watering soil blocks

[birdermom]

What is the best, easiest, or been successful for you in watering your soil blocks...placing them in a mesh bottom container then placing that in a container of water...or...putting them in a container that you add water to the container..2/3 or less and allow to draw up? I need to decide as I pull them from the "greenhouse like" containers when they germinate and go under lights.

[beeman]

The best way I've found is to lower the mesh tray into a half filled second tray, leave for a couple of minutes, then remove to an empty tray.

This doesn't disturb the soil blocks at all which is the danger when top watering, and stops the bottom of the block from becoming waterlogged.

[birdermom]

Do you do this daily once you put them under lights?

[FarmerShawn]

I do what beeman describes. How often depends on the size of the plants and the weather and, to a certain extent, on experience. I can pretty much tell by weight whether they need a "dunk" or not. I did find in Tractor Supply a plastic tray for the bottom of a rabbit hutch that is about the depth of a standard 1020 tray, and two feet square that holds two trays with room to spare, and makes dunking several trays in a row quite easy.

[beeman]

Originally Posted by birdermom

Do you do this daily once you put them under lights?

It will depend on heat source, plant size. Mine are in front of double French doors and I find every other day to be sufficient.

[birdermom]

Mine are in a cool basement in front of deck doors....no direct sunlight from doors. I will look at Tractor supply today. Thanks so much for all of your help. Going off subject but how many hours of light do you supply? and when and should I fertilize? My mix had only a small amount of compost added to it.

[beeman]

I just use regular daylight hours.
General opinion is to start fertilizing at second leaf with a weaker strength than normal.
I went full strength and burnt all the roots off

[birdermom]

Half of my soil blocks...or over half....are in disposable plastic containers. Do you think the plants will be ok left in them and adding small amounts of water to the container and allowing the blocks to absorb? or do I need to move them all in mesh bottom as soon as they spout and are placed under lights? I am concerned that handling the blocks so much will cause them to break apart but leaving them in the containers will cause root rot...ugh...

[FarmerShawn]

Originally Posted by birdermom

Half of my soil blocks...or over half....are in disposable plastic containers. Do you think the plants will be ok left in them and adding small amounts of water to the container and allowing the blocks to absorb? or do I need to move them all in mesh bottom as soon as they spout and are placed under lights? I am concerned that handling the blocks so much will cause them to break apart but leaving them in the containers will cause root rot...ugh...

First, it will depend somewhat on the makeup of your blocks. With the stuff I use, the blocks are really quite sturdy, and I move them around at will all the time. And before I got the mesh trays from Johnny's, I used to have them in solid-bottomed trays. You just have to be more careful and watchful to be sure you find the balance between too much water and not enough. (Not really that different from pots, as far as that goes.) I took a pair of metal kitchen tongs and flattened out the blades and squared off the bottom with tin snips to make moving the blocks around easier. I used to do that occasionally when I accidentally got too much water in a solid tray, and wanted to move the blocks to a dryer container. As the plants get larger, of course, the blocks get increasingly unbreakable, as the roots hold them together. The mesh trays just make dunk-watering easier, faster, and more foolproof, but they certainly can work without the mesh trays.