"simy1" wrote in news:1123902337.213502.324440
@f14g2000cwb.googlegroups.com:

I am looking to streamline my seedling operation, mostly for vegetable
growing. At this point I start about 700 seedlings a year. With a small
greenhouse I would transfer all the operations outside the house. I see
that Johnny is offering a 5X8 thing at $295. Any advice is appreciated,
including temperature management, invasion by critters or diseases,
durability, light requirements, etc. I am thinking of placing the GH in
a spot that receives sunlight until 1pm when the leaves are out. I can
place a 55 gallon drum of water in the GH as thermal ballast.

i would also like to switch from peat pots/jiffy/seedling trays and go
the soil block route. I lose too many plant to transplant shock, and
also the trays deteriorate after a while. I see that there are many
blockers on the market. I think I want the 2X2 inches basic block, just
the right size for some of the large greens transplants ( due to many
cabbage moths I prefer my transplants to be big, so they can fend for
themselves), but there are ways to have also 1X1 inch heads. I think I
can make my own soil by mixing my sandy soil with wood ash and compost
(plus sterilization by boiling). Again advice appreciated as to the
best model for me, multiple heads, efficient operations, anything else
I need to know.


This is interesting although I only looked at
http://members.tripod.com/toppertwo/...Small%20bottom

if the soil is cohesive enough not to fall apart when formed into self
standing blocks, wouldn't it be easier to just fill a large tray with
soil and cut air barriers with a knife or pizza cutter? Afterwards you
could further seperate the rows or columns with newspaper if you weren't
confident with just the air barriers.

by soil I mean seed starting medium of course