Dan and Ashley, founders of Swift Blocker, with their two children

Our story

It started with the seedlings.

We run a flower farm, and as it grew, so did the seed starting — thousands of plants every spring. We started them in plastic pots and trays, like everyone does. They did the job, but the transplants were poor: the roots circled the pot until the plant was root-bound, so every seedling stalled for a week or two after going in the ground.

Soil blocking worked. The tool didn't.

So we took up soil blocking, and it was great. With no pot to grow against, the roots reach the edge of the block and stop instead of circling. The plants go in the ground and barely notice — no shock, no stall, stronger from day one.

Then the tool became the problem. The blockers were slow. Thousands of blocks a season, at the kitchen table, late at night. They hurt our hands. They didn't fit a 1020 tray. We were using garden tools to do farm work, and nobody made anything better here.

So we built our own.

We started tinkering. Sketches first, then prototypes, made at that same table. We built one that could keep up with the farm.

We gave the first ones to friends.

Then we sold a few. We didn't expect much — but people wanted more, told other people, and it grew and grew. And we finally had our evenings back.

Now it's on farms all over.

Swift Blocker is in the hands of thousands of growers now — still made in southeast Michigan, by the same families our kids go to school with. The same tool we built for ourselves, now built for you.

— Dan & Ashley

Start your strongest season yet

The tool we built for our own farm, ready for yours.

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