Showerthought: Those fancy soil blockers vs. plain old nursery pots

I was reading through the Old Farmers Almanac website last night and came across a stat that surprised me: apparently soil blockers reduce plastic waste by up to 95% compared to using 4-inch nursery pots. But here's the thing I keep going back and forth on. On one hand, I like the idea of not tossing out all those black plastic pots every spring. On the other hand, soil blocks can crumble if you don't have the mix just right, and my seed starting has been hit or miss with them. Meanwhile, those nursery pots are cheap and sturdy and I already have a stack of them. So which side are you all on? Has anyone made the switch and stuck with it, or did you go back to pots after a season?

3 comments

3 Comments

ivan_mason2mo ago

Honestly, "soil blocks can crumble if you don't have the mix just right" is the story of my life. I spent a whole weekend making perfect little cubes last spring and then sneezed near them and they basically turned back into dirt.

lucasw822mo ago

Man... literally the same thing happened to me.

viola_ward1mo ago

Keep experimenting with the mix, @ivan_mason. You probably need a bit more clay content in there to hold the blocks together. I've seen people add a handful of green sand or even a tiny bit of bentonite clay to their soil block mix. That extra stickiness makes a huge difference. Your soil might just be too sandy or have too much peat. It's a fine line between a block that holds up and a pile of dirt. Once you get that ratio right, you can drop them without them falling apart.