Soil Blocker Update, and Weed Cloth theory

Soil Blocker Update
With this first set of blocks i'm really pushing the size of what these things should grow.  Normally I should have transplanted these a long time ago (to a 4" blocker if I had one, or outside).  However I'm just trying to see how things do.  I took some pictures:

Remember, each of these blocks are 2 inches.  The whole tub is about 14 or  so inches wide with space on the sides for a small water reservoir.  I probably gave these too much room to be honest, in videos i've seen them much closer together.

Those lettuce plants are like 5 inches around

So the soil blocks are doing well, obviously the plants are getting too big for their britches, but we'll just let them grow til i need the space again.

The point though of this blog is a thought I had about the strength of using soil blocks to start all your plants.  I know that starting 1000 plants is going to be a bit crazy in little blocks, but it's doable, and it saves on work latter (is the hope).

Weed Fabric
I went to the store and bought a 4' by 100' thing of fabric.  Cost about $25, $40 once you add the staples to hold it down.  i'm hoping I can save it for next year, but who knows.  but that's enough to cover all my grow beds, without having to do anything funny (the 3' was just not the right ones even though they're easier to find).  The trick behind the weed fabric though is that it has to be used with transplants.  Which makes it imperfect for a lot of people who seed directly in the ground.  This is where the soil blocks really shine.  If you soil block every plant you plant, then you have a transplant (even if it's just a 3/4 seedling).  So bring out a simple knife and a you can cut the fabric just enough to plant your plant.  What does this mean?  1 - less water needed, 2 - warmer dirt (it being black and all), 3 - virtually no weeds (they can grow right next to the plant but that's it, and it's pretty easy to weed), and 4 - easy planning (explained later).  These benefits, to me, made it worth the investment.  I do however want to find a good way to pull them out year after year, probably right before I plant my green manure plants at the end of the year.

Easy Planning
I mentioned earlier that this makes for easier planning, which honestly is just a theory not based on trying yet.  However, this fabric is black, meaning that it should be pretty easy to use some chalk to write on it (or anything else I can find that's worth while, and more weather resistant :)).  So the idea is, to unroll some at a time, and mark the X's where plants go, mark off the area that each set of plants will take up, etc.  This lets you know exactly what your garden will look like, in the winter before you're ready to plant.  It also lets you know exactly how many seedlings have to survive (which means you want an extra 10+% above that many just in case.  In the end this should save on seeds, save on weeds, save on water, and really save on planting stress in the end.  I just need to find the perfect way to mark the fabric.  Let me know if you think of a way.