Adventures in Soil Blocking

[Branching Out]

August has been hot and humid so far, but it's comfy and cool in the basement so I'm starting some cucumbers, lettuce, and brassicas in soil blocks indoors. I also started some bush snap beans in 2" blocks. It may be a bit late for them, however I am willing to try. They sprouted in just for days. I just love fresh green beans!

 

[Branching Out]

Two kinda of beany blocks planted out in a high tunnel today, Provider (black tray) and Empress (white tray). Let's hope they can produce beans before the first frost. The photo taken two days later on August 10th shows considerable growth for the Provider bean plants, which is encouraging. It's remarkable how quickly they popped!

 

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Where possible I try to poke a few extra seeds in, just in case the primary seed in a block fails to germinate. The photo below on the left shows two empty blocks of Pac Choi. Fortunately two 'extra' seeds germinated, so I could prick them out and move them to fill the empty blocks.

 

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After a couple of failed attempts to sow Teff outdoors I finally resorted to starting some in 2" blocks on August 4th. The seeds are extremely tiny, and need a lot of moisture to germinate. I was delighted to see green growth after just one week with this method. I am right at the end of the sowing window for Teff. With a little luck I will get some fresh seed from it for planting next year.
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Yesterday I did a seed starting session with some friends, primarily to get lettuce going so that our families will have lots available for salads during the cooler autumn months. This time of year a one week delay in sowing can result in a two week delay in harvesting-- so time is of the essence. The night before the session I mixed dry organic fertilizer into peat moss and moistened it well, with one bin for each person to work with. Set up the next morning was pretty simple. I already had a green Romaine and Jester lettuce growing kind of crowded in soil blocks indoors, so a bunch of those small seedlings were dug out and moved into fresh 1 1/2" blocks. There were also tiny Yugoslavian Red Butterhead and Jericho sprouts that I had started on vermiculite, so those were pricked out and placed in their own blocks too. Then we made trays of blocks just for seed starting. Some Gai Lan, Pac Choi, Red Mizuna, Alkindus butterhead lettuce, and Ezrilla lettuce seeds found its way into those blocks.

I really liked having the pre-germinated lettuce to work with. My tray of seedlings went back under lights, and my friends went home with a tray of actual living green plants that will take off growing. Given that I can start 40-50 seeds in a tiny cup of vermiculite it is also a very efficient way of starting a whole bunch of lettuce; it can easily spend the first 10-15 days of its life shoulder to shoulder in a 2" take-out cup, instead of potting mix. After we finished our project I filled several more small containers with vermiculite and topped them with more lettuce seed, with an eye towards winter hardy varieties. If all goes well that lettuce will get pricked out into soil blocks later next week--with the help of my friends.

 

[Branching Out]

A follow-up to the August 8th post showing newly planted soil blocks with beans in the high tunnel. Here is a photo of what the plants looked like this morning.