Weekend Projects: Seed Tape

As I browse the few catalogues I buy from each Spring, I am always looking to see what seeds come in a tape and can I use them. Lets face it. I love to garden. I love to do stuff from scratch. But I've got four kids and sometimes (read most) I'm lazy. I like the easy way out. I like to have a shortcut.


I always go back to buying the seeds by the ounce, because it's cheaper and we all know, we like our gardens to be as cheap as possible. I mean, if a packet of carrots cost me $2 and has 1500 seeds, thats less than $.0001 per carrot.  You can't beat that with a stick.  So then I had the bright idea, why not make my own seed tape?

Carrot seeds, radishes, lettuces. They are so tiny, and even those seed dispensers can be a pain to use when the seeds you're using are the same color or close to the same color as the dirt. And I hate thinning. It makes me sad to uproot little veggies that haven't had time to grow. I feel like I'm killing something. Plus, thinning takes work, and it's wasteful.

So I sat down and consulted the ultimate authority. Google. I found 100's of sites telling me how to make seed tape. Some said newspaper. Some paper towels. Some said elmers glue, some said a homemade paste of either cornstarch or flour and water. Well, I didn't have paper towels we got rid of those years ago. I don't get a newspaper to the house either. But I did have toilet tissue, and it's thinner than either newspaper or paper towels meaning it would break down faster allowing the germinated seed to grow better.

So I sat down with a roll of TP, some scissors a glue stick and my packet of 1500 Scarlet Nantes Carrot seeds. I tried the cornstarch and water/ flour and water paste. Let me tell you, if you have a glue stick, go with it. The cornstarch method was great if you made it thick (1:1), but it dried very very quick, and very thick. The thinner it was, the more mess it made. Lets face it, with four kids, I just don't need more mess, I have enough. So after wiping down my entire dining room table, I scoured the house and found a non-toxic glue stick. But the glue stick was too thick and was ripping the paper. For the love of Pete I just wanted some seed tape. So I consulted the second best authority. My best friend. I hope on the net and shoot her a message. She responds. "Use a toothpick to get some glue, and pick up the seed and then smoosh it on the toilet paper". GENIUS.

Now *this* method. Works. I just took TP squares, put three carrots per square across, three carrots down, nine carrots total. Then I took another square and covered it. This maximized the TP usage. I cut the TP squares into three strips, three carrot seeds per strip. I can then plant the strips, with the carrots about 1.5 inches apart and then do rows about four inches apart. (If you practice SQ FT gardening and really amend your soil well, this should be plenty of room for intensive growing.) If you don't practice SQ FT gardening, you can always just plant your rows 12 inches apart.