Seed Starting with Soil Blocking
Read:
- FAQ: Seed Starting with Soil Blocking
- Low-budget Plants
- Seed Starting Troubles
- Seed Starting: The Pain and the Triumph
- Caring for Seedlings
- In the presence of seedlings….
- Seed Starting, When should you start anyway?
How-to-use it
Videos: How-to use TGW Product
Read:
Becoming a Farmer
So, you want to be a flower farmer?
Tips
- One Container, Three Seasons!
- Growing Cut Flowers Like the Pros!
- Amaryllis Make Fabulous Cut Flowers too!
- Getting More from your Cut Flowers!
- Cut Flower Harvest Guide
- The Gardener’s Workshop Bloom Guide
Lauren DeSisso
I bought T 12 lights from y’all how far should they be from seedlings when moved off heat mat?
Also my snapdragons didn’t germinate well at all. I used a cookie rack to make sure they were super cool on heat mat any other suggestions?
Lisa Mason Ziegler
Lights should be 2-3” above the canopy of seedlings.
Snaps are surface sown so laying wide weave burlap helps to retain moisture but doesn’t block air. Works great.
Lisa Stevens
I love all your material and have a pretty good first season with cool season annuals. However, germinating and growing lisianthus was not successful. Do you know a good source for lisianthus plugs? Thanks so much, Lisa
Lisa Mason Ziegler
Plugs are available from plant brokers like Ball Horticulture, Farmer Bailey, and Germania Seed Co.
Karen Schlosser
Hello! I read Cool Flowers and still have a question about Lisianthus…
I am in Cincinnati, Zone 6. Do I transplant SEEDLINGS/PLUGS out 6-8 weeks before my first frost in the fall? My first frost date is Oct 28, so I need to plant out mid-Sept. And/or do I plant seedlings/plugs out 6 weeks before my last frost (April 17, so early March)?? I am just confused because I would worry the floating row covers would damage plugs/seedlings, especially with snow. ?? THANKS SO MUCH!
Lisa Mason Ziegler
If this is your first time growing them I would plant in very early spring, up to 6-8 weeks before your last spring frost. Be sure to prepare the beds I fall- to wet and frozen to work soil in spring.
Erin
Hi Lisa, I just read cool flowers and veggies love flowers, took your cutting garden course, and I decided to give soil blocking a try for the first time. Today when I was planting I struggled with the scabiosa seeds (star flower variety). The seeds seemed too big for the 3/4 inch block. Do I just poke them in like zinnia seeds? Fuzzy side down or pointy side down? Do I need to sow them in plug trays instead? Thanks for all of your helpful content!
Lisa
Yes that is what we do poke the point end in first like a zinnia. Good luck! We had great germination with ours.
Lisa
Marlene Songin
Is there a general rule of thumb for distance between t8 light and seedlings once moved from the heat mat? Does the light move further away from seedlings as they grow? How close should they be when you first move from heat mat? I am sure you have answered this before ..and if there is resource for me to look at, would welcome that. Appreciate your know-how, has been incredibly helpful as a first time flower gardener!
Lisa
Check the heat given off but normally T-8 are good to be a couple of inches above the canopy of seedlings. You can raise them as the plant grows.
Hope this helps.
Lisa
Lynn Cheney
Lisa is there a temperature in the Spring below which the cool flowers will not survive? I’m growing seedlings and know you say 6-8 weeks before the last frost but it can get below freezing here in 6a at night on occasion well into Spring.
Thank you
Lynn
Lisa
Hi Lynn,
If we face lower than 25 degrees i hoop and cover to protect the foliage and a little insurance for the plant. Plant and have protection available if needed.
Kaylin Keres
Hi Lisa! I love learning from you! Question about cool hardy annuals:I did not start any hardy annuals in the fall, but I am starting them now for the spring. My impression was that I could start the seeds and plant them out before the last (im zone 6 in southwest MI) frost since that’s when their fall started counterparts would be ready to harvest (right?), but all my sources and seed packets are telling me to transplant after the danger of frost is past. I think I’m missing something…could you explain how transplanting cool hardy annuals that have been started in spring are any different from the heat loving tender annuals in terms of when you begin harvesting? Thanks do much!
Lisa
The second window to plant the cool-season hardy annuals is 6-8 weeks before your last spring frost.
The seed packages are why we all stopped planting at proper time!
Marcia Burchby
Hi Lisa,
I’m enjoying your book and website but haven’t found a clear guide on how large the seedlings should be before planting them out this Spring, what the temperature guidelines are, and if they should go under remay. I have feverfew, snaps, dianthus, bells, rudbeckia, centaurea and scabiosa in soil blocks. I’ve also direct seeded buplerum, dill, larkspur, nigella and centaurea under row cover. I am in zone 6a, southeastern Ohio.
Thanks for any advice and for new horizons with my flower business!
Lisa
Hi Marcia, My book Cool Flowers has planting timeline for the cool season hardy annuals mentioned based on where you are. My guide for seedlings are 3-5 inches tall to plant out-
Happy spring,
LZ
Sue
Lisa, I’ve had my soil & blockers for a number of years. Last year I lost a lot of seedlings to what I would assume was like dampening off. I’m wondering if it would be advisable to sterilize the soil before I plan this year. Thank you!
Lisa
We only use compost based soil. Are you using a seedling heat mat?
Lisa
Maureen
Hi Lisa,
Thank you for your books and website. I read and reread them both!
When counting back seed starting and growing times, are the two weeks of hardening off included in the growing time, or should they be an additional two weeks?
I can’t wait to get started!
Thanks! Maureen
Lisa
Hi Maureen, hardening off is a part of the growing time. Good question.
LZ
Trish
Hi Lisa,
Thanks for the great information! Where can I buy the 5”x7” trays shown for soil blocking? I haven’t been able to find a source.
Thanks, Trish
Lisa
We sell them: https://www.thegardenersworkshop.com/product/soil-blocking-blocking-trays/
Nancy
Not sure if this is the right place to post this question, but I couldn’t find another option. I’ve followed all your suggestions for seed starting for the “Easy Cut Flower Garden.” So far, everything thing has gone well (first seedlings went in the ground just an hour ago!). The only problem is that the celosia simply never germinated despite the fact that I treated it the same as the other seeds–and I started it earlier. My question is twofold: 1) What might I have done wrong? and 2) Could I buy celosia bedding plants from the garden center to get a similar effect? I’m hoping to have these flowers for a wedding in mid-July, so I don’t have time to start again from seed. Am I correct that I should clip any blooms off bedding plants before planting them? Thanks for any helpful hints.
Lisa Ziegler
Hi Nancy, Celosia seeds unlike the others in the book need light to sprout. That means the seed should not be covered with soil. Zinnias and sunflowers need darkness to sprout so they do get covered. They maybe what happen. Unfortunately the plants at the nursery will be short bedding plants- not tall enough to cut. I would retry starting seeds.
Doreen
Lisa, what was that “small white moth” you mentioned one time? It flutters up when you shake a branch. Seems like there are hundreds that flit around and land on everything? I would like to know the name of it so I can be ready to spray it this spring/summer.