Hello. I am not on an advertisement campaign for the Ray Leach conetainers but they have several attributes that support plant growth. 1. they are individual removable cells (modular cells) that can be relocated to another tray. Trays can hold either 98 deep cells or 200 shallow cells which are available in various depths and volume. 2. Each cel has anti spiral ribs that run vertically from top to bottom to assist the plant roots to grow straight and as deep as possible. 3. Each tray has 6 legs which keeps the base of the cells several centimetres above the ground which greatly assists with air pruning. You dont really even need a rack or shelf because the trays have legs (but to avoid mice etc. from destroying the plants, shelves and so forth are ideal). Plus each of the conetainer cells have a series of drainage holes which assist with drainage and air pruning. 4. Finally, the trays also has spaces between the cell rows which allows airflow between the cells which are also held above the ground or shelf by the tray legs. People should really check them out...wish I had a camera...I could show and do...
Great video! I love that you tested several crops, & you mentioned the differences in size of the plugs vs. Blocks, etc. Instead of trying mislead people.
I just moved to soil blocks this year so I'm happy to see those results. I think the winstrip trays would save a lot of time though! I'm working on developing a profitable micro farm in Upstate NY, I love all your regenerative and innovative ideas! Keep them coming and thank you so much for all the time you take to help us all grow too!
Very cool, best of luck this year on your farm! Ya winstrip trays save so much time, but I still believe soil blocks have the edge on plant health. It makes me so happy to be able to help others grow food!
Your videos are amazing. I just started gardening and each time I watch Epic Garden and your videos I feel excited about growing vegetables. Thank you for your hard work in making these videos.
Newb gardener here, first season really getting my shtuff together, learning the rhythm of the seasons and what needs to happen when, much less behind than before so am germinating in mid Feb for an early spring planting... but am in a high desert environment, it was starting to really Spring a few days ago, sunburn on the backs of my ears as I excavated a foot of clay below a test row, now snow and well below freezing at night and flurries throughout the day. The test excavation row is full of water, clay so dense and strong the water can't drain, I basically have a pond row now, its held the water for 5 days now, it freezes at night, with no drop in water level for five days, don't know what to do (considering aquaponics, lol). I germinated several different plants, but mostly various lettuces, peas, and later in early/mid march, tomatoes, peppers, and herbs in 6x6 1x1" celled plug trays, then transplanted the heartiest sprouts to oversized six packs that have 2 and a 1/4" square cells. Now, my six packs are in 10x20's for bottom watering under LED chlorophyll A and B lighting, and are in our one south facing window (totally took over our dinner table). Question: necessary to go from germinating in little one inch plug trays to pretty roomy oversized 2 and 1/4" square celled six packs for later transplanting? Or could I skip the 1x1" celled germination trays, and just germinate in the six packs? One thing I liked about the 6x6 1x1" germination plug trays was over germinating, then picking the hardiest sprouts for transplant to the six packs, so just focusing on the best plants (ie valuable window and under light space). For example, I could over seed 18 1x1" plugs with one cultivar of lettuce, then from those 180 sprouts, I could pick the 36 hardiest, to transplant 6 six packs worth, fitting in a 10x20. Or, could I just germinate and start in the little 1x1" 6x6 plug trays, let them grow to the absolute max in there, then transplant out into the garden when the (damn) season permits? My peas took off, though, I'm sure they would have overwhelmed the 1x1" cell plugs. I think they may be overwhelming my 2 and 1/4" six packs! My first germination of frost hardy peas are well over a foot tall in their six packs but the season and my garden rows are not ready to receive them... so I guess I am still behind... NEWB! Opinions? Just a newb gardener with a short, high altitude mountainous growing season, and little experience or knowledge - most of which I gained in the prosaic L.A. valley with incredible soil and a VERY long growing season (not quite SD long, but still), but am trying to grow most of my family's summer veg, and storeable foodstuffs for the winter, aka potato and... ideas?
Really nice to have a thorough comparison, thank you! Glad I've got soil blockers - I liked them before already, but now it's nice to know that they're REALLY the best. Ha!
So glad you enjoyed seeing the in depth comparison. YES I love my soil blocks too! They really are the best the only downside it the extra time it takes.
Thank you for testing these different set ups! I have a couple of winstrips started and love how rigid they are! You're the reason I bought some to test them out. Looking good my friend and may abundance be yours! 🌱👍😁
Really interested to see the results:) it´s a great experiment. I´ve grown thousands of things in plug trays and I know that you have to transplant at the right time, if not, and the roots are spiralized, they stop growing for a while, but after that shock passes you can get really good vegetables. The winstrip plugs look good but the soil blocks look the best. Great video, thank you for all the content.
Thank you for all of your videos. I've been making compost since February now and doing the same cover crop method to a quarter acre backyard plot. Your videos are very informative
First rate. Look forward to the next video on this subject. I used the soil blocks in the past but just found it to be too much work or maybe I should say not efficient enough for me. I'd like to try the Winstrip trays, I really dig Conor's simple and efficient way of farming. Thank you
Good stuff - are you going to extend the trial to see which are the strongest performers after say 3 weeks in the field?? Transplant shock is real!! Love this sort of content - efficiency is a big issue for us small scale guys.
Hello Steven. So glad you are sharing these videos. I really appreciate your work. It helps me a lot to make better decisions on seedling planting. To me the soil block seedlings on the 10x20 trays look the best on the top but, the seedlings on the soil blocks on the mesh trays looked better on the roots. Great video. Keep up the good work.👍 God bless you 🤗
I'm having a hard time finding the follow up video to this one to see how the plants develop. Can you post the link in/with this video please? Thanks for your work.
Very educational, thanks! I've been closely observing my seedlings' leaf growth but now I know to pay as much attention to their root development. Looking forward to seeing the next phase of the test.
Great video! What do you think about peat pellets? I've had some success and failures as well with those. I stick to plug trays for the most part..but will be trying out the soil blocks.
I wish I could get soil blockers. I have been trying to get a set of soil blockers since before spring and have still not found anything. I found them available on one single website that showed they were in stock, but after ordering and waiting a week to see they never shipped out I tried calling them. It took me over a week of trying to call them every day to get through and today I find out they are backordered until after September.
Love the comparison between the different options, I believe that any tray will work as long as you monitor and transplant at the appropriate time. Personally the soil blocks are the best option for me, but the main draw back is the lack of efficiency when you have several thousand seeds t o. S t a r t .
hey , mr. nature alway's right , i have been setting up my yard for a market garden/ food forest ! i am a car builder/ painter now but plan to transition to gardening full time !! your info and direction motivates me keep going with the limited free time i have [got to earn a living]! maybe i am getting ahead of myself but i am making a product demonstrator for a 2'' soil block planter ! ultimately a four row ,400 block pull behind human powered . i'm thinking it will go head to head with the paper pot planter . i don't see you have one ,but how would you think it stands up to your comparison with the small compartment , plant development and transplant ?again i may be getting ahead of myself but if i have success with this would you be interested in giving it a real world test and maybe we could make a deal with distribution !? don't say no ...i will cry . lol john
Does spiraling affect growth? It seems occitionation is a factor. The medium is the same throughout but root growth is the determining factor. What do we need to know about the roots?
Roots can spiral so much it can kill the plant but this would be if left in a pot for very long time. I’d like to see if when the tap root is air pruned compared to a spiraling tap root which will grow better roots after in soil. Thing is vegetables are short lived where as trees the tap root is more important. Hopefully his follow videos will explain more.
How often do you water? I've had issues with air pruning because they overdry, i don't have time to water every day unfortunately :( ... maybe you could redo the test with different watering intervals? I think the regular plug trays work best for me because they don't dry out as fast.
Watering is so important with these little starts possibly look into an auto water system even misters on a timer would work or a flood and drain watering from below.
I water everyday, twice a day when 80degrees and warmer. You could also bottom water and keep water in the lower tray. Use vermiculite in your soil mix for water retention.
Best Seedling Trays - bit.ly/3XB3ri4
True Leaf Market Seeds - bit.ly/3uf24HU
Soil Blocker: amzn.to/2ISFX6d
Hello. I am not on an advertisement campaign for the Ray Leach conetainers but they have several attributes that support plant growth.
1. they are individual removable cells (modular cells) that can be relocated to another tray. Trays can hold either 98 deep cells or 200 shallow cells which are available in various depths and volume.
2. Each cel has anti spiral ribs that run vertically from top to bottom to assist the plant roots to grow straight and as deep as possible.
3. Each tray has 6 legs which keeps the base of the cells several centimetres above the ground which greatly assists with air pruning. You dont really even need a rack or shelf because the trays have legs (but to avoid mice etc. from destroying the plants, shelves and so forth are ideal). Plus each of the conetainer cells have a series of drainage holes which assist with drainage and air pruning.
4. Finally, the trays also has spaces between the cell rows which allows airflow between the cells which are also held above the ground or shelf by the tray legs.
People should really check them out...wish I had a camera...I could show and do...
Great video! I love that you tested several crops, & you mentioned the differences in size of the plugs vs. Blocks, etc. Instead of trying mislead people.
You add a lot to the farming/growing community thank you.
I just moved to soil blocks this year so I'm happy to see those results. I think the winstrip trays would save a lot of time though! I'm working on developing a profitable micro farm in Upstate NY, I love all your regenerative and innovative ideas! Keep them coming and thank you so much for all the time you take to help us all grow too!
Very cool, best of luck this year on your farm! Ya winstrip trays save so much time, but I still believe soil blocks have the edge on plant health. It makes me so happy to be able to help others grow food!
LOVE the scientific approach here!!!
Your videos are amazing. I just started gardening and each time I watch Epic Garden and your videos I feel excited about growing vegetables. Thank you for your hard work in making these videos.
Newb gardener here, first season really getting my shtuff together, learning the rhythm of the seasons and what needs to happen when, much less behind than before so am germinating in mid Feb for an early spring planting... but am in a high desert environment, it was starting to really Spring a few days ago, sunburn on the backs of my ears as I excavated a foot of clay below a test row, now snow and well below freezing at night and flurries throughout the day. The test excavation row is full of water, clay so dense and strong the water can't drain, I basically have a pond row now, its held the water for 5 days now, it freezes at night, with no drop in water level for five days, don't know what to do (considering aquaponics, lol).
I germinated several different plants, but mostly various lettuces, peas, and later in early/mid march, tomatoes, peppers, and herbs in 6x6 1x1" celled plug trays, then transplanted the heartiest sprouts to oversized six packs that have 2 and a 1/4" square cells. Now, my six packs are in 10x20's for bottom watering under LED chlorophyll A and B lighting, and are in our one south facing window (totally took over our dinner table).
Question: necessary to go from germinating in little one inch plug trays to pretty roomy oversized 2 and 1/4" square celled six packs for later transplanting?
Or could I skip the 1x1" celled germination trays, and just germinate in the six packs? One thing I liked about the 6x6 1x1" germination plug trays was over germinating, then picking the hardiest sprouts for transplant to the six packs, so just focusing on the best plants (ie valuable window and under light space). For example, I could over seed 18 1x1" plugs with one cultivar of lettuce, then from those 180 sprouts, I could pick the 36 hardiest, to transplant 6 six packs worth, fitting in a 10x20.
Or, could I just germinate and start in the little 1x1" 6x6 plug trays, let them grow to the absolute max in there, then transplant out into the garden when the (damn) season permits? My peas took off, though, I'm sure they would have overwhelmed the 1x1" cell plugs. I think they may be overwhelming my 2 and 1/4" six packs! My first germination of frost hardy peas are well over a foot tall in their six packs but the season and my garden rows are not ready to receive them... so I guess I am still behind... NEWB!
Opinions? Just a newb gardener with a short, high altitude mountainous growing season, and little experience or knowledge - most of which I gained in the prosaic L.A. valley with incredible soil and a VERY long growing season (not quite SD long, but still), but am trying to grow most of my family's summer veg, and storeable foodstuffs for the winter, aka potato and... ideas?
This is fantastic. Thank you so much for doing such a thorough job of setting up your trials. This video has been so helpful.
Really nice to have a thorough comparison, thank you! Glad I've got soil blockers - I liked them before already, but now it's nice to know that they're REALLY the best. Ha!
So glad you enjoyed seeing the in depth comparison. YES I love my soil blocks too! They really are the best the only downside it the extra time it takes.
The planing season is right around the corner in my area. Excited to see how I can improve the health of my seedlings this season.
Nice hope this helps! Best of luck this season.
Hi i am seeeing some great info in your Vlog. Have a wonderful Monday x
I love my soil blocker, but I do a little of everything! Excellent information!
Thank you for testing these different set ups! I have a couple of winstrips started and love how rigid they are! You're the reason I bought some to test them out. Looking good my friend and may abundance be yours! 🌱👍😁
Nice! I love the winstrips as well, I wouldn't buy any other type of plug tray.
Really interested to see the results:) it´s a great experiment.
I´ve grown thousands of things in plug trays and I know that you have to transplant at the right time, if not, and the roots are spiralized, they stop growing for a while, but after that shock passes you can get really good vegetables.
The winstrip plugs look good but the soil blocks look the best. Great video, thank you for all the content.
Great video. I appreciate your work.
Thank you for all of your videos. I've been making compost since February now and doing the same cover crop method to a quarter acre backyard plot. Your videos are very informative
That's so awesome Evan! Well done on all your hard work!
First rate. Look forward to the next video on this subject. I used the soil blocks in the past but just found it to be too much work or maybe I should say not efficient enough for me. I'd like to try the Winstrip trays, I really dig Conor's simple and efficient way of farming. Thank you
Thank you Steven!!! I just got my winstrip trays and am excited to put them to use!!!
Sweet hope you like them!
It is amazing how the littlest thing can make a difference
Thank you man your next up. Waiting for the comparison in the transplant.👍
Great in-depth comparison video. I'll be using the soil blocker with the mesh bottoms. Thanks, Steven.
Good stuff - are you going to extend the trial to see which are the strongest performers after say 3 weeks in the field?? Transplant shock is real!! Love this sort of content - efficiency is a big issue for us small scale guys.
Yes I will be showing the resulting growth in an upcoming video. Glad you like!
I have really bad damping off in soil blocks... My theory is the recipe I used had garden soil in it but and advice is helpful
Try covering your soil blocks with a light covering of fine perlite or vermiculite
Hello Steven. So glad you are sharing these videos. I really appreciate your work. It helps me a lot to make better decisions on seedling planting. To me the soil block seedlings on the 10x20 trays look the best on the top but, the seedlings on the soil blocks on the mesh trays looked better on the roots. Great video.
Keep up the good work.👍
God bless you 🤗
So glad seeing the different examples has helped you!
hello from Spain!!!
Hello sir, I really enjoy you farming techniques. Keep up. Though I woukd like to ask you about the good plant spacing for vegetables
Gracias
Hi I like the video very informative. I wanted to know if you have a tutorial on how to build tha table to put the seedlings. Blessings.
I'm having a hard time finding the follow up video to this one to see how the plants develop. Can you post the link in/with this video please? Thanks for your work.
Thanks Alexandra I forgot to put it in the description! Here you go, ua-cam.com/video/DOACMVA86zU/v-deo.html
so how do you water the soil blocks without them falling apart?
Excelent, I will start my own garden
Very informative videos! How do you water the mesh bottom trays with soil blocks? spray on top? Thanks!
How do you water your soil blocks in the mesh trays? Do you have a video about this?
Very educational, thanks! I've been closely observing my seedlings' leaf growth but now I know to pay as much attention to their root development. Looking forward to seeing the next phase of the test.
Excellent Colleen, happy to know I gave you a few more things to look out for in plant care. Have a great growing season this year!
Great video! What do you think about peat pellets? I've had some success and failures as well with those. I stick to plug trays for the most part..but will be trying out the soil blocks.
8:35 Have you tried the Bootstrap Farmer mesh inserts for the 1020 trays for the soil blocks?
how would you bottom water soil blocks on the mesh trays? I start my seeds indoors as my growing period isn't that long. Thanks for your help!
Some good looking plants there. Just curious, how do you water them without losing soil?
Thank you for your information, your very informative, alot of work on yourpart, im new to your channel
Biggest thing I don't like about the open bottom trays is you really have to water them more, check them more often to make sure they don't dry out
Great video. Can you say how long did you keep these seedlings for in video presentation?
I wish I could get soil blockers. I have been trying to get a set of soil blockers since before spring and have still not found anything. I found them available on one single website that showed they were in stock, but after ordering and waiting a week to see they never shipped out I tried calling them. It took me over a week of trying to call them every day to get through and today I find out they are backordered until after September.
Love the comparison between the different options, I believe that any tray will work as long as you monitor and transplant at the appropriate time. Personally the soil blocks are the best option for me, but the main draw back is the lack of efficiency when you have several thousand seeds t o. S t a r t .
Totally agree transplanting at the right time is KEY. Feel the same way about soil blocks
Wow! S'il Block has.a.new challenger. Is wind stripe " Curtis Stone related"?
Winstrip trays from Neversink farms, Connor Crickmore. 🌱👍
How do you water the soil blocks in the 1020 trays without them falling apart?
One thing I am confused about is how do you do an open bottom with the win strip if you are using bottom heat to start seeds indoors early
If you sit the winstip tray inside an 10x20 tray and place on a germination mat, it will still warm up thr soil enough.
hey steven, great video! these seedlings look great! how long ago were they all seeded ?
Thank you. About 4 weeks ago I think
Great video. What sized fabric pots did you transfer them to? Will you need to transfer them again?
Went to 10 gallon pots. That's their permanent home now :) I'll talk more about the planting of them in the next video I do about this comparison.
Are the follow-up videos out there? I can't find them.
Should be in the video description
hey , mr. nature alway's right , i have been setting up my yard for a market garden/ food forest ! i am a car builder/ painter now but plan to transition to gardening full time !! your info and direction motivates me keep going with the limited free time i have [got to earn a living]! maybe i am getting ahead of myself but i am making a product demonstrator for a 2'' soil block planter ! ultimately a four row ,400 block pull behind human powered . i'm thinking it will go head to head with the paper pot planter . i don't see you have one ,but how would you think it stands up to your comparison with the small compartment , plant development and transplant ?again i may be getting ahead of myself but if i have success with this would you be interested in giving it a real world test and maybe we could make a deal with distribution !? don't say no ...i will cry . lol john
Does spiraling affect growth? It seems occitionation is a factor. The medium is the same throughout but root growth is the determining factor. What do we need to know about the roots?
Roots can spiral so much it can kill the plant but this would be if left in a pot for very long time. I’d like to see if when the tap root is air pruned compared to a spiraling tap root which will grow better roots after in soil. Thing is vegetables are short lived where as trees the tap root is more important. Hopefully his follow videos will explain more.
How often do you water? I've had issues with air pruning because they overdry, i don't have time to water every day unfortunately :( ... maybe you could redo the test with different watering intervals? I think the regular plug trays work best for me because they don't dry out as fast.
Watering is so important with these little starts possibly look into an auto water system even misters on a timer would work or a flood and drain watering from below.
I water everyday, twice a day when 80degrees and warmer. You could also bottom water and keep water in the lower tray. Use vermiculite in your soil mix for water retention.
The stuff at the end. That's called B roll. Mostly
Where is the result video after planting out?
I usually put related videos in the description. Here it is, ua-cam.com/video/DOACMVA86zU/v-deo.html
Was there ever a follow-up? I can’t find anything...
Here you go, ua-cam.com/video/DOACMVA86zU/v-deo.html
We need these sturdy ass trays in Europe
Another option is non chain paper pots from Smallfarmworks.com
Hi is that possible to call u ? I have some questions thanks Bahman from San Diego
Thanks for this bro. Love @gardenoforigins on insta!
Soil blocks more room.
A
is this how you grow them big beautiful eyebrows?
You're partial to soil blocks so obviously to you, they will do better because you expect them to.