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Hi, this is Sheriden Hansen with USU Extension.
I'm here to talk to you today about an alternative technique
to starting your seeds, and that is called soil blocking.
And that is where, instead of using a plastic cell tray,
we are going to start without that.
We're going to make soil blocks, and that
is all that is going to hold our seeds together.
And these soil blocks actually break apart,
and they're very individual, so that we
can take those plants apart, and actually
plant them in the ground.
There are a few things that you're going to need,
you're going to need some kind of soil blocker.
And you can usually find these online,
they come in different sizes.
So you can see I have a very small one here.
This one creates about 20 little soil blocks.
And I have a little bit larger one here,
this one creates about four different soil blocks.
And then I have this great big--
it looks like we need more cowbell, right?
This great, big soil blocker.
You'll notice that inside of these,
there are some pegs and different things inside.
These will help accommodate us planting a seed.
Or like this one, you can see it's exactly
the same size as an individual block from this blocker,
so I can take this block, and I can pot it up to this size.
So it gives me options for size control and space management.
I'm also going to need some kind of tray to start on.
You can use a tray just like this, a plastic tray.
I've also used cafeteria trays, which you can see here.
I've got some soil blocks right here started.
And the cafeteria trays were great,
I just don't want something that has some drainage in it,
because I'm going to be watering these from the base up.
So I'm going to fill this tray with water,
and let these soil blocks absorb that water.
All right, so let's get started, oh, I also
need some potting mix.
And you see, that I've got two different bags here.
I have a general potting mix here,
which has some peat moss in it.
It also has some little pieces of wood, things like that.
You want something that's fairly fine,
that doesn't have great big pieces of wood,
but you do want it to have a good amount of peat moss in it,
or coconut coir.
That's going to hold the block together.
It's actually going to create kind of a stickiness
with the soil.
And this is compost here, this is
going to add some nutrients to my soil block.
And this compost has these little tiny white dots in it.
And this is called perlite, and perlite
is very important to this mix.
When I am compressing these soil blocks together,
I don't want to compress so much that I
lose the ability for the roots to move through these blocks.
So having something like perlite, opens up that mix,
and opens up that block, so that I can move water and move roots
and air through this block.
OK, let's get mixing.
So when we mix, we're going to use a one-to-one ratio.
So I'm going to use one part compost and one part potting
mix.
So I'm just going to start, filling this mixing trough.
So there's two.
Let's do three.
So three parts of compost, and now I'm
going to use my potting mix.
Has a lot of peat in it.
And I know that peat isn't the most sustainable thing,
so if you can use coconut coir, do that.
Coconut coir should be washed, though.
It can have some salinity issues, so a lot of salt. So
make sure that if you do purchase that,
that it is washed.
This is kind of similar to those little peat pots
that you maybe had as a kid and one of your little
grow kits that you added water to.
And it was a little flat disk, and it popped up.
Those have a little, tiny fabric wrapper on the outside.
This is very similar to that.
It just doesn't have that fabric wrapper.
And if you're one of those people that's very concerned
about our environment and you don't
want to use a lot of plastics, this
is a great alternative to getting your seeds started.
All right, so I've mixed this up really well.
The next step is I need to add some water.
And I need this to be wet so that it will stick together,
but I don't want it to be sopping wet.
And I'll show you what I mean.
So I'm going to add a little water here.
We're going to get dirty now.
And I'm just going to mix this in,
and you can see it starting to clump together.
And I know that I'm getting some good moisture here.
And you can see, those clumps, they're
sticking together nicely.
So I've got a good mix.
I've got the right mix that is going to stick.
So when I pick this up, and I squeeze it,
I might have a little water come out, but not
so much that it's just drifting off of my hand.
We're good on water, I think we got it.
The next thing I'm going to do, I'm
going to start with this little blocker.
It's a 2 inch blocker.
This is the one I use most often.
It gives me enough room for those roots
to really get going and grow, without me
having to put up very quickly.
So I'm going to take this, and I'm just
going to start compacting that soil into those blocks.
Sometimes, it doesn't want to stick totally,
but you can see it's really getting in there.
I can use my hands just to help it along, just a little bit,
if I feel like I need a little more.
And once you get the hang of this,
and kind of get going and moving,
it actually goes very quickly.
So once I have that--
let's switch this --I'm going to take my tray.
This is a great reusable tray.
And I'm going to put my soil block right here.
As I push down and lift-- so I'm going to push on this top
handle, and I'm going to lift this lever right here
with my hand.
And as I lift, that is going to compact my block.
And you can see as I pull away, I've
got four little blocks ready to be planted.
So I can keep doing this, I can fill up.
Let's do one more.
We'll fill up our tray.
And if you don't get this perfect the first time,
you can practice.
You can dump these back into the mixing container that you have,
and try again.
Practice makes perfect.
You just have to get the swing of things,
and once you've got it, it starts to go very quickly.
I can do one of these trays really, quite fast.
So there's our second row of blocks.
Once we've got this down, we can go ahead, and we can plant.
And you can see in these blocks, you can see on the top here,
it creates this little indent for me.
This little indent is where I'm going to plant my seeds.
So if I wanted to plant--
so I wanted to plant a beet in one of these, I could take my--
I could take my beet seeds, and I'm going to put it down,
just inside that little indentation.
And then, I can come back and very lightly back fill.
Your seed should be planted to a depth of 3 times the depth
of what their width is.
So I've got these little beet seeds, you can see,
they're quite small.
I'm going to go 3 times deeper than what
I have there, which is really about what this soil
blocker gives me.
If I've got a smaller seed, I'm just
not going to backfill so much on the top of it.
And some of our seeds that need light to germinate,
if you're growing cut flowers, you don't even backfill.
You just place those on the top of the surface,
and they will eventually germinate and root.
I can take this, I can cover this with a plastic dome,
I can cover it with a piece of plastic wrap,
and that will help to trap the heat.
And I can place it on a heat mat,
if I need heat for germination.
OK so right here, you can see that I
have got some soil blocks already set,
and things growing in them.
I've got two different kinds of plants here,
and I really like these cafeteria trays.
They're heavy, I can reuse them over and over again,
and they're just the right size for me to do 20 blocks,
and separate out in the middle.
So I can do two different varieties in this small space.
Over here I have yarrow, and over here I have feverfew.
And the feverfew is taking a little bit
longer to germinate than the yarrow, but I did check it,
and I do have little tiny baby plants just
starting to come through.
You can see I use this 2 inch soil blocker, just right there.
And you can see how nicely it works.
Now I planted two seeds per cell here.
And I will come back and I will thin out once I know
what's germinated and what hasn't.
I will thin out and make sure that I
have just one seed per cell in this cute little soil block
pack.
So that's it-- simple, easy.
Hope you guys have fun with this and enjoy.
Happy gardening.
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