Premium Soil Blocking Blend with Organic Compost, Worm Castings, Feather Meal, and Greensand - 16 Dry Quart Bag

It's not that it is a bad product, to the contrary but for what you get at the price you pay "Fool me once......." By the time you buy this and pay shipping, you could have purchased 3 - 40 lb. bags of each of the components, not just 16 liters of this mix. If convenience is important and price no object then this is a good fit, otherwise..........???????

I have started my plants indoors for years now but this is the first year that I've used soil blocks. I started half my plants in peat pots and the other half in soil blocks (my tomatoes and some green peppers). Wow! what a difference the soil blocks made. I started with 2" soil blocks and then used the 4" soil blocks - when the plants hit the garden, they didn't miss a beat and "hooked on" almost immediately. I would guess that this bag would make about 50-60 2" blocks which is more than I needed.

I am new to soil blocking. I didn't have trouble keeping the soil blocks together having added sufficient water. However, this mix is rocky (probably the volcanic pumice?) so it was tough to load the mix into the block maker. I didn't expect that. I couldn't even push the seeds that needed darkness into the block centers with a toothpick because of the interference of the rocky material. I'm giving it 3 stars nonetheless because I expect it will be great for seed germination, but I will change my review if I find differently. Meanwhile, I will be looking into other blocking mixtures to try just in case. I'd like to avoid making my own, but it may prove to be a necessity.

I was disappointed that there are very large pieces of a stone like material in the mix. This did not work well with my mini blocker at all. Some of the pieces of rock are almost as big as the opening for the blocker. It makes packing the soil into the blocker very difficult. My seedlings are growing well, though. I will make my own mix in the future.

Like the other reviewer, I struggled with keeping these blocks together. This is my first year gardening and I tried five different brands of soil germinating mix specifically so I could compare them. This is the only mix I used that said it was specifically for soil blocks. Of the five brands, I rank this one as #4. So, it wasn't the worst one, but only one brand was worse. I wet the mix early in the morning and let it sit for several hours. I also made sure I dip the blocker in water in between each set of blocks. (Both of which are recommended procedural steps.) The blocks stayed together coming out of the blocker but don't even think about trying to move them a smidge or separate them a bit. Even moving the tray was problematic. They do need watering every day, but all of the mixes I tried did as well. You can mitigate the watering a bit by using a clear plastic dome that fit perfect on the 10x20 trays. The reason why I gave it three stars instead of two is because my seeds germinated quickly. Cucumber, zucchini, cantaloupe, basil, watermelon and butternut squash al started popping up within 2 days. I will be upsizing the 2" blocks this weekend to 4" blocks and will be mixing some of the garden soil into the soil blocker mix. Hopefully, it will hold together better. Unfortunately, when I first purchased this mix, it was two bags for the price. Now it is only one bag. I am definitely not buying two more bags. Just one will have to be enough after it is mixed with some garden soil. Otherwise, I will mix in the germinating mix I got at Home Depot, which I ranked as #3 in my comparison of the five mixes I tried.

I am pretty sure I followed the directions. After the blocks were made and they got a little bit dry they turned into solid bricks and my onions died.

Great product and works well. Does need to be screened to remove twigs and other chunky things that are too big when using the smallest soil blocks. I used a piece of an old suet feeder as a screen and that did the trick.

Great for planting but I was not impressed by the way it was holding together