WHAT SOIL BLOCKER DO I USE? (WE REVIEW THE SIZES AND A SWIFTBLOCKER!) 

Okay so are you saying instead of up pot you just stack the cube on top of one new cube? And let the roos grow down into it?

@@waynegretzky8464 exactly

Isn’t it cool??❤

It is very cool but it is way overpriced. Something like that should NOT be $300.

​@@dlv0187 I understand your perspective as a consumer, but as a small business owner who has to make the tough pricing decisions of products and services I disagree. I don't know their product margins but I imagine its not as much as one may think. I'm curious what about the price and the product makes it feel overprices for what one gets for the purchase? Here is my take: The product is metal-based framing, not plastic, and is made domestically in the USA--not built and shipped internationally, and price includes shipping. I value small business innovation and efficient tools made by practitioners of a given trade, and this product aligns with that, too. The product is very reusable season after season and year after year, and will pay for itself after one round of seed start sales. If one already soil blocks then one already knows the prices of current soil block equipment: I have a standup soil blocker and a handheld blocker of comparable size and those blockers priced out are same price as a swift blocker, all without the hand strain of squeeze-release soil block equipment. If someone feels comfortable with metalworks, or even a jigsaw with metal blade and aluminum material, yes, it would be easy to make a comparable product for well under $100, but that isn't an option for everyone. Thus the swift blocker really is a solution for a lot of serious grower problems around starting and transplanting seeds efficiently and economically and regeneratively. The product's target customer's are clearly serious small to mid scale growers, not casual gardeners, so if someone is making a lot of soil blocks for their business or homestead, this is huge on all fronts that matter most to that target customer--meets the gap between hand/standup blockers and large scale commercial automatic blockers. As 21st century humans with the opportunity and privilege of watching videos online, our time is one of the most valuable commodities we have. So, for less than a $1 for a year use, or less than 20cents over five years, for a swift blocker is a no brainer when compared to the time lost in that same timeframe using a slower, less efficient system.

​@@dlv0187 Think of glass blowing as an example. Everyone everywhere loves a drinking glass, so there is a market to invest in mega factories consisting entirely of robots that produce thousands of glasses an hour, where you can buy a beautiful drinking glass for $1. A coloured glass peacock statue is not something everyone wants, and so there are no mega factories of robots to make them. Instead, a small group of artisan glassblowers spend many hours handcrafting a handful of them for a tiny market. To be able to make this an honest living, it is necessary to charge $1000 for this peacock statue. Drawing a parallel to garden tools, you can see how a shovel which as a high demand item, has entire factories set up to spit out thousands of them using largely machinery and sold in hardware stores around the country, is going to be far cheaper than an item like the swiftblocker. Unlike the shovel it is not in high demand, does not have a factory producing them, is created by an individual or small team using largely manually operated tools or workstations and as a result are produced in relatively low numbers relative to the amount of time required to produce them, and so must be sold at a higher price to compensate.

Yes the 2” is very versatile if you have the space for it!!! ❤

(And thank you for the kind feedback!)

What a nice, positive, and helpful post!

I have 200 blocks that never germinated any seeds, can I reuse these blocks or should I compost them and start a new mixture?

Glad it was helpful!❤

You're welcome! ❤❤

PFAS are highly toxic “forever” chemicals common in waterproof paper and other products. It’s also in our rainwater and composts made with biosolids. You can read more here: www.ewg.org/what-are-pfas-chemicals

What the point of starting it in a smaller soil block and potting up. Why not just start it in the final size block?

@@simd510 for me it's maximizing initial space so I'm not wasting soil and footage, smaller starting blocks also means less water retention so damping off is less likely.

I personally don’t use that one! Too big for my needs, the only thing I pot up are tomatoes and I just pot those up into the same 1-gallon pots every year personally. The 4” is expensive!

Yes, I’d try linseed oil! Don’t store it in the wet mix. I need to oil mine, it’s squeaky haha

@@Blossomandbranch oh I would never store it in the mix but it got rusty at some point. Who knows how. I just bought flax oil for my cast iron pans so that’s perfect, now I have another use for it. Thanks!

As long as the blocks aren’t touching each other, the roots will be confined by the air in between. The bottom of the blocks rest on bare tray so the roots won’t have a path into an adjacent block.

Most potting mixes just don’t hold together that well and crumble without a binder but you can always give it a shot!

@@Blossomandbranch someone would make bank selling a perfect mix. Would Espoma Land & Sea compost work as the compost part?

Cupko

This is my question too. A link of where to buy them would be great! Thank you so much for your wonderful videos! So inspiring and empowering!

Neumím aglincky můžez napsat český

I actually hated the stand up version. It doesn’t work in a small space like mine. The swift blocker is a great solution but way beyond what a home gardener needs. :)

They are from garden heir :)

Ladbrooke is my go to blocker, beware the Chinese knock offs!

www.amazon.com/shop/blossomandbranchfarm

You should be able to find the small ones there, in tools!