Ladbrooke Authentic Soil Block Maker - Maxi 4" Hand Held, Made in England

I have been starting seedlings indoors for a few years now, and I really dislike using seedling trays. They are cheap, break, and they take forever to clean and store. Not to mention they are plastic and not great for the environment. I wanted to try soil blocking to see if my starts really are healthier and if I could avoid the junky plastic seedling trays. YES! It is all true. I love soil blocking for so many reasons. If you are thinking about trying it, I would suggest starting with the 1.5" inch maker first. You will quickly want to get all of the larger and smaller sizes. I really love using the smaller blocks and nexting them in the next size up as needed. I have found it very helpful to use my fingers to press the soil into the crevises of the blocker and rinse the blocker between each block/set of blocks you are making! Soil blocking is very doable and fun. I use 1/2 seed starting mix, 1/2 nice potting soil, a scoop or worm castings, and water to make my soil blocks. You can totally do this and you will love it.

I need to get my soil consistency correct, but this works well so far. Sturdy construction

This one doesn't work as well as the smaller 2 inch blocking tool. I had to really pack it full, manually placing the soil in the top of the tool before pressing the rest down into the soil. Even using all of my weight I could not get the top portion to compress without adding soil to it before pressing. Then I had to slowly, gradually work the plunger up and down to try to release the block so the top portion would release cleanly. I experimented with multiple different moisture levels in the blocking soil, but none would form easily with this tool. I have been using the 2 inch 4 block tool for several Yeats, and never have had any issue with it forming. This tool is extremely overpriced for how poorly it does it's job.

After attempting to use this mold 30+ times without any great success, I realized it would be far easier & a great deal less expensive if I packed some biodegradable organic paper cups with the same mixture, put a few holes in the bottoms & kept them on a tray so the water would not rot the roots. The cups are ordered, but it’s too late to return this expensive useless piece of steel.

This is the grandaddy of them all. You start your seeds in the 1 cm blocks, move them on up to the 2" blocks, and then as the plants and their root systems start needing a little more room and space in the soil to root out, put them in the 4" x 4" blocks. Many more plants survive transplanting into your garden or even larger pots with this system. Check out Eliot Coleman's books and videos for this and oh so much more small scale organic farming advice, ideas and experience, especially where the growing season is short.

Let's get this out of the way first- $90+ for a device that eliminates using plastic pots for your seedlings. I haven't even tried to figure out the math of how many times you would have to use it to break even! However, if you're seriously thinking about purchasing the 4" Maxi you're more concerned with other factors such as the environmental impact and the ease of transplanting your veggies.Soil-blocking is a lot of fun! Instead of buying plastic pots which will be around forever you use the actual soil itself to contain the seedling. This is done by using a special blend(there's many recipes online) of soil that needs to stay moist so it doesn't crumble. The other benefit is that the roots air-prune themselves instead of twisting-up into a ball in your plastic pots. This makes upsizing/transplanting much easier for the delicate plant.The Maxi 4" in this review is the largest size I've seen. I'm currently using this size for my squash, peppers, and melons that I can't keep outside permanently(it's still frosting at night here in early May). The block holds enough soil to give your plants room to grow and has an indentation at the top sized perfectly for a 2" block to fit. It's heavy-duty and will last a long time if you remember to rinse it off and dry it after use.The only drawback of it(and the reason for the 1 star deduction) is, as others have stated, it takes A LOT of soil to fill! If you're going to use it a bunch( and hopefully you will after spending almost $100) you'll want to make your own recipe of soil instead of buying the pre-made stuff. 4 stars for a solid blocker!Jae

Pepper plants potted up to this large soil block are doing better than pepper plants potted up into 4 inch pots.Because the blocks are tapered and don’t sit flush with each other I was concerned they would dry out quickly but that has not been the case. I did use moisture control potting soil.Be aware the soil blocks require more soil than potting up into 4 inch pots.Looking forward to using this more.

I am a little disappointed in this because it is not the exact shape for our 2” soil blocks. They sit a little high when potting them up so the 2” block sticks up and the soil at the base is a little too thick.