Eliot Coleman is a gift to mankind. When his show was on TV I enjoyed his work so much and to now have these video clips, well, an extra blessing.

Hi 1Serval. The mix is composed of 1/3 peat moss and coco peat blend (DIY), 1/3 well decomposed and aged compost or worm castings/compost sifter through 1/2" hardware cloth, 1/3 perlite or sand, handful of horticulture grade/dolomite limestone. Additional items add long term fertilization & minerals which eliminate needing them for early growth rates like handful bloodmeal (or other organic meals), rock dust, soft rock phosphate, & greensand. See search engine for Potting Blocks>>Blocking Mix

What fun; I love this. Wish I had The Learning channel back in the 70"s.

Great! Thank you in 2022.

Here it is the end of July 2019 and I really enjoyed your video about the soil blocks. I bought the 2 inch one and did good but you have given me some great ideas for next year. Thank you!!!

Barbara and Eliot, i'm embarrassed to admit that though i've read the works of you both for many, many years, i never saw this video until today, and i never knew what an attractive couple you are! thanks for the info on the soil block makers, i guess i'd have to say they're fairly indispensable nowadays, and i'll have to break down and get one! take care, dave

What is the advantage in using the micro soil before the mini vs planting directly to the mini? I just received both in the mail and i thought the micro would be twice its size and I could go straight from micro to the garden, but it seems I was wrong. I have hand-made blocks before and successfully sown directly into blocks the size of the mini . If it is just to have a higher sucess rate, could i just plant 2 seeds in a mini and thin out if required?

@blockguru

4 жыл бұрын

Yes, you can do that, that works well, too. The advantage of the micro 20 is that it takes less space to germinate slow sprouts like peppers, tomatoes, eggplant, celery, flowers, herbs, etc. You see, that would be a lot of soil and space and time to make up for all of those little seeds that take so long to germinate. The Micro 20 saves space, time (20 blocks in 20 seconds) and once germinated pop into the Mini 4 easily.

Why dont you put the seed in a big lump at once?? You end up using the space and soilamount anyway.

@thisguyrighthere3647

7 жыл бұрын

Moisture issues.

Is that a wood block? What kind of wood??

@blockguru29

9 жыл бұрын

Yes. Botton: 1/2-3/4" plywood. The sides: 1 x 3" standard wood stock

@tkjazzer

9 жыл бұрын

How are the sides held together. I bought some Coleman books. Which has the instructions? Their plywood bottoms look higher quality than the plywood sold at big box stores, why is that?

Hi guys, Does anyone have a good idea on how to identify our little soil blocks? I am not a commercial farmer, but I use the 20 mini-block maker. If I don't want 20 of the same tomato variety, I will mix them. Last year I noted them on a sheet of paper, but with a tray full of blocks it gets confusing. Also sometimes the blocks from the side will degrade so my method of saying "From block 1 to 5 is xxxx" didn't work that well.

@blockguru

8 жыл бұрын

+Sabrina Taschereau Try color coding matchsticks or toothpicks. But, honestly, each 20 blocks of the 20 mini-block should be ONE variety. It's ok if you even leave a few soil blocks completely blank. The point is don't mix, there's nothing to lose there, keep track of the 20 as it were for 1.

@IsaSab

8 жыл бұрын

Yes, Ideally I know :) But I grow 2-3 kind of tomatoes (cherry for salads, Italian for cooking and big juicy tomatoes for sandwiches and such). I live alone and maintain the seedlings alone, so that would be 60 plants of tomatoes for one person! It's too much, I don't have room for that :) I love the soil blocks though. Color coding is a great idea. Would chalk "hurt" the plants? I was thinking of using a chalkline to mark my garden rows, maybe I could use the chalk on the first and last block of X variety of tomato. Or maybe leave an empty block between varieties and color it with chalk! I have ideas now ;) Thanks!! By the way Eliot, we've had a few -8C temps here. My tunnels are doing great. I have napoli carrots, hakurai turnips, toscano kale, mizuna, claytonia, pak choi, celery, parsley, etc. Inside the inner layer of floating row cover it never went colder than -4.3C. I am still eating fresh food from the garden everyday, thanks to your book.

@blockguru

8 жыл бұрын

+Sabrina Taschereau Nice work on the tunnels! Chalk should be Dolomite Lime or at least a "Horticulture Grade" Limestone. That would work perfectly. I use it to lay out gardens and dwarf orchards.

@neilbennett9281

5 жыл бұрын

Late but if anyone is still wondering about this. You mark one corner of your tray, eg. top left in my setup, with permanent marker or tape. You then print graph paper with as many rows & columns as you have blocks and lastly fill in your seed varieties. You can then note germination dates etc

I presume this is American gardeing TV history? Feel is from the 60's or 70's I'd guess!

@29sentz

5 жыл бұрын

"Gardening Naturally" series on TLC Channel. Seems like early to mid-90's to me

I cannot find anything recent from Eliot, is he still around?

@valeriecaputa713

2 жыл бұрын

Google search shows him as currently 83 years old.

@MarcellaSmithVegan

2 жыл бұрын

@@valeriecaputa713 Wow, thank you