Yes, this is all we use at the farm here! We have a variety of sizes of soil blocking tools for different seeds. I was also lucky enough to see Maisie Anrod show how they have used soil blocking with students in the classroom at Hunt Middle School in Burlington, VT.
The tool we use here at the farm looks more like this:
This speeds up how quickly we can make the blocks, but is a great space for that sort of "intentional inefficiency" in garden education, and using the hand tools would allow more students the opportunity to make the blocks.
We use potting soil which is wet, but not soaked, and top the blocks with vermiculite after they're seeded. The soil blocks themselves facilitate air pruning of the roots of the starts, and the blocks serve as an easy place for students to pick up transplants by. In some cases, such as peppers, we'll start in a small soil block, and then actually transplant the seeds that germinated into larger soil blocks, before transplanting again to either a bucket for transport or a "permanent" home.
I'm not sure if Maisie is on this forum (if so - hi Maisie! Thanks for the tour!), but if you have a way to get a hold of them, she'd be a person who I would consider an expert on using these with students.
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Amity Freiman (They/Them)
- Columbia Center for Urban Agriculture
Columbia MO
"While I'm alive, I'll make tiny changes to earth" - Scott Hutchison
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Original Message:
Sent: 01-12-2026 10:51:35 PM
From: Alycia Wright
Subject: Soil Blocking
Just discovered this tool and it makes starting seeds so much faster and save precious classroom space. I like how due to the size, you can still get several, allowing each child to plant a seed without taking up large amounts of space. Anyone else using these blocks to make your own "potted seed"?
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Alycia Wright
Culturalrootsco-op.com
Richmond Va
8043068116
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