How to Make Soil Blocks 

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You are a great teacher!! I appreciate your style of teaching. I’m pretty new at gardening. We just bought a greenhouse. Looking forward to trying this. Thank you so much!

Great job explaining this process.

I didn't realize that the 2-inch block fit into the 4-inch block. That is so convenient! Nice job with the video. It's my first year using soil blockers; got the method down but am still blown away at how much I can fit on a try on my heat mats.

Excellent Tutorial, Thank You.

I made a 4 in soil block maker out of two 1/2 gal plastic milk jugs. A 1/2 gal plastic milk jug is about 4 in square. Cut the bottom & top off of one jug to get smooth sleeve (from the center.) Trim sleeve to the desired height. Use the other one (whole jug) as the plunger. (Flat bottom end through the sleeve first.) Fill the sleeve with soil mix. Push the other milk jug down through. Lift the sleeve wilth one hand. Push down with the whole jug plunger. You can fashion a square dibble hole to accept a 2 in block on the plunger. Just duct tape it in the middle of the bottom of the plunger jug. I stffened the plasic sleeve by hot gluing paint sticks on all 4 sides. Also makes it easier to grip when lifting it up with one hand. I about had a heart attack when I priced the 4 in soil blocker...and that was some time ago. Your 4 in block may be a bit wonky, but you will be $100+ better off.

Thank you for all this info.

Great video!

Jared this was awesome stuff! I loved learning how to make your mixture & printing the soil blocks, but to see the matryoshka doll effect of popping the smaller print blocks into larger ones blew me away with excitement! Thanks a million!

Thank you for this. How many bags of peat do you go through in a growing season? I’m trying to get a good idea on how much I will go through with the large blocks. I grow 135 tomato plants and 66 pepper plants. That’s not counting all the squash I grow. We are a family of 6 and grow in 2500sq ft at the house and have a 2 acre field we work. I’m thinking this will save my some money in the long run, but need a visual of how many bags of peat I would need to buy.

Hello, I have a question regarding seed starting plug. I think these sponges are bound by a particular polymer. Does anyone know the name of this polymer used in production of the seed starting sponge plugs? I am open to any documents and information regarding the production of these sponge plugs as well. Thank you

A question for you, please. When you mention compost, is that homemade compost or store bought in bags? I have been using my own compost but I am finding a few worms hatching out in the mix once it is wet. There must be worm eggs in it.I sifted it last fall and stored it dry indoors over winter in big plastic bags. Any harm in that or should it be sterilized compost for the ¾ inch seed starting blocks?

@VegetableAcademy What slow-release fertilizer do you recommend for the mix to feed young seedlings?

Have you ever tried using biochar in place of vermiculite or perlite

Silly question, but how do you water the blocks? Just top water? I've seen a lot of others bottom water blocks which is why I ask

Are your soil blockers made by Ladbrooke's in the UK? I see the handle is different but other than that they look the same.

Hi, I also have the 4x Ladbrooke Soil Blocker. It came with the normal nips. It works absolutely wonderfully for making soil cubes. They are accurate and come out whole. But when I insert these black cubes where I want to insert the small soil cubes later, the soil cube gets stuck in the Soil Blocker. The whole soil cube is pushed out completely, but the part of the black cubes is so stuck in the soil cube that it does not come out. When I pull up the Soil Blocker, all four soil cubes are hanging only on the black cube inserts. Trying to get the soil cube out usually ends up breaking it. I dip the Soil Blocker in water beforehand, which doesn't solve the problem. The only thing that helps is the opposite. Dust some dry soil dust into the Soil Blocker. This gets them out quite well, but it is inconvenient. Do you have any ideas what could be causing this?

what’s a replacement for perlite ?

How do you water your seed blocks?

Do you start off in the smallest block every time you plant?

What volume of pearlite, peat moss, and compost are you pouring in from the white buckets in the large scale batch?

commercially available compost has ( at least this year 2023) been a serious problem So much of it is river bottom muck with tons of uncomposted matter in it making the compost itself the largest demand of nitrogen and god only knows what heavy metals and other horrid things are scraped off the river bottoms. I bought Kellogs Organic and every plant I put in it died. Care to expound on the compost you use?

Peat Moss is environmentally unsustainable. What could be substituted that doesn't have such an issue?

Block makers are so so expensive

peat moss is probably the most unsustainable soil supplement you can buy, why not use one of the many alternatives?