Soil Blocker & Light Tray

With Marta Anderson's help and guidance I started my first 3-tier florescent light indoor seed sprouting and starting system and employed the "Soil Blocker" method to create the individual cells.  I am really happy with the results so far and sincerely thank Marta for the time she spent teaching me and hope that in the future the Eastmark Garden Club can benefit more from her knowledge.

Here is a run down.

BLOCKING ( I took most of the following from “The New organic Grower”, Eliot Coleman)

The blocking mix is different than a potting mix because the blocking mix needs extra fibrous material to allow it to be formed into a paste suitable for making blocks.  It also needs good water holding capability.  It is a mixture of peat, sand, soil and compost.  Go to Johnny’s Seed to watch a video to explain it.  Look under “Hand Held 4-cell soil blocker”.

Here is a link to the video at Johnny's Seed =>  Click here

SEED STARTING FORMULA:  (Bucket => about the size of a mop bucket)  Using the following batch formula, it created enough soil to furnish 250 cells and 10 each 4” pots and had one 5-gallon bucket of starter left over.

WATER: About 1 part water to 3 parts mix.  For successful block making the mix will be wetter than you would use for flats.  The most common mistake is to try to mix it too dry.

GERMINATION: Give the seeds very little cover if any.  Larger seeds do get some cover.  Cover with seran warp until sprouted (ie do not keep watering).  For most crops the temperature needs to be 70 to 75 degrees.  Asparagus, cucumber, eggplant, melon, pepper and squash needs 75 to 80 degrees.

GROWING: Keep the water level high using a mist sprayer or take the trays out to go water someplace you don’t mess up the room. 

COST

The picture above shows the final result: 250 individual cells and 10 pots.  After placing the seeds, I noted carefully which cell had which seed, and covered the entire tray with saran wrap.  Below is my record of what I planted and the results.  

Here are some pictures 6 days after planting.

Within a week of planting, everything in the light system came up and was growing like crazy except for the Ithaca lettuce and the Parsley.  I understand the Parsley, but I think the Ithaca lettuce seed is no good.

This has been a roller coaster ride of emotions!  Do I water or not water?  Do I transplant outside or not transplant?  What happens if I leave them to grow under the lights?  Will they dampen off and die or grow large plants?  How long do I experiment with this before I lose the opportunity to put them in the ground?

By day 8 everything is either in 4" pots or has been put into the garden except for some lettuce, turnips and sweet pea flowers and I am ready to start another batch!

I know if I had planted the above directly into the garden, I would have used a lot more water, worked a lot harder, and would have had to wait a lot longer.  There are a lot of environmental factors going on under the ground to prohibit seed sprouting that are overcome by the light system that I am sure I would not have had as much success with direct sowing and would have had to wait a lot longer for the results.

After a few weeks, I lost almost everything I had started under the lights in the last experiment.  They grew long and spindly then dampened off.  So in terms of producing something in the garden, this was a failed experiment.  In terms of what I learned, it was a complete success.  So I tried again.

EXPERIMENT #2 This time I cut the Superphosphate in half.  I had better results.  Here are some plants I started 17th of January.  We have had some hard freezes, but the weather is warming up and I think I will be ready to plant next week (28 February).  I expect good results.

After I figured our freezes were over, I transplanted to the garden.  Within a week nearly everything was dead!

What did I do wrong?

Marta told me I had skipped a very important phase:  The plants were Sun Burned!  I needed to have "Hardened Off" the plants to get them accustomed to the sun even though the days were mild.  Hardening off is a process of slowly getting the plants used to being outside.

In conclusion, I have a LOT more to learn and to develop a routine that works best for me.  

A year has past since I started this blog.  I have used the light tray/blocker several times successfully and am happy with it.