How To Plant "Thinly"

[Smiles Jr.]

@Beekissed , I really like the tape at amazon.com but $6 plus $5 shipping is a lot of money for 100 ft. The garden I plan to use this spring is 100 ft. x 100 ft. and it would be expensive to use the tape for every row. I still may want to try one roll to see if it works very well. I have inherited one of those aluminum walk-behind two-wheel planters but whenever I have used one in the past I find that small seeds get planted in little groups of 3 or 4 seeds. I never go back to thin as needed and sometimes the plants are way too crowded.

 

[Smiles Jr.]

I think I may try to make my own seed tape using toilet paper. I have several rolls of TP that is not perforated, single ply, and it is super thin for use in large dispensers. You know, the kind that everyone hates! A weak flour paste is applied to a 1" wide strip, the seeds are placed at appropriate spacing, the paper is folded over and pressed together. When dry the seed tape is ready for use. If the flour paste is somewhat dry and the tape can dry quickly there is little chance of the seeds germinating prematurely.

 

[Beekissed]

I thought it was pricy too. My garden is pretty large as well, though not as large at yours, and seed is cheap...whereas the seed tape is expensive.

I was thinking about using it on seeds such as carrots, lettuce, etc. that are too tiny for my clumsy fingers. I've seen YT vids on the homemade seed tapes and I may try those, but IME things like that don't often turn out like they do on the vids....I'm pretty clumsy and I can just see myself making a huge mess, TP and flour glue all over and still left without a solution.

I've tried the little syringes they sell for small seeds...totally worthless.

I'm thinking about paper medical tape...it has a very light adhesive but likely strong enough to retain a seed and would be much cheaper. Might not dissolve into the soils as easily but, then again, it just might...I've never tried it. The adhesive on that kind of tape is fairly mild in nature so as to not cause sensitivity to the skin, so I'm thinking it would be just fine for seeds as well.

It's $.56 at Rite Aid for 10 yds but likely cheaper at the Dollar Store, so I might get off a little cheaper, and a whole lot neater.

 

[so lucky]

It will be interesting to see the results. Keep us posted, Bee.

 

[thistlebloom]

I thought it was pricy too. My garden is pretty large as well, though not as large at yours, and seed is cheap...whereas the seed tape is expensive.

I was thinking about using it on seeds such as carrots, lettuce, etc. that are too tiny for my clumsy fingers. I've seen YT vids on the homemade seed tapes and I may try those, but IME things like that don't often turn out like they do on the vids....I'm pretty clumsy and I can just see myself making a huge mess, TP and flour glue all over and still left without a solution.

I've tried the little syringes they sell for small seeds...totally worthless.

I'm thinking about paper medical tape...it has a very light adhesive but likely strong enough to retain a seed and would be much cheaper. Might not dissolve into the soils as easily but, then again, it just might...I've never tried it. The adhesive on that kind of tape is fairly mild in nature so as to not cause sensitivity to the skin, so I'm thinking it would be just fine for seeds as well.

It's $.56 at Rite Aid for 10 yds but likely cheaper at the Dollar Store, so I might get off a little cheaper, and a whole lot neater.

I'm trying to picture this in my mind @Beekissed . Would you fold the tape over the seed, or just lay out in manageable strips and plant immediately? I'm picturing myself with a loopy mess of tape sticking to everything I don't want it too, and the seeds falling off....

 

[digitS']

This is kind of a wordy post where I described the why & how I have used a gel for sowing, @Beekissed . May 28, 2009

It wasn't for the purpose of sowing thinly but I have used that gel for making seed tapes with strips of newspapers. Once ....

My problem was that it was something of a breezy spring day. I was trying it with carrot seed. That's shallow sown so the paper was nearly on the soil surface. I was getting a little frustrated out there with the tape blowing around.

Sowing seed in the liquid gel is how I have also used it. Carrot seed, especially, benefits.

Steve

 

[Beekissed]

Thank you, Steve! That's interesting about the carrot seeds and them drying out so quickly. I've used pelleted seeds before and loved them but they aren't easy to find in some of the varieties I like at times. The cornstarch gel is interesting, to say the least....I may wind up using that instead of dotting small points of glue onto strips of paper. I have clay soil so my problem is not with drying out, but with excess moisture or compacting.

I'm trying to picture this in my mind @Beekissed . Would you fold the tape over the seed, or just lay out in manageable strips and plant immediately? I'm picturing myself with a loopy mess of tape sticking to everything I don't want it too, and the seeds falling off....

I'd be taking it directly to the row and laying it down, pinning it in place with something like a toothpick, then covering it then. I've never done it before, so who knows what will happen or what I will learn!!! I could wind up just like you describe, all wrapped up in tape and red faced...have I mentioned how incredibly clumsy I am?

I hope to do a lot of companion planting this year, so the strips of tape won't be excessively long. I'll be tucking a small row of this or that next to larger plants to gain the maximum amount of shade or other benefit from them.