To water I have a little watering can, meant for houseplants, with a small diameter spout. The small size makes it easier to water the soil block trays by placing the spout between the rows of blocks to flood the tray. You do have to be a bit delicate with the blocks until roots are established otherwise you can erode the blocks into a little mud slurry. For transplanting it’s the same timeline as if you’re starting in standard trays. For example I started dianthus which will grow for 6-8 weeks, then harden off outside to get acclimated to those conditions, then get transplanted in late March/early April. This will be before the last frost in my area because dianthus are pretty cold tolerant. Johnny’s Select Seed has some super helpful calculators on their site that build a timeline of when to start and transplant crops based on your first and last frost dates.
Been blocking for a few years. Now use a perforated tray with a Reiman Capillary mat beneath the blocks - worth every penny, blocks do not dry out. A strip of the mat is used to wick water from a tupperware holding tank. Far far easier than trying to water each tray. When fertilizing, I just dunk the entire tray in a watertite tray filled with diluted fertilizer. Cuts the amount of work a lot.
I’ve seen that soil blocker a few times. I haven’t seen anyone show how to water or when would be the time to transplant.
To water I have a little watering can, meant for houseplants, with a small diameter spout. The small size makes it easier to water the soil block trays by placing the spout between the rows of blocks to flood the tray. You do have to be a bit delicate with the blocks until roots are established otherwise you can erode the blocks into a little mud slurry.
For transplanting it’s the same timeline as if you’re starting in standard trays. For example I started dianthus which will grow for 6-8 weeks, then harden off outside to get acclimated to those conditions, then get transplanted in late March/early April. This will be before the last frost in my area because dianthus are pretty cold tolerant.
Johnny’s Select Seed has some super helpful calculators on their site that build a timeline of when to start and transplant crops based on your first and last frost dates.
Been blocking for a few years. Now use a perforated tray with a Reiman Capillary mat beneath the blocks - worth every penny, blocks do not dry out. A strip of the mat is used to wick water from a tupperware holding tank. Far far easier than trying to water each tray. When fertilizing, I just dunk the entire tray in a watertite tray filled with diluted fertilizer. Cuts the amount of work a lot.
That sounds superb, I’ll have to look into that.