Soil Blocking and Seed Sowing

We are trying micro soil blockers for sowing our seeds this year. A soil blocker creates a little compact block of seed compost which thanks to the soil blocker holds itself together into a little cube! The soil blocker also leaves a handy little divot on top in which to place the seed.

The micro soil blockers produce a neat 18mm or 3/4″ cube, this means that they only take up a tiny amount of space so a heater propagator or window ledge can provide a good capacity of seedlings! The next size up is a 50mm or 2″ soil block and the neat thing about these is they come supplied with a moulded square block to leave a suitably sized divot in which to place the micro soil block, so there is no soil disturbance when potting on.

The soil blocks are very space efficient, being little cubes the blocks fit neatly across a standard seed-tray and use a lot less polytunnel or greenhouse shelf space than the equivalent pots. One great benefit of the soil blocks is that the seedlings roots “air prune” when reaching the edge of the soil block, this prevents the familiar circling or roots and plats becoming pot or root bound.

The soil blocks mean a lot less root disturbance which means that the seedlings roots can swiftly extend out into the planting medium when potted on into the next sized soil block!