- Seed-Starting Date Calculator | for Starting Seedlings Indoors | Johnny's Selected Seeds
- Seed-starting Methods at Johnny's Greenhouses | 3 Systems for Starting Professional-Quality Seedlings Indoors
- Guidelines for Starting Seeds Indoors | Tips & Troubleshooting Advice for Starting Healthy Seedlings
- Transplanted Vegetable Crops | Plant Quantity & Average Yield Chart + Feet of Row per Acre
- Transplanted Vegetable Crop Yield Chart | Number of Plants Yielded per Seed Quantity & Average Harvest Yield
- Fertil Pots | Comparison Chart (PDF)
- Support Trays | Comparison Chart (PDF)
- Flats | Comparison Chart (PDF)
- Johnny's 512 Mix | Instructions for Using Our Compost-Based Growing Mix
- Soil-Block Makers | Instructions & Blocking Mix Recipe | Tech Sheet (PDF)
- Soil-Block Making | A Better Way to Start Seedlings, by Eliot Coleman
- Video: How to Start Your Seeds with Soil-Block Makers
- Video: About Pelleted Seed
- Guide to Choosing a Grow Light | Tech Sheet (PDF)
- Strip Grow Lights & Accessories | LED & T5HO | Comparison Chart (PDF)
- 4' LED Propagation Rack Kit | Assembly & Use Instructions | Tech Sheet (PDF)
- Humidity Domes | Comparison Chart (PDF)
- How to Grow Healthy Hydroponic Seedlings | Seed-Starting & Environmental Variables
- Hydroponic Seed-Starting & Environmental Variables | Tech Sheet (PDF)
- Deluxe Microgreens Starter Kit Instructions | Tech Sheet (PDF)
- Bioset Germinator & Bioset Germinator Kit Instructions | Tech Sheet (PDF)
- Basic Microgreens Starter Kit Instructions | Tech Sheet (PDF)
- Seedling Grower Starter Kit Instructions | Tech Sheet (PDF)
- Manual Leek Planter | Instruction Sheet (PDF)
- Paperpot Drop Seeder Plates | Comparison Chart (PDF)
- Terrateck Paperpot Transplanter | Assembly Instructions | Tech Sheet (PDF)
- Terrateck Paperpot Transplanter | Instructions for Use | Tech Sheet (PDF)
- Paperpot Transplanter | Paper Chain Pots | Comparison Chart (PDF)
- Precision Vacuum Seeder | Instruction Manual (PDF)
- Precision Vacuum Seeder | Interchangeable Plates | Comparison Chart (PDF)
- Precision Vacuum Seeder | Supplemental Instructions | Identifying Your Tray Brand (PDF)
- Precision Vacuum Seeder Trial Results | Plate Recommendations for Flowers & Ornamentals (XLSX)
- Precision Vacuum Seeder Trial Results | Plate Recommendations for Herbs (XLSX)
- Precision Vacuum Seeder Trial Results | Plate Recommendations for Vegetables (XLSX)
- Johnny's "Light" Pro-Am Seedling Grower Kit | Tech Sheet (PDF)
- Johnny's Pro-Am Seedling Grower Kit | Tech Sheet (PDF)
- SunBlaster LED Strip Light Operating Manual | English (PDF)
- SunBlaster LED Strip Light Operating Manual | Français (PDF)
- Sunblaster T5HO Comparison to Sunblaster LED Grow Lights | Tech Sheet (PDF)
- SunBlaster Light Timer Instructions | Tech Sheet (PDF)
- SunBlaster Spectrum Test Report - SBH 4' LED 6400K @ 6" | Tech Sheet (PDF)
- Strip Light Stand Instructions | Tech Sheet (PDF)
- SunBlaster Growlight Garden Instructions (PDF)
- Seedling Light Carts | Assembly Instructions (PDF)
- Seedling Light Carts | Comparison Chart (PDF)
- Seedling Light Carts Replacement Parts | Comparison Chart (PDF)
- Smart Pots | Comparison Chart (PDF)
- Video: How to Seed Your Paperchain Pots & Trays
- Video: Paperpot Transplanter Demonstration
- Video: Plug Popper | Quick Demo
- Video: How to Use the Precision Vacuum Seeder
- Hatfield Transplanter | Assembly Instructions
- Video: Using the Hatfield Transplanter
- Video: Direct-Seeding Your Garden | Tips & Recommendations with Niki Jabbour
- Video: Growing Peppers in Containers with Niki Jabbour & Johnny's
- Video: Growing Tomatoes in Containers with Niki Jabbour & Johnny's
- Video: Winter Sowing & Milk-Jug Greenhouses | With Niki Jabbour & Johnny's
- Video: Hardening Off Your Seedlings | Tips & Recommendations with Niki Jabbour
- Seed-Starting Flats, Trays, Domes & Pots | Comparison Chart (PDF)
- Fertil Pots | OMRI Certificate
- RootShield Plus+ WP | Wettable Powder | Label
- RootShield Plus+ WP | Wettable Powder | MSDS
- RootShield Plus+ WP | Wettable Powder | OMRI Certificate
- Seeding Date Calculator | To Target Specific Harvest Dates | Johnny's Selected Seeds
- Connecta® Row Pro™ Hiller/Furrower | Connecta Tool System
- Johnny's Paperpot Transplanter | Assembly & Instruction Manual (PDF)
- Video: Manual Cell Tray Seeder | from Johnny's Selected Seeds
- Johnny's Heat Mats | Sell Sheet (PDF)
- Connecta® Matrix™ Row Marker | Connecta Tool System
- Johnny's Paperpot Transplanter
Soil-Block Making • A Better Way to Start Seedlings
by Eliot Coleman
Soil-blocking is an ingenious seed-starting method that allows the grower to produce vigorous seedlings with roots that quickly reestablish growth upon transplanting. Soil-blocking further eliminates the expense, waste, and storage issues associated with plastic pots. Read Eliot Coleman's account of how he came to develop and perfect this system for the small commercial grower.
When we started as commercial vegetable growers in 1969 we used to grow our seedlings in wooden flats filled with potting soil. We kept a series of marker boards with dowels set at the ideal spacing for the different crops, which we would place on top of the flat to make indentations in the potting soil where each plant would go. Some crops were direct-seeded into the flats, but others we would germinate in seedling flats and then transplant into the growing flat at the proper spacing.
Once the seedlings were large enough to set out in the field, we would use a sharp knife to cut the flat into cubes, each containing a plant, as if we were cutting a tray of brownies, before transplanting them. The advantage of this system over bare-root transplanting was that each seedling came with its own, mostly undisturbed root ball, enabling the transplants to become established quickly in their new home.
When the early "Speedlings" and plug tray systems first came out, we tried them but didn't like the results as well, because the plants didn't seem as vigorous or grow as rapidly. A bit of geometry taught us why. An upside-down pyramid has only one-third the volume of a cube of the same top diameter. So we went back to our wooden flat system but continued to hope to find something even better.
I first saw that something better on a visit to European farms in 1976. One of the small farms I visited was growing seedlings in soil blocks. Not only did the soil blocks contain the two-thirds greater soil volume mentioned earlier, but the separation into cubes had taken place even before seeding, so there was the absolute minimum of root disturbance.
European research further brought to light that the roots of container-grown seedlings encircle the container's inner surface, whereas roots growing in soil blocks "air-prune" themselves at the block's surfaces because of the separation between the blocks. On transplanting, the soil-block plant roots extend immediately into their new surroundings, and establish themselves three days sooner than the container-grown plants that have to learn to stop circling.
I was hooked — but I wanted more. The smallest size block that the early hand-blocking tools would make was 1½ inches square. I wanted smaller germination blocks for crops I started with bottom heat, such as tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, and celery, so I could fit more seedlings on each heating mat.
I convinced a British manufacturer to make a mini model for germination purposes (¾-inch x ¾-inch blocks) and to make similarly sized pins (or dibbles) to poke holes in the top of 2-inch blocks, so the germinated seedlings could quickly be potted on — the square block in the square hole. This was now a complete seedling-starting system.
Recipe for Success
SOIL BLOCK RECIPE
From The New Organic Grower, by Eliot Coleman
- 3 buckets brown peat (standard peat moss).
- ½ cup lime. Mix ingredients together thoroughly.
- 2 buckets coarse sand or perlite.
- 3 cups base fertilizer (equal parts blood meal, colloidal phosphate, and greensand). Mix thoroughly.
- 1 bucket garden soil.
- 2 buckets well-decomposed compost. Mix all ingredients thoroughly.
Moisten the mix thoroughly using 1 part tepid water for every 3 parts blocking mix. Successful soil-block making depends on the mix being wet enough. The mix should have the consistency of soft putty or wet cement, so that a small amount of water oozes through small openings in the blocker as the blocks are made, and the individual blocks cling to the blocker until you are ready to release them.
NOTE: Johnny's 512 Mix meets the criteria for organic production, and is an also an excellent medium for making professional-quality soil blocks.
But as with any system, there are details involved. First, the ideal consistency of the starting medium for making soil blocks is much moister than most growers are used to. We are talking about something akin to chocolate fudge mix. Getting the blocking mix recipe down may take a little practice.
Second, after the block-maker is jammed down into the moist mix to fill the forms, then scraped flat against the edge of the tub, the next step is not like squeezing toothpaste out of a tube. You do want to press down on the handle to firm the block, but once you see water seeping out of the bottom, you need to shift your fingers and lift up the sides of the form, and then let the press plate up, to effectively free the blocks from the block-maker. Perfecting this technique can also take a little practice.
Many years ago we made special three-sided wooden flats to hold the blocks. (See The New Organic Grower.) Since then we have decided that an 18-inch x 8-inch piece of polycarbonate, cut from the scrap left over after putting polycarbonate end-walls on a greenhouse, makes a simpler and perfectly adequate flat.
A flat that size holds 60 of the 1½-inch blocks, 36 of the 2-inch blocks, and 18 of the 3-inch blocks. As a flat piece of plastic, the polycarbonate requires very little room to store in the off season, and doesn't blow around the farm like the Styrofoam and light plastic plug trays used to do.
There will always be a few blocks left empty in a flat where a few of the seeds did not germinate. Even so, these were not a total loss. When my children were younger they helped me with transplanting in the field. The empty blocks were the summer replacement for winter's snowballs — now called dirtballs — with which they would happily pelt each other.
Further Resources
- Guidelines for Starting Seeds Indoors: Tips & Troubleshooting Advice for Starting Healthy Seedlings • Article
- Seed Starting at Johnny's Selected Seeds: 3 Systems for Indoor Seed Starting • Article
- Seed-Starting Date • Interactive Calculator
- How to Use Johnny's Soil-Block Makers • Video
- Johnny's Soil-Block Makers • Instructions • Tech Sheet (PDF)
- View Johnny's Soil-Block Making Tools • Product Listing
- View Johnny's Seed-Starting Supplies • Product Listing
- View Crops to Start-Early-for-Transplants • Product Listing
- View Eliot's Books • Product Listing
Eliot Coleman has over 40 years' experience in all aspects of organic farming, including field vegetables, greenhouse vegetables, rotational grazing of cattle and sheep, and range poultry.
Coleman, his wife and co-author Barbara Damrosch, and his daughter and farm manager Clara operate a commercial year-round market garden, in addition to horticultural research projects and tool invention, at Four Season Farm in Harborside, Maine.
As Johnny's official tools advisor, Eliot works with Johnny's Research Department to develop and test tools of superior design and performance for our home and market gardener customers. Eliot's own designs and recommendations can be found throughout the Tools & Supplies section of our website.
Books authored by Coleman and Damrosch include:
- • The New Organic Grower
- • Four-Season Harvest
- • The Winter Harvest Handbook
- • The Four Season Farm Gardener's Cookbook

With a soil-blocking system, the process of potting on involves starting seeds in small blocks, then transplanting the growing seedlings into successively bigger blocks.