Remember the other day when we built our wood seed trays (the ultimate compostable seed tray)?! At the time we expressed that we were unsure whether they were going to hold up–and as I was editing the video, it struck me. SHOU SUGI BAN! This Japanese technique, used to char wood and then seal it, is an amazing way to waterproof wood in the garden. So, we decided to give it a try for our wood seed trays!
We started with cedar from some raised beds we deconstructed. We used 1x6s for the bottom and 1x4s for the sides. First we charred using a torch and then sealed with a beeswax/linseed blend, which is nontoxic and food safe, which means these will still be compostable at end of life. We use a product called “tried and true,” it’s linked under “gardening/soil blocking tools” in our amazon storefront here: https://www.amazon.com/shop/blossomandbranchfarm
After trying this, the water was beading up on the wood, and I’m hopeful that it’s going to be a success! So, what do you think–would you give Shou Sugi Ban a try? It also works for raised beds or anywhere else you’d use wood in the garden, but cedar is considered the best.
Want to learn more? Check out our video showing how we fill these! https://youtu.be/i5Or_secS2U
Learn more about regenerative gardening in our course: https://blossomandbranchfarm.teachable.com/
Hey guys it’s Bri here at Blossom and Branch Farm and today we are doing a little project with seed trays now if you tuned into our last video you saw that we are experimenting with wood seed trays and in that video I mentioned that wood is great because it’s compostable
And it’s a sustainable material however it will not last as long as for example a plastic tray or definitely not as long as a fiberglass tray so as I was editing that video I was thinking wait there is a great way into waterproof wood which is this Japanese style of charring Cedar
And I had totally forgotten about it until I was editing the video so what they do is they just do a Char a light Char on the outside to seal the wood so we’re going to do it today so we’re going to build these today we’re going
To char the wood and we’re going to see if they hold up better than the other ones we’re going to test the waterproof of those let’s go so what we have here are 1X sixes so this was one 1×6 that we cut down just with our saw and we cut
Them into 18in lengths now I mentioned in the last video that I might make them shorter and smaller and I forgot to mention that to Dave I’m not going to mention it now so we’ll just make another big one because I forgot to tell him before he cut these
Down whoops so we’ve got 1 by sixes for the bottom you could make these any Dimension this is the great thing about making these seed trays yourself is you can really customize them for whatever seed starting shelf you’re going to use for the sides we’re using a 1×4 I didn’t
Want the sides to be too tall because I like some good air circulation but I still wanted them to be tall enough that we would be able to get enough soil in there and not have them tipping around so what we’re going to do is we’re going
To char all of these pieces first before we assemble them and then that way we can get all of the inside pieces charred we want to make sure that the insides are charred cuz they’re going to be exposed to water as well so this side we
Want to make sure it gets charged just like every other side so we have a propane tank and a torch we used to use this propane torch on the gravel Pathways to burn weeds but because it’s usually so dry here in Colorado we don’t really use it that much anymore so we’re
Going to use it for this so if you don’t have a flamethrower already then showering your Cedar Garden stuff might be a good excuse to get one you can do the same treatment with garden beds so if you have raised wooden beds you can do the same treatment so if you’re just
Doing a little bit of charring for example for the seed tray you probably don’t need this level of flamethrower thing just even a small torch would work for this so I’m going to open up my propane tank and then I’ll open up the valve on this Sky once I can hear it fire
Obviously I’ll say it later the NS so once we have these pieces charred we’re going to brush off any of the Char with a wire brush and then we’re going to seal it I’m going to use a linseed oil product and this is actually a polymerized blend of linseed and Beeswax so the whole idea is this really helps
Reduce rot it creates a really moisture impenetrable barrier and it also supposedly helps with insect resistance now I accidentally filmed the rest of this in slow motion but you’ll get the idea so here we were using our wire brush to remove all of the soot from the
Boards I’ve also seen people do this using water to really get it clean then we applied our linseed oil and Beeswax blend this is a product called tried and true I’ll link it below but I liked having that added beeswax because you can see how when we rub it in it really
Gets down into the grooves of the wood and I think it’s providing a really nice seal now you could use a brush if you’re just using linseed oil but here with the beeswax I used this Bona rag just so that I could really get it down and into
The grooves Dave pre-drilled all of these holes just to make sure that the wood didn’t split when we put the screws in and we’re just using regular wood screws and attaching these boards down to the sides now I have seen people do this using just nail guns but we did the
Screws just because we felt like they were going to hold a little bit better considering that these were going to be holding wet soil which can be fairly heavy one more screw all right all right so there we have it we’ve got our wood seed tray
Built so again the steps where we cut everything down and then we seared it with our flame did about 10 seconds to sear it and then using our wire brush we brushed off any of the charcoal bits and then we sealed it with our linseed oil beeswax blend we have our video from
Yesterday where we talked about why we’re doing this and where we showed how we filled them and how we divided them and planted our seeds in there so so hop over to that video if you want more info all right right now we’re getting the tractor out we’re going to do a little
Bit of work so I’m going to go get that done and then wash my hands all right guys we’ll see you soon around here at the farm
21 Comments
Shou sugi ban! I'm not allowed to play with fire 😢😂
I love Y'alls videos. Thanks, Brie. Still love my soul blocker but have yet to transition to the wool pellets. Thanks again, and please let us know how we can help spread the Green Revolution. You Rock!!!
Brie I’m very interested in the brand of soil blocker you use. I want to convert but am worried about hand pain. Which one do you find is most comfortable to use?
Smart! Just as good as Crupic Sulfate?
Elliot Coleman uses wooden trays for his seed starts, he puts three sides on the tray and then leaves one side open so its easier to remove the seedlings. If the trays have time to dry between uses that will prolong there life to. Hope these ideas are helpful to you.
Great idea!!!
This is very interesting! Will be neat to see how these hold up!
Thanks for sharing ideas and options.
Curious to see how these work out and if it’s a noticeable improvement over the standard wooden boxes.
Is it still compostable with the linseed oil and beeswax? Wondering what happens to it at end of life.
Cut some slots for handles in the short sides. Just sayin'.
This is so cool! I’m in zone 4 and I plan to try starting seeds for the first time this year. Thanks for all the ideas for different ways to go about the process. This is so helpful!
Would it be possible for you to do a test with just the charring and not the sealant?
wouldnt the beeswax and oil just negate the experiment? those are going to seal and make the wood water resistant anyways even without the charring right?
I wonder if this would work for garden beds. I'm redoing my entire garden and the price of treated wood is insane.
Very cool!
Does the oil/wax also stop your hands getting messy from the char when you carry them around?
Awesome 😎👍
Leather strap handles (maybe a repurposed belt) would be a cool addition. Love this process. Now I want to build seed trays! 👩🌾💚🥕
Have you found that these hold water long enough for the soil to soak it up? I would be worried that the gaps between the planks would not allow water to stand in the tray.
Thanks for providing this video. I’m planning to build a cold frame and redo one of my beds (that’s on an incline) with charred wood. The linseed/honey mix was the missing link to my design! Thank you!