so important to prevent huge fires. Every late summer fall more of my beautiful state burns. It seems closer to people every year. The lasting effects of these forest fires are seen and felt for generations. We still see the remnants of the fires from when Mt St Helens erupted 44 years ago. As our summers get hotter and dryer (we rarely have rain from mid- July through September) fires are going to get worse unless the powers that be listen to the forest management experts (ironically, they are usually loggers) and take more steps to protect us and our beautiful irreplaceable land. My prayers are with southern California.
Just want to say thank you, Jesse. Besides the fact that you’ve inspired me to make my meager land more productive and ecologically beneficial, you embody so much of what I hope to represent with my work and my ideals. You are clear-headed, non-judgmental, empathetic, and you legitimately care about making the world a better place, recognizing that seemingly small, localized acts of good can have an immense long-term impact. As we head into an uncertain and challenging future, I just hope there are more folks like you putting themselves out there, letting us know a better path is available if only we choose to do the heavy lifting of blazing that trail. ❤
Some years back I worked on a large commercial/conventional farm that used soil blocks for their lettuce, as well as their squash, cucumbers and zucchini. For the lettuce they had a huge vacuum drop seeder assembly line machine that built the blocks, seeded, and then placed the blocks into trays. About every 10 seconds it popped out a finished tray. Trays, stacked on pallets, went into a germination chamber and on the day the seeds popped the trays went into tunnels. Over a million heads of lettuce per season. They also had a transplanter tractor (Ferrari brand from Italy, not the same Ferrari as the sports car brand, but it was red.) that would plant the soil blocks, two rows per bed across two beds at a time. Well spaced for full sized heads of iceberg, romaine, curly green and some curly red. Supplying all the major grocery stores in our region. One person drove the tractor, one person fed soil blocks into the hoppers, two people walked behind to fix the occasional planter errors - too shallow, too deep, off spacing, etc. The soil blocks gravity feed down little channels and into the soil where a small plow had opened up the soil with disks running behind to close the soil around the block, with each individual soil block dropped at specific spacings. I say this as a paperpot transplanter user. If someone could design a small-scale soil block transplanter, that could be managed by one person, I might consider the switch to soil blocks.
Lifelong Oregonian, 6 years as a no-till grower, genetically 1/16th native North American (though culturally just some white dude). I fully support the further exploring of the topic of fire, prescribed burns, land management, and our relationships to those things. I also fully support the notion that we should collectively be handing the mic to indigenous groups and helping them take point on initiatives related to fire as land management practice. We have so much to learn. I've got more than a couple friends who have been displaced by wildfires, we've lived through weeks of air choked with heavy smoke and ash, seen the skies darkened, the sun turned blood red in the haze. It all burns eventually, just a matter of how big and destructive, or how tame and constructive, the fire will be.
One time I grew shoe peg corn with row corn, and some ears came out with distinct rows about 4-5 kernels wide, with a shoe peg pattern within each of the half a dozen or so rows.
On transporting the soil blocks around/out to garden, you can haul more than 3 trays on a flatbed wagon, like the mesh ones w the sides removed. I'm sure more yet, if ya made an enlarged platform on the wagon. I want to get the super sturdy solid trays to put them ( the mesh trays I have the soil blocks In) in for bottom watering & transporting. I am doing this on a home-garden/homestead scale only, and have been using them for 4 years or so. Got the 2 in. block-maker, shorter handheld which works fine for me for the majority of my starts. I use saved, 3 to 4 in. small nursery pots to start larger seed stuff like squashes in, and to transport tomatoes and peppers soil blocks into for a while, if not put tomatoes directly into saved yogurt containers ( I poke holes in bottom, and space isn't too much of an issue. I don't do more than 20 tomato plants). Eventually, after hopefully moving 1st, I do want to put waist high "tables" in my homemade hoop house to place the trays on, and then maybe leave off the bottom watering trays and just spray like you and others do, at least, for everything but tomatoes, squash & melons.. (?). For now, I'm just balancing trays on concrete blocks and so far ( 1 season) they weren't disturbed by rodents etc. (my hoop house isn't rodent proofed at all underneath).
Right on brother. There was a complete civilization on this continent before the Europeans came . This story while underplayed in the American education system . As always, your outlook going situations are well educated and founded.
I love my soil blocks. I will never go back to regular trays. I just bought the Johnny’s soil blocker and it was just so much easier to use. I love their new design. We are planning our prescribe burn this year on our land. It is a great tool to help clean up but you need professional to help with them. I think also using animal tool was also stopped on many places. We stop use of sheep and goats to manage brush in urban areas. I actually would like to start a service like that for my neighbors so we stop our forest to burn in East Texas in the drought.
I love blocks too, ever since i was introduced to them over a decade ago. I love your thought about how its part of your fertility management system. Ever since i heard Diego interview Ben Hartman and talk about how Clay Bottom uses a more nutritious soil mix meant for seedlings also in their microgreens. He describes it as part of their fertility management and it made me look at the bigger system of fertility on the farm. I started using Coast of Maine soil to not only get larger micro yields, but also to add additional seafood and compost to my field veg. I forget where i heard it, but a tip about the moisture content of blocks. Take a handful of packed mud and throw it at a wall, like your shed or soil bin. It should make a good mud pie that splats and sticks. It shouldn't bounce off, or slide off immediately. And thats about the perfect consistency.
I’ve tried soil blocking failed with 4 pack failed with tiny 32? Pack all the while watched many of your how to videos. Think today your water instructions finally pierced my cranial cavity. Squeeze get some drip but not mush (like my brain) Going to give another try but going to wait patiently (I’m the most impatient person on earth) until by golly Feb 15 to seed early stuff and I saw you or someone separate the blocks to prevent roots from jumping to another block. Appear I can be a little rough not crazy moving them apart. Many thanks. 73 yo tiny garden guy in Nebraska 5B
It was a practice of the missions where the fires are now to bring the cattle in close in September. They would graze down the grass so when the fire did happen the missions was safe. But like camp grounds dead wood was hard to come by because of using for cooking fires
Hello farmer, Jesse, and RUclips comment section. I can totally relate with pretty much everything you said in regards to fire. I’ve always loved sitting by a campfire. I remember growing up in the Cub Scouts going on campouts every few months and learning how to harness the power of fire. It’s amazing how something so simple can mean so much and yet be taken for granted. Without fire, we wouldn’t be able to cook our foods. And then speaking of using it as a tool, I agree that we should definitely do more prescribe Burns, especially in fire prone areas. Personally, I don’t see how California could possibly allow any kind of under story in excess within their forests. With as many fires as they’ve gotten in my 28 years of life, I don’t see how they don’t manage their forests better.
Here from CA- it’s soo frustrating that the conversation is climate change vs mismanagement when both are clearly at play. The invasive european annual grasses are crazy flammable, and the forests are never logged responsibly because it’s not profitable. CA FIRE FACTS: It’s become 2x more extreme weather days since the 80’s (hotter, drier, windier) Humans cause ~90% of fires in CA so either we stop starting fires (i highly doubt it) or we have to seriously take steps to curb this, but i doubt the gov and private landowners will come to terms, sadly.
Grower/breeder down here in LA whitnessing the crazy wildfires. Also a long time viewer, I’ve noticed you never mention “proptek” trays which seem to be the industry standard for large scale commercial nurseries for large vegetable farms. I use them and they’ll last a lifetime
Fire. I’m working my way through the soilfoodweb webinars - in a 2019 webinar Dr Elaine Ingham and Dr Brian Cobb discussing wildfire soil remediation pointed out the following about California; The soil biology in the Northern Californian forests as tested in 2019 compared to earlier tests by Dr Ingham had comparatively little or no fungi in the soil resulting in stressed trees that would burn more easily. According to her healthy forest soils (biomass 90 percent fungal) means healthy vegetation that is more resistant to fires. The soils have been disturbed by various human activities (eg: allowing recreational visitors and their vehicles into the forests) compacting the soils. Dr Cobb said that Firs have been allowed to grow in the Californian forests due to bad forest management. 6 years later their worst fears have been terribly realised. If we don’t respect and look after our environments - especially the natural environment, we are literally playing with fire.
been really tempted to pull the trigger on a soil blocker for transplants. any insight on why you think soil block transplants require less hardening off than cells? more exposure to air, maybe?
I live in Oregon, long history of logging here and, like a lot of multi-generational Oregonians, I see the lack of logging as stupid. Instead we just watch it burn. Selective cutting and thinning is what we need to cut down on the severity of fires AND we need prescribed burns too.
The problem is that logging companies don't want to go in and take out brush and tiny, scrubby trees in a targeted fashion. They want to go after the biggest trees in order to get the most and best lumber, and clear cut entire sections of forest. Which means for years afterwards you will have more brush and more tiny, scrubby trees, all adding large amounts of highly flammable biomass to any future fires, without any of the large trees to break wildfires and reseed naturally afterwards. Unfortunately, commercial logging as currently practiced will only make the problem worse, not solve it.
Hi. My question about using soil blocks has to do with using the mesh trays in addition to flat trays. I've seen others just using the flats, with gentle bottom watering. Seems to work well, but I'm thinking maybe the mesh trays are required to get the air pruning of the bottom roots? I think I remember someone saying the bottom roots get all tangled up if they just sit on the flat trays.
Sadly a lot of traditional knowledge all over the world has been lost. Often on purpose. With methods of surpressing groups of people. If only we could learn more from one another imagine where we'd be.
Has anyone tried the drop seeders from Bootstrap which are spaced for soil blocks? Johnny's is also selling a 72 hole drop seeder they say is spaced for soil blocks now.
I have not tried soil block, but I use almost any container I can get my hands on and save used ones--I'm cheap! I'm considering soil blocks, but this won't be a big garden year due to not being home during the middle of summer.
Questions about soil blocks! I use the 35 stand-up blocked for smaller crops. Do you really think it's that much more soil in a soil block versus, say a 128 cell tray? I find that by the time you compress the block into a solid little block, it's really not that much soil. I guess I should make my own measurement. I also was wondering if you could show us what tray you use beneath the soil blocks. I was doing a tray with holes inside a tray without holes, so that I could bottom water (and more tray strength for carrying them around) but I think then there wasn't enough drainage or I was over-watering. Also the tray have ridges in them, which sometimes makes the soil blocks not sit very well. Do your trays have ridges, or holes in them? Instead of making 4-block soils blocks this year I'm going to get cell trays - I don't enjoy making 4 blocks at a time. I did try your balling up method last year with tomatoes and peppers from the 4-blocker...it was interesting, although I think if I had larger hands/made bigger balls it would have been more successful, because the peppers did out-grow the balls before I had space for them outside. Maybe I just need to work on my timing a bit better. How long do your tomatoes and peppers last once you ball them up?
For comparison, Vermont compost says a 2 cubic ft. bag makes 18 128 cell trays. That's about 190 cubic inches. Swift blockers 128 is 1.1x1.1x1.5 inches, which is 232 cubic inches. Extrapolate that back out to 2 cubic foot bags of mix, you're getting just under 15 trays to a 2 cu ft bag. At least to me that's a fair amount! You gotta remember that cell trays are not straight squares but taper to the bottom.
I tried balling up by hand last year for my excess tomatoes. Didn't keep good records tho. I guess they lasted 5 or 6 weeks. I just never planted them out. I'm still optimistic.
Thinks for speaking on colonialism. It's a topic that everyone needs to be more aware of. A lot of problems in the world can point at colonialism as a starting point.
17:14 the erosions of Rights and the humanities of those who are not "us" can always be turned against us. The more people that have rights, freedom and in charge of their own Humanity strengthens the whole and benefits everyone. It makes it harder for another group to pull us apart. But it is something that must be actively combated with, or the system as a whole begins to crumble and fall apart from us.
We were just talking about these 'controlled burns' in AB & BC where they MOSTLY get out of control ... not sure how many they actually control but it doesn't sound like they're very goods at controlling fires or is it on purpose let to get out of control? We were also discussing how nature needs to burn to rejuvenate -- it's NATURAL
Jesse is an ideologue. Now that hydroponics is certified organic I grow all my seedlings (around 12,000 at a time - around 100,000 in a season) hydroponically. There is just no reason to handicap yourself in such a complicated field by doing these sorts of things. He is probably sponsored by soil block manufacturers.
On the issue of fire please correct me if you are knowledgeable about the subject but I think indigenous peoples on all continents avoided living in areas where there is vast amounts of fuel and air just waiting for a spark. Areas like forested hills and mountains. So while it’s painful to see the devastation please consider not making the same choice twice as to where you will live. Just because technology allows modern man to pound a square peg in a round hole doesn’t mean it’s a smart choice.
They didn't have any permanent structures in the Americas. Hence no ruins. It's one thing to move a teepee or whatever, it's another thing moving a skyscraper.
I'm just a home-gardener, and have been using them for several years now. Just a 2 in. block maker ( makes 6 at once), shorter hand held one. I can assure u that they hold together good for handling, once the roots are m/l throughout. Early one, yeah - don't mess w em much. That can depend on the soil mix or if overly wet or dry. I def. recommend making sure they're not too dry when you go to transplant them, as any weak spots/cracks in it will try to crumble away on ya. Overall tho, just be gentle as with any seedling, and you'll be fine. I'm not super skilled or talented and I've done ok. Watch out for over-watering them too - the outside of the block can look SO dry, but they are very dense, the middle may be still quite wet. I've struggled a lot to get this right and avoid damping off, etc. .
Again Thank you for sharing this information for a 74 year old. Is there a way you could call me regarding a project that I and grandson Looking forward to your reply...
I tried the Winstrip trays but had a lot of problems getting the seedlings out of them without damage which is the same reason that I stopped using plug trays. Do you have any tips for removing the seedlings from the trays? No problems like that with soil blocks!
Foxfarm's Coco Loco works for soil blocks. Though coco coir may be more sustainable than peat, it's not ideal. This year I'm going to experiment with making my own soil mix with leaf mold to see if I can get away from buying soil mixes.
![Noob To Max With DRAGON REWORK In Blox Fruits [FULL MOVIE]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/LnBMOinoOvA/mqdefault.jpg)
Found my 6 year old son playing with his legos singing: "Hey nerds, hey nerds, hey nerds, Farmer Jesse here, hey nerds,..." 😂😂😂
I'm so glad I took the plunge and got soil blockers a few years ago. It feels good to avoid the plastic, and the plants are so healthy. It does take awhile to get the hang of forming them and watering them, but even in year 1 when I was learning, most of my plants in soil blocks did great.
Adequate funding and public trust in the government is the critical combination for seeing our way forward in these non-stop fire seasons. It’s tragic when a Rx burn gets away and destroys homes but what most people don’t know is a forest district’s funding is tied to getting so many acres burned annually even when it means burning on days too windy and dry, now that’s a bad prescription. We need to trust the experts and when those in charge make a mistake like what lead to the Cerro Grande fire in 2000 and the Las Conchas or Calf Canyon fires more recently public trust also goes up in flames. Thank you for reminding us fire is essential, as is discernment for when to use it.
totally agreed, as a someone who was raised and lives in Cali and comes from a family with park rangers, we cant afford to have more things like this fire. we gotta work with the experts. Prescribed Burns sound scary but are insanely important
I live and have lived my whole life on the west coast, currently northwestern Oregon. I have seen, heard and felt the devastation of forest fires, brush fires and careless ditch fires. Thank you for bringing light to the importance of proper forest/fire management. Having carefully planned burns to get rid of dry underbrush is so important to prevent huge fires. Every late summer fall more of my beautiful state burns. It seems closer to people every year. The lasting effects of these forest fires are seen and felt for generations. We still see the remnants of the fires from when Mt St Helens erupted 44 years ago. As our summers get hotter and dryer (we rarely have rain from mid- July through September) fires are going to get worse unless the powers that be listen to the forest management experts (ironically, they are usually loggers) and take more steps to protect us and our beautiful irreplaceable land. My prayers are with southern California.
Just want to say thank you, Jesse. Besides the fact that you’ve inspired me to make my meager land more productive and ecologically beneficial, you embody so much of what I hope to represent with my work and my ideals. You are clear-headed, non-judgmental, empathetic, and you legitimately care about making the world a better place, recognizing that seemingly small, localized acts of good can have an immense long-term impact. As we head into an uncertain and challenging future, I just hope there are more folks like you putting themselves out there, letting us know a better path is available if only we choose to do the heavy lifting of blazing that trail. ❤
Some years back I worked on a large commercial/conventional farm that used soil blocks for their lettuce, as well as their squash, cucumbers and zucchini. For the lettuce they had a huge vacuum drop seeder assembly line machine that built the blocks, seeded, and then placed the blocks into trays. About every 10 seconds it popped out a finished tray. Trays, stacked on pallets, went into a germination chamber and on the day the seeds popped the trays went into tunnels. Over a million heads of lettuce per season. They also had a transplanter tractor (Ferrari brand from Italy, not the same Ferrari as the sports car brand, but it was red.) that would plant the soil blocks, two rows per bed across two beds at a time. Well spaced for full sized heads of iceberg, romaine, curly green and some curly red. Supplying all the major grocery stores in our region. One person drove the tractor, one person fed soil blocks into the hoppers, two people walked behind to fix the occasional planter errors - too shallow, too deep, off spacing, etc. The soil blocks gravity feed down little channels and into the soil where a small plow had opened up the soil with disks running behind to close the soil around the block, with each individual soil block dropped at specific spacings.
I say this as a paperpot transplanter user. If someone could design a small-scale soil block transplanter, that could be managed by one person, I might consider the switch to soil blocks.
Wanted to say thank you for the genuine care about the fires and its dope you care about native folk
Lifelong Oregonian, 6 years as a no-till grower, genetically 1/16th native North American (though culturally just some white dude). I fully support the further exploring of the topic of fire, prescribed burns, land management, and our relationships to those things. I also fully support the notion that we should collectively be handing the mic to indigenous groups and helping them take point on initiatives related to fire as land management practice. We have so much to learn.
I've got more than a couple friends who have been displaced by wildfires, we've lived through weeks of air choked with heavy smoke and ash, seen the skies darkened, the sun turned blood red in the haze. It all burns eventually, just a matter of how big and destructive, or how tame and constructive, the fire will be.
just a matter of how much matter matters
One time I grew shoe peg corn with row corn, and some ears came out with distinct rows about 4-5 kernels wide, with a shoe peg pattern within each of the half a dozen or so rows.
Excellent commentary
Good idea just using that metal dough cutter (aka griddle scraper) to spread the potting mix into your soil block trays, too!
On transporting the soil blocks around/out to garden, you can haul more than 3 trays on a flatbed wagon, like the mesh ones w the sides removed. I'm sure more yet, if ya made an enlarged platform on the wagon. I want to get the super sturdy solid trays to put them ( the mesh trays I have the soil blocks In) in for bottom watering & transporting. I am doing this on a home-garden/homestead scale only, and have been using them for 4 years or so. Got the 2 in. block-maker, shorter handheld which works fine for me for the majority of my starts. I use saved, 3 to 4 in. small nursery pots to start larger seed stuff like squashes in, and to transport tomatoes and peppers soil blocks into for a while, if not put tomatoes directly into saved yogurt containers ( I poke holes in bottom, and space isn't too much of an issue. I don't do more than 20 tomato plants). Eventually, after hopefully moving 1st, I do want to put waist high "tables" in my homemade hoop house to place the trays on, and then maybe leave off the bottom watering trays and just spray like you and others do, at least, for everything but tomatoes, squash & melons.. (?). For now, I'm just balancing trays on concrete blocks and so far ( 1 season) they weren't disturbed by rodents etc. (my hoop house isn't rodent proofed at all underneath).
Jesse, I will not forgive you for the fire pun, but I will applaud you. It was a good one.
Right on brother. There was a complete civilization on this continent before the Europeans came . This story while underplayed in the American education system . As always, your outlook going situations are well educated and founded.
I love my soil blocks. I will never go back to regular trays. I just bought the Johnny’s soil blocker and it was just so much easier to use. I love their new design. We are planning our prescribe burn this year on our land. It is a great tool to help clean up but you need professional to help with them. I think also using animal tool was also stopped on many places. We stop use of sheep and goats to manage brush in urban areas. I actually would like to start a service like that for my neighbors so we stop our forest to burn in East Texas in the drought.
I love blocks too, ever since i was introduced to them over a decade ago. I love your thought about how its part of your fertility management system. Ever since i heard Diego interview Ben Hartman and talk about how Clay Bottom uses a more nutritious soil mix meant for seedlings also in their microgreens. He describes it as part of their fertility management and it made me look at the bigger system of fertility on the farm. I started using Coast of Maine soil to not only get larger micro yields, but also to add additional seafood and compost to my field veg.
I forget where i heard it, but a tip about the moisture content of blocks. Take a handful of packed mud and throw it at a wall, like your shed or soil bin. It should make a good mud pie that splats and sticks. It shouldn't bounce off, or slide off immediately. And thats about the perfect consistency.
Oh and love my swift blocker 128! Tempted a lot by the 200.
I’ve tried soil blocking failed with 4 pack failed with tiny 32? Pack all the while watched many of your how to videos. Think today your water instructions finally pierced my cranial cavity. Squeeze get some drip but not mush (like my brain)
Going to give another try but going to wait patiently (I’m the most impatient person on earth) until by golly Feb 15 to seed early stuff and I saw you or someone separate the blocks to prevent roots from jumping to another block. Appear I can be a little rough not crazy moving them apart. Many thanks. 73 yo tiny garden guy in Nebraska 5B
It was a practice of the missions where the fires are now to bring the cattle in close in September. They would graze down the grass so when the fire did happen the missions was safe. But like camp grounds dead wood was hard to come by because of using for cooking fires
Hello farmer, Jesse, and RUclips comment section. I can totally relate with pretty much everything you said in regards to fire. I’ve always loved sitting by a campfire. I remember growing up in the Cub Scouts going on campouts every few months and learning how to harness the power of fire. It’s amazing how something so simple can mean so much and yet be taken for granted. Without fire, we wouldn’t be able to cook our foods. And then speaking of using it as a tool, I agree that we should definitely do more prescribe Burns, especially in fire prone areas. Personally, I don’t see how California could possibly allow any kind of under story in excess within their forests. With as many fires as they’ve gotten in my 28 years of life, I don’t see how they don’t manage their forests better.
Here from CA- it’s soo frustrating that the conversation is climate change vs mismanagement when both are clearly at play. The invasive european annual grasses are crazy flammable, and the forests are never logged responsibly because it’s not profitable.
CA FIRE FACTS:
It’s become 2x more extreme weather days since the 80’s (hotter, drier, windier)
Humans cause ~90% of fires in CA
so either we stop starting fires (i highly doubt it) or we have to seriously take steps to curb this, but i doubt the gov and private landowners will come to terms, sadly.
Grower/breeder down here in LA whitnessing the crazy wildfires. Also a long time viewer, I’ve noticed you never mention “proptek” trays which seem to be the industry standard for large scale commercial nurseries for large vegetable farms. I use them and they’ll last a lifetime
Fire.
I’m working my way through the soilfoodweb webinars - in a 2019 webinar Dr Elaine Ingham and Dr Brian Cobb discussing wildfire soil remediation pointed out the following about California;
The soil biology in the Northern Californian forests as tested in 2019 compared to earlier tests by Dr Ingham had comparatively little or no fungi in the soil resulting in stressed trees that would burn more easily.
According to her healthy forest soils (biomass 90 percent fungal) means healthy vegetation that is more resistant to fires. The soils have been disturbed by various human activities (eg: allowing recreational visitors and their vehicles into the forests) compacting the soils.
Dr Cobb said that Firs have been allowed to grow in the Californian forests due to bad forest management.
6 years later their worst fears have been terribly realised.
If we don’t respect and look after our environments - especially the natural environment, we are literally playing with fire.
Love organic non gmo corn!!! Good info!!!
Yes we need to learn to clean up brush and do control burns
been really tempted to pull the trigger on a soil blocker for transplants. any insight on why you think soil block transplants require less hardening off than cells? more exposure to air, maybe?
I live in Oregon, long history of logging here and, like a lot of multi-generational Oregonians, I see the lack of logging as stupid. Instead we just watch it burn.
Selective cutting and thinning is what we need to cut down on the severity of fires AND we need prescribed burns too.
The problem is that logging companies don't want to go in and take out brush and tiny, scrubby trees in a targeted fashion. They want to go after the biggest trees in order to get the most and best lumber, and clear cut entire sections of forest. Which means for years afterwards you will have more brush and more tiny, scrubby trees, all adding large amounts of highly flammable biomass to any future fires, without any of the large trees to break wildfires and reseed naturally afterwards. Unfortunately, commercial logging as currently practiced will only make the problem worse, not solve it.
I love ALL No-Till Growers videos!
Hi. My question about using soil blocks has to do with using the mesh trays in addition to flat trays. I've seen others just using the flats, with gentle bottom watering. Seems to work well, but I'm thinking maybe the mesh trays are required to get the air pruning of the bottom roots? I think I remember someone saying the bottom roots get all tangled up if they just sit on the flat trays.
Sadly a lot of traditional knowledge all over the world has been lost. Often on purpose. With methods of surpressing groups of people. If only we could learn more from one another imagine where we'd be.
Has anyone tried the drop seeders from Bootstrap which are spaced for soil blocks? Johnny's is also selling a 72 hole drop seeder they say is spaced for soil blocks now.
I have not tried soil block, but I use almost any container I can get my hands on and save used ones--I'm cheap! I'm considering soil blocks, but this won't be a big garden year due to not being home during the middle of summer.
waste of time and money.
Questions about soil blocks! I use the 35 stand-up blocked for smaller crops. Do you really think it's that much more soil in a soil block versus, say a 128 cell tray? I find that by the time you compress the block into a solid little block, it's really not that much soil. I guess I should make my own measurement. I also was wondering if you could show us what tray you use beneath the soil blocks. I was doing a tray with holes inside a tray without holes, so that I could bottom water (and more tray strength for carrying them around) but I think then there wasn't enough drainage or I was over-watering. Also the tray have ridges in them, which sometimes makes the soil blocks not sit very well. Do your trays have ridges, or holes in them?
Instead of making 4-block soils blocks this year I'm going to get cell trays - I don't enjoy making 4 blocks at a time. I did try your balling up method last year with tomatoes and peppers from the 4-blocker...it was interesting, although I think if I had larger hands/made bigger balls it would have been more successful, because the peppers did out-grow the balls before I had space for them outside. Maybe I just need to work on my timing a bit better. How long do your tomatoes and peppers last once you ball them up?
For comparison, Vermont compost says a 2 cubic ft. bag makes 18 128 cell trays. That's about 190 cubic inches. Swift blockers 128 is 1.1x1.1x1.5 inches, which is 232 cubic inches. Extrapolate that back out to 2 cubic foot bags of mix, you're getting just under 15 trays to a 2 cu ft bag. At least to me that's a fair amount!
You gotta remember that cell trays are not straight squares but taper to the bottom.
I tried balling up by hand last year for my excess tomatoes. Didn't keep good records tho. I guess they lasted 5 or 6 weeks. I just never planted them out. I'm still optimistic.
I'd like more info on the cell block trays also thx Jesse.
Have you read “The Overstory” by Richard Powers?
Any experience with Soil Blocks, Normal Trays, or Windstrip Trays for Dahlia Seeds?
Thinks for speaking on colonialism. It's a topic that everyone needs to be more aware of. A lot of problems in the world can point at colonialism as a starting point.
17:14 the erosions of Rights and the humanities of those who are not "us" can always be turned against us. The more people that have rights, freedom and in charge of their own Humanity strengthens the whole and benefits everyone. It makes it harder for another group to pull us apart. But it is something that must be actively combated with, or the system as a whole begins to crumble and fall apart from us.
We were just talking about these 'controlled burns' in AB & BC where they MOSTLY get out of control ... not sure how many they actually control but it doesn't sound like they're very goods at controlling fires or is it on purpose let to get out of control?
We were also discussing how nature needs to burn to rejuvenate -- it's NATURAL
I would love to do a prescribed burn on my five acres. But the neighbors would freak. Even if it was professionally managed.
I dropped soil blocking last year, went to winstrip trays. Much faster and easier for me.
Jesse is an ideologue. Now that hydroponics is certified organic I grow all my seedlings (around 12,000 at a time - around 100,000 in a season) hydroponically. There is just no reason to handicap yourself in such a complicated field by doing these sorts of things. He is probably sponsored by soil block manufacturers.
On the issue of fire please correct me if you are knowledgeable about the subject but I think indigenous peoples on all continents avoided living in areas where there is vast amounts of fuel and air just waiting for a spark. Areas like forested hills and mountains. So while it’s painful to see the devastation please consider not making the same choice twice as to where you will live. Just because technology allows modern man to pound a square peg in a round hole doesn’t mean it’s a smart choice.
They didn't have any permanent structures in the Americas. Hence no ruins. It's one thing to move a teepee or whatever, it's another thing moving a skyscraper.
What is your recipe for soil blocks?
We're planning to soil block ours this year and I'm so nervous of crushing plants because they feel less sturdy than a compacted plug from a tray 😬
I'm just a home-gardener, and have been using them for several years now. Just a 2 in. block maker ( makes 6 at once), shorter hand held one. I can assure u that they hold together good for handling, once the roots are m/l throughout. Early one, yeah - don't mess w em much. That can depend on the soil mix or if overly wet or dry. I def. recommend making sure they're not too dry when you go to transplant them, as any weak spots/cracks in it will try to crumble away on ya.
Overall tho, just be gentle as with any seedling, and you'll be fine. I'm not super skilled or talented and I've done ok. Watch out for over-watering them too - the outside of the block can look SO dry, but they are very dense, the middle may be still quite wet. I've struggled a lot to get this right and avoid damping off, etc. .
Again Thank you for sharing this information for a 74 year old.
Is there a way you could call me regarding a project that I and grandson Looking forward to your reply...
I tried the Winstrip trays but had a lot of problems getting the seedlings out of them without damage which is the same reason that I stopped using plug trays. Do you have any tips for removing the seedlings from the trays? No problems like that with soil blocks!
Peatless mixes that work?
Foxfarm's Coco Loco works for soil blocks. Though coco coir may be more sustainable than peat, it's not ideal. This year I'm going to experiment with making my own soil mix with leaf mold to see if I can get away from buying soil mixes.
Minus the dogma haha
I got a soil blocker but my hands are too weak to shape the soil and to release it. Any ideas on how I can do this?
I have a $20 one from Amazon works really good. Anything is better than those stupid trays though.
Did my first spil blocks yesterday. Won't buy anything else again
It's corn!
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Don't say I never gave you anything.