5-PC. "BASIC GROWER" SOIL BLOCKING SET: Ladbrooke "Nesting" Set with BONUS 8 Qt Bag of Premium Soil Blocking Blend

The blockers themselves seem to be fine, and I'm looking forward to starting plants with them. The soil mix that came with them, however, is terrible. It's full of pea-size gravel, some of which is too big to even fit into the mini blocker. I made up some blocks with the larger blocker but the rocks make them unusable. See the picture for the larger soil blocks, mini blocker, and a pile of rocks which I sieved out of just a few handfuls of soil with 1/4" hardware mesh. I suspect that when I get ingredients for a proper soil mix the blocks will be fine. You would think that the seller would provide a better "bonus" to go with their product than this horrible rocky soil - it makes the blockers seems like they don't work.

Great set of tools for making your own growing pots. Like the other reviewer the mix sold with this set of tools is a waste of money. I too found it full of sticks and other junk? Save some money and make your own mix using 1 part peat moss 1 part vermiculite and one part quality compost. I use a combination of black cow compost and earthworm castings mixed in equal amounts as the compost component in my mix. Hold's together very well and gives young seedling the nutrients they need. Any leftover's save or use as a potting mix for your potted plants.

It seems impractical to use the tiny cubes, but maybe I'll give them a try this year. the two-inch ones are perfect. Get a pretty nasty cramp in my hand making them, but it works as advertised.

I attended a seminar by a flower farmer and she recommended blocking for starting seedlings. I love them! I would recommend that you plant all the same plant for each block and keep the block on it's own tray. If you mix the seeds, some will germinate at different times and it makes it hard to move them off the heating pad and into the light. It is very hard to separate individual blocks.

I love the blocking templates, but I did not like the soil blend provided. The soil blend was much to coarse, in particular the perlite. It works fine if blended with a higher ratio of peat moss and sort out the perlite rocks.

Used the two inch soil blocker to start some fall crops and it is a fantastic tool! Will use the small blocker next spring for the next gardening season.

The extra small soil blocker in this set is worthless. It seemed like an awesome concept, but didn't work out well. The plugs are so small the soil can't hold enough liquid to sustain the plant and you have to transplant them quickly when the plant is tiny.... which doesn't work out well, most of them wilted and died. It's difficult to transfer it to the larger unit without disturbing the fragile roots. I also found that the soil blocking blend makes the cells rock hard (in order to hold together without a pot), which causes growth problems. I won't use it in the future, wasted my money.

Cannot believe I never did this before. I scaled down Eliot Coleman’s mixture for soil blocking and it was amazing how healthy my seedlings were. We had amazing germination and it was easy to replant the blocks.