Good morning class. Good morning Miss Heather. Today we're going to talk about soil block
mixes. And what goes into these today are expanded
coir 20 liters. You can also use peat moss, 10 liters of sifted manure,
five liters of sifted soil, five liters of sifted sand, four handfuls of lime,
four handfuls of rock dust, and enough water to hold the blocks together. Now,
detention! I'll see you after class. All right, now I'm not going to have this in my class room.
Who wrote this? Anyone? You're all going to stay after if I don't get someone responding.
Okay. You all excuse me? Yes? Question? Yes? What's coir? Coir? That's a really great question.
Coir is the fiber from the coconut husk. And the reason I use coir is because you need it to
kind of hold, you need the fibers to hold the blocks together because you don't have the
little plastic tray for them to stay together. So the fibers hold the block together as well
as holding in moisture. You could use peat for this also. Coir is a bit less expensive and a by
product of the coconut harvest. So this is five liters. We're going to need five, four of these.
Four of these. Now, does anyone know why we make soil block mix? Soil blocks? Why? Why? Why?
You don't know why? Is that what you're saying? Why? It's because it's better than those plastic
trays that you always see farmers using because those trays often will make your soil blocks,
your little plants, the roots get all rebound in a circle. And then it makes them being transplanted
really shocking to them and harder for them to grow. So the soil blocks allow the roots to
go down through the block and out the sides. So the roots air prune. What's air prune mean?
Air pruning, thank you, means that the roots kind of stop themselves and they don't start
circling around and getting all tangled up. They just kind of, okay, we'll wait now until we go
in the ground. That's what they are cleaning. So now we will do manure.
Question? Yes. Is manure poop? Yes, manure is poop. Did you make some manure? I did not,
but some horses did. And then it sat for a really long time. So it's aged manure. So it's been
composted and it doesn't even look like poop anymore. It just looks like really beautiful soil.
And we sifted it through a screen to get all the rocks and things out of it. So
the manure, how many liters? 10. Okay, this is our five liter bucket. So we're going to use two of these.
And what's next? Five liters sifted soil. Okay, I think we're going to need to take a break now
since we don't have any sifted soil, I realize. Let's find sifted soil. Treasure hunt. I have to
go to the bathroom. Field trip. Great time for a break. Field trip. Yeah. Okay, class, welcome back.
As you remember, we're making soil block mixes. We've done our coir, our manure,
and now, a round of soil. And we have sifted soil that we just gathered from around the property.
And we need five liters of soil in Nicos. And now some sand. Now, I found it best to use
a fine sand because when you get these coarser sands, they will just pour. They
have pebbles and things in them, which really compromises the block. Five liters of sand.
And that's perfect. Okay. And lime.
Is lime for taste? Lime is not for taste. Lime is not those little limes that you
eat. Lime is a... I don't know what that lime is. But you really are putting the lime in the
cooking that you put it on. Lime is for the pH of your soil. So we want four handfuls. I got
little hands, so you know. So you wear little gloves? I do. Yeah. What was that? Three? Four
class? That was three. That was three class. Thanks for paying attention. Four. And nine
four handfuls of lime. That's right over here. Again, small hands, four handfuls. One, two, three and four.
I like to take a bucket of my mix out and just reserve it because when I pour too much water
in, which I inevitably do, I could add more mix. It won't be too wet. So
you'll find recipes for other mixes. But you can use differences. Some people use worm castings
instead of the manure, compost, whatever you have. The most important part really is getting the
consistency right so the blocks stay together. You should be able to squeeze a little water out
of it, but not like a ton. Let's add our reserved stuff back. Okay. And then we can be perfect.
So next step in our soil blocks, block making is making the blocks. Again, you shove it in there,
squish it around, help it along if you need to, and then scrape it off. I don't know how that one's
gonna work. And there you have it. So did anyone like to try? You want to kind of press down a
little bit first? Yeah. And then ease it up as you pull it up. Oh my gosh. Oh, you're like a natural.
Brilliant, brilliant. Yeah, A plus. So then I have my little seed in my little square,
and it gets big. And then I say, you need a bigger home. Go in there.
So would you like to see the bigger soil block? Sure. Okay. This is the one that you can make at
home. Really nice and easy. And it's just wood, some screws, a little hinge. It's really nice.
And you just take your soil and then just kind of smooth it, fill it in. And then
like so, give it a little weight. Take it out. Open your little door. And then
there you have it. And this is quite nice for things like tomatoes, melons, cucumbers,
things that want to grow for a really long time before you put them in the ground. So
would you like to go see some soil blocks class that have plants growing in them?
Totally. Okay, let's go take a trip to the greenhouse. All right, class, here we are at
the greenhouse. Now, did you all bring your permission slips? We're about to enter. Okay,
I'll be calling your parents if that's not true. If you forge those signatures, come on in,
step over the little stream. Okay, well, you might have to cut for fog. So if you see here,
we have the roots on the bottom. They just hang right down, or they've pruned themselves right
on the edges. They're coming out the sides. They don't make a spiral twisting and get all bound up
like they do often in trays. So that's why I really like soil blocks. And you can grow anything
in soil blocks. We just put the seed right on top. The seed does not need to be covered.
You can if you wanted to, but a lot of things need light to germinate. So we've been,
we've had no problems with just putting it right on top. You just want it to germinate.
And once it gets, once it germinates, you put it right into your larger block. And you can see
here we have some peas and mizuna and a lot of different plants we have growing. And there's
an example there of the bigger blocks with some maybe cauliflower in it, I believe. And then
when you want water, there's two ways that are good to water. And I prefer this one particular way,
but you can do either a mister or you mist them from above, or you could take the whole tray
and submerge it in just a little bit of water and then soak it up to the bottom. You don't want to
spray it with a regular hose nozzle because it'll just make your blocks disintegrate. See you all
tomorrow, 8.27 in the morning. Expanded Coyer, 20 liters. You can also use peat moss,
10 liters of sifted manure, five liters of sifted soil, five liters of sifted sand,
four handfuls of lime, four handfuls of rock dust, and enough water to hold the blocks together.
Now, ah, detention! I'll see you after class.
