How to DIY Soil Blocks for Vegetable Seedlings. © All photos in this post are by John Laumer.
This photo shows a manually operated soil blocker, seed starter mix, and flat-bottomed container for forming starter blocks. Serious gardeners who've kept track of their spending know how expensive it can be to purchase peat pots, potting soil, & soil blocks each year. With any sort of plant root bundle packaging, you are forced to buy more polypropylene and labels and trays. There is better way. Note: Garden and home centers seldom offer seedlings or transplant-ready vegetables in soil blocks for practical reasons: root bundles dry out too fast if not surrounded by plastic; plant root bundles can't be shipped without crumbling unless they are either potted or shrink wrapped (the latest awful design to deal with when transplanting store bought plants is the plastic wrapped root bundle -- it sucks to get off without exposing the roots); and, distributors like to have something to print a label and a bar code on.
Four Season Farm - Welcome to the site of Eliot Coleman and Barbara Damrosch. Four Season Farm. OUTILS. The Soil Blocker. FarmArt Six-Row Seeder - Tiny Farm Gear. Eliot Coleman: Creating a Root Cellar. As we enter into autumn, the gardening locavore starts assessing her stock of pickled beans, dried herbs, and preserved fruits.
But what about the potatoes, beets, turnips, carrots? What’s a gardener to do with those when the thermometer drops? Most homesteaders opt for the simple solution of a root cellar. Eliot Coleman Keynote at VABF 2011. Eliot Coleman's Keynote at Bioneers by the Bay 2008. Eliot Coleman's Tips on Transplanting Soil Blocks & Salad Farming. Eliot Coleman's Tomato Tips & How to Build a Greenhouse. Eliot Coleman presents The Winter Harvest Handbook. Eliot Coleman Winter Harvest.m4v. Lancement du livre "Des Légumes en hiver" de Eliot Coleman.