Adventures in Soil Blocking

[Branching Out]

Dijon Mustard and other cool brassicas such as Golden Frills mustard, Bare Necessities Kale, and a funky Italian broccoli called Spigariello Riccio-- all sown on March 17th. These all need to stay where it's kind of warm for now, or they may think they've gone through winter and bolt. They are in 1 1/2" blocks that will be planted directly in the ground in a couple of weeks.

 

[Branching Out]

Sunflowers Sunrich Gold and Sunrich Lime had good germination in 1 1/2" blocks, and are now ready to move out to the deck for some fresh air. If I keep them indoors they'll get weak and leggy; I'm hoping the wind will toughen them so so I'll have nice stocky seedlings. These little guys are very cold tolerant at this stage, so they can handle the great outdoors. Critters love sunflower seedlings though--so I am protecting them with plastic covers. I also removed the very few blocks that didn't germinate, to make extra room on the tray.

 

[Branching Out]

Dill and cilantro can be a bit of a challenge to grow indoors, so I'm trialling sowing small pinches of seed in 1 1/2" soil blocks. Cruiser Coriander and Ella Dill were each started on March 11th at cool room temperature. Once they sprouted I moved them under lights to continue growing cool and bright. I'm very pleased with how they are developing so far. I also have two of the cutest little Echinacea Tennesseensis coming along slowly. They were started on January 19th, with a few weeks of cold stratification in the fridge.

 

[Branching Out]

Sweet Peas are stalling with this long cold stretch of soggy weather. Most of these ones were started in mid-February. Hopefully it will dry out enough to plant a few of them in the garden later this week. I find sweet peas tricky to get established, so I would hate to have these perish.

 

[Branching Out]

And finally lettuce. Some have survived in tiny 3/4" peat blocks for over a month, which is kind of interesting. If I have time I may bump them up to 2" blocks, for sharing. My preference is to start lettuce seed on coarse vermiculite, and then at about 2 weeks I prick out them out to 1 1/2" peat blocks. Given that I have so many different cultivars I try to label the tray with a metal tag right away, so I don't have to scramble to make one when it's time to get them in the garden. I have at least ten trays of lettuce ready to plant out as soon as the weather cooperates.