Botched soil blocking

Soil blocking sounds like such an amazing way to grow seeds. My first attempt did ok with 3/4" blocks, but a total fail with the 2" blocks.
I gave up on the 2" until this year. I watched a great video on YouTube, and thought I'm going to try again.
Armed with a new recipe, and new technique I made my 3/4 and started my seeds. I made 2" blocks, and I was so happy. Oh yeah I've got this now. Famous last words. I think I have been over watering, I think maybe my house is to cool for soil blocks.  At least that's my best guess at this point.  I don't think I have ever killed this many seedlings before. To be honest I'm just not sure it's worth the effort.

I wonder if the people who swear by soil blocking are the ones starting hundreds of identical seedlings, so if 20% die, it doesn't matter? I am usually only starting a dozen or less of any particular plant, so I prefer the paper pots.

That said, it's been a weird weather year. I got some seeds to germinate, and I knew they would be slow to grow, but it's been weeks and they've done nothing, and I think it's the too cold/too hot cycle.

That's an interesting thought Jay.  Maybe, I think it's just a totally different way to grow. All the videos talk about how to make the soil blocks, but no one, at least that I could find really teaches how to grow the seedlings once you're got the blocks down.  
It's a totally different animal so to speak. The typical seed soil is light and airy. It not too difficult to tell when it needs water. Soil blocks by nature are dense and compact. At least for me it's very difficult to tell when they need water. The people on YouTube seem to think it's easy to tell. I'm pretty sure when I put my 3/4" into the 2" I managed to over water the 2" blocks and have a bunch of seedlings die of thirst.. I'm not sure if this is true, but it's what I believe, because the roots were still in the 3/4 blocks, and I was bottom watering. I left the water for about 10, 15 minutes then pour the excess water out. Add that to my cool drafty old house, and it' seems to be a bad combo.
I have greatly reduced the water. I'm watering from the top. These changes have helped .
Another suggestion I may try is to use a heat mat and elevate the tray so it's not sitting directly on the mat, but giving enough warmth to dry the blocks between watering.
So far my conclusion for me is Soil blocking is a great concept. In my opinion it's a totally different way to grow plants and requires a lot of patience and experimentation.
Soil blocking may be worth it, but for me at this point of my life, I think I will stick to my method of starting seeds in 3/4" blocks, and up pot then into pots almost as soon as they germinate into pots with a good soil.
I'm always trying to learn new things, try different methods, and do what ever I can to up my game. This means sometimes I learn what doesn't work for me. I guess the deciding factors are did it work? Did I get good results,?Did I find joy in the process?

Jen Fulkerson wrote:Did I find joy in the process?

This!!! To me, gardening should be a joy. If I was totally dependent on the food I could produce, I might not feel so strongly about it, but then I'd change approaches to plants like sunchokes and up my game at foraging.

In the meantime, I'm trying to grow veggies that my family loves to eat, with limited time, energy and space. I need my garden to bring me joy, as well as the bonus of yummy food, which also brings me joy.

So sticking with the small blocks and potting up that has worked for you, and experimenting with the 2 inch blocks as a "fun game" rather than an "I can't afford this to fail" approach, would seem like something I would do.

I think there is alwaysa a bit of a learning curve, and what works for one gardener (on youtube or whereever) won't work for everyone. My windowsill/propagator/growlight set up will be different to yours. The water I use is different. The attention I'm able to give is different. It is always worth trying something new though - it could be amazing! The possibility of doing away with all the little pots, or pricking out seedlings sounds great, but I'm going to experiment more with seed snails this year.

I like the method a couple YouTubers adapted from John Jeavons. Basically, build a wooden seed tray with a missing side. Push that up against another tray and fill it like a regular tray. Then take a dough scraper, putty knife, scrap of tin, and slice your blocks like it is a cake pan, but wiggle the knife to make the slice wider. When it is time to plant, you can slide your knife under on the open end to lift your soil blocks. It seems much less picky about the mix and you only need to saturate it when you go to plant.

I tried soil blocking, but my homemade soil mix did not work very well with it,   because of that I moved on to another method.

Instead I have switched over to this method with solo cups and wicking rope.

I have had good success with the method so I have expanded.        My plan is to get the plants going in solo cups then move to grow bags for air prunning.      I like this method as I don't have to worry about keeping the right  moisture level for the plants.

Sorry about your seedlings! I'm trying out soil blocks for the first time this year and so far I've had good luck, but I won't claim victory until the plants are safely in the ground. I agree that it's harder to tell when they need water, or at least it was for me in the beginning. I overwatered a little bit, but backed off when I started to see green algae slime. In my case, though, the blocks dry out FAST. My setup is in a warm upstairs room, the air is bone-dry, and the grow lights have fans in them, so things get really dry really quick. I worried too much and overcompensated, thus the overwatering. Even so, I think soil blocks are a winner for me personally, but with a learning curve. I would probably go back to paper pots if this experiment didn't work out - I don't have much interest in going back to plastic at this point

I brutally removed most seedlings that didn't look good. It was hard for me, I'm the person who always wants to save everything. I keep hearing about plants that get stunted and survive, but never really become productive. I have seen this happen a few times, so I decided to start over. Strangely the Tomatoes did the best.  

I was quite impressed with the first set of soil blocks I made, they were easy to make, looked perfect, and really held their shape. I didn't like how hard they were to water properly.   I'm sure with practice I would eventually figure it out, but starting over now is very late for my claimant, so I'm  going back to what worked for me in the past. I added a good amount of sifted potting soil and a sifted bagged compost to what was left of the first recipe.(I wanted to  lighten up the mix, and maybe have less biology? ) I was sure this was going to make it much harder to make my soil blocks. It didn't. The technique I learned make a huge difference. The blocker was easy to fill, made perfect little blocks, and I didn't have to rinse the blocker after each one. The blocks look good, but definitely aren't as firm. My first batch I could toss from hand to hand and it would keep it's shape. I'm pretty sure these would fall apart if I tried that.
I will restart all my peppers, some tomatoes and and some herbs. Who knows maybe starting later, and having plants in pots a much shorter time before they can go into the garden will end up being a good thing, time will tell.
As for the 2" blocks I have greatly reduced my watering, and the difference is amazing. The seedlings are growing and putting on more leaves, and no more soil gnats. It's surprising how fast things turned around once I realized my mistake. Of course I wish I would have figured it out sooner, oh well. It probably hasn't hurt that it's warmed up a lot too.
Wish me luck for round 2. Thanks