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100% Organic Soil Blocks?

 
Chris Watson
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posted 12 years ago
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I'm very interested in making soil blocks next year, but every recipe for soil I see has at least one laboratory-made ingredient (lime, colloidial phosphate, etc.) Does anyone have a recipe for a fully organic planting medium?
 
Craig Dobbson
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posted 12 years ago
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Maybe a mix like this one : http://www.johnnyseeds.com/p-6152-johnnys-512-mix-og-20-quarts.aspx

it's made to be used with their soil blockers.

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Chris Watson
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I'm sure that's an excellent product, but it'll get pricey in a hurry when I'm preparing for spring planting. What can I prepare myself using soil, my own compost, and just a few purchases (perlite, greensand, etc.)
 
Abe Connally
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posted 12 years ago
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we do ours with compost, sand, vermicompost, peat moss, and a bit of wood ash.

http://www.velacreations.com/food/plants/annuals/item/32-soil-blocks.html

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Andrew Ray
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I wouldn't consider lime a laboratory made ingredient. Agricultural lime is just finely crushed limestone. Otherwise the lime used in building and masonry is ground limestone that has been processed at high heat to produce CaO.
 
Abe Connally
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posted 12 years ago
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you can skip the lime and use wood ash, but you need to test a sample of your mix first, to determine if you need ph adjustment (lime) anyway.

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Chris Kott
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posted 11 years ago
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I am unfamiliar with soil blocks. I am guessing you grow things in them? I am familiar with compressed earth blocks, but what little I have read here suggests completely different concerns, materials, and usage. What have I missed?

-CK

A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.
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Andrew Ray
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Soil blocks are used for starting seedlings:
http://www.pottingblocks.com/soil_block_for_beginners/
(I'm not giving any sort of commercial endorsement for this site, just it has good information on the basics of soil blocks).
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