In article ,
Sean Straw wrote:

Why going with hybrid seed instead of sets?

$1.95 and the shipping's already covered for the rest of the seed order
..vs. $6.95+$6.95 extra shipping - more or less. I think there's probably
also more end product from the seed than there would be from the sets,
without spending even more for a larger package. If I find the flavor
disappointing, I'll try sets next year.

"scrap materials crude block press" puts out.

Pics anywhere?

Not so far. I'll see about that, not that it's much to look at.

What are you using for a press? An offset lever, a screw jack, ?

Nothing so beefy. The commercial block makers (as best I can tell
without owning one) are just a form the size of the final block, which
is jammed into the soil mix to pack them - soil mix being stacked 3
times deeper than the form. This obviously requires excess soil mix - no
problem for the folks making thousands, annoying if making 25 or 100.

My current version is a square plastic package for a drill bit and a
piece of wood that fits in it. I put about 2X the final block height of
mix in it (3x would not compress that far), and lean on the wood plunger
with body weight to compress it down. Then I pull the plastic up to
"eject" the block. Not being fully committed to the idea, I wasted
little time making it nice, fancy, or efficient. I'll save those for
version 2, if I end up feeling the blocks are worth bothering with. I've
meant to play with them for years, but happened to get reminded of them
at the right time to actually make a stab at it this year. When I make
the last block, the most I'm left with is 1/2-3/4 of a blocks worth of
leftover mix.

Version 2 would probably be a lever, just to make it more convenient.
Likely a dual lever to also make the ejection part more convenient. I
still don't see me buying the ones that are sold.

I've seen the block makers in catalogues such as Johnny's and the
sort, but the premise confounds me -- don't you want light fluffy soil
for the plant starts, rather than compacted stuff?

Not really, for a lot of things. Even in pots one is usually better off
"firming" the soil rather than leaving it completely loose - or the
plant falls over from no support. Plant roots are remarkably robust at
pushing through soil. Also, you are not making concrete-like bricks - a
high peat content is most of what's holding the blocks together, rather
than a massive amount of compression. Most of my seedlings have been
fine so far, a few have indicated that they might have liked a softer
start (root pushed up) but most of those have been fine with a bit of
added soil over the pushed-up root part, and they have since grown into
the block just fine. That aspect may have been aggravated by following
the advice to more-or less lay the seed on the surface of the block,
rather than covering it over and firming it in.

The supposed big advantage (other than not having hundreds of little
plastic pots/sixpacks/etc around) is "air pruning" - the idea being that
the roots grow to the edge of the block and stop, rather than growing to
a pot wall and winding all around. This is claimed to reduce (or
eliminate) transplant stress. I have not much to report on that front as
yet. The roots are also well-aerated as compared to a plant in a pot -
the soil is more compacted, but instead of a tiny hole at the bottom
which may be sitting in water, the whole surface of the block is exposed
to air.

They are a bit more fragile and fiddly to water than flats/six-packs,
but so far have held up better than I thought they would. Someone else I
know moves things around more than I do, and has had more problems with
blocks eroding or crumbling than I have (so far.) She is "not a fan" of
them, at least for herself, though she did like the air-pruning aspect.

Without promoting any particular site, There's quite a lot of
information (much of it unbalanced in the positive direction, of course)
if you drop "potting blocks" into a search engine.

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