How Tuesday - Making Seed Tape

Okay, do you have extra rolls of toilet paper in your house too?

We did not even hoard, we just bought a package if they had any at the store when we were shopping and as a result, we have a few extra rolls.  I had always heard that you could make seed tapes with TP, so I figured now was a great year to try it with all this surplus.

There are several ways to make seed tape, I found instructions on Hometalk Make Your Own Seed Tape | Hometalk , Mistress of Dirt How to Make Seed Tapes for Easier Sowing | Empress of Dirt and Garden Betty Make Your Own Seed Tape - Garden Betty

Seed tape is basically a strip of paper with seeds embedded for precision planting. If you have trouble with spacing, or if you like me think more seeds are better, or you have trouble telling seedlings from weeds, seed tapes are a great way to plant.  Seed companies make seed tape, but rarely is it made in every variety so a homemade tape with your perfect seeds is the way to go.

 

All you need is toilet paper and glue and a couple other items to make the job easier.

Because they’re on a tape (or length of toilet paper, really), you can also control how far apart they are planted. The entire thing is placed in the garden. The toilet paper will disintegrate, and the seeds will sprout right where you planted them.

How is this different from simply going outside and dropping a seed into the ground? Why take the extra step of making seed tape?

Seed tape is good for:

+ tiny, hard to manage seed.

+ Seed you don’t want to plant too much of just to have to thin out later.

+ increasing germination rates.

+ less seed waste

+ Giving you a winter garden activity when you are dying to garden outside (even though it is -11 today!)

+ keeping seeds in place when there is a hard rain.

 

Making Seed Tape:

•   Toilet paper or paper towel
•  Seeds
•  Paint brush, pencil or tweezers
•  Glue / paste made from 1 teaspoon baking flour and a bit of water; or Elmer’s glue mixed with a bit of water; or straight up dots of water soluble glue
•  Measuring tape / ruler

 

Steps to creating seed tapes:

1     1. Make your own paste by combining flour and water. The glue should be thick enough to sit on the end of your brush or pencil without dripping. You need only about a teaspoon of flour to glue several tapes.

2,  Decide on the length of your tapes.  For a raised bed or in ground flower bed 2 foot lengths work well.  For container gardening, make tapes about 12 inches long.
   

    3. Tear off the length of toilet paper you want and write the name of the seed type on it. Do this first or you might forget.
  

     4. Use your seed packets to help you decide how close together you want to place the seeds.  Make them slightly tighter together to make allowance for germination issues.
   

     5. Pour the number of seeds you’ll be using on a clean plate and spread them apart so they’re easy to pick up one at a time.
   6.  Place a dab of glue and add a seed.

        OR You can add the glue to the TP and then drop in a seed to each drop.
   

     OR put the glue on a pencil tip and poke it into seed and place on TP
  

     OR dab a paint brush in glue and draw a line and then sprinkle seed onto the wet glue.


  7.  Fold the TP over the seeds before the glue is dry to protect them from falling off.  This is especially good to do with tiny seed    Once dry, the seeds will stay in place.

Extra tips:

·      When those little glue dots have hardened, roll up your seed tape and stash it in an envelope or zip-top bag until you’re ready to use.

·        For some plantings you can get more per square foot by planting diagonally rather than in a straight line.  You can create tapes and off set them or use a zigzag pattern down the length of paper.

·        Using tweezers to drop a seed onto each dot of glue, can make the process easier than using fingers or a paint brush.

·        Since tiny seeds barely need to be covered, the paper makes it simple to see how much soil you’re adding on top.

·        Once you’ve glued on all your seeds, allow ample time for the glue to dry and make sure the seed tape is not sticking to your surface.

      

      I roll the seed taps up and store in a ziplocked bag until ready to plant.

 
When planting your seed tapes:
 
At planting time, simply water your soil and smooth the surface. Unroll your seed tape, set it on top of the soil, and lightly cover with more soil. It’s okay if the toilet paper shows through a bit; it will quickly disintegrate and decompose in the ground.

As with seeds sown, either by seed tape or the traditional way, gently mist or spray the soil until the seeds have sprouted and established firm roots; you don’t want a strong blast of water to displace your meticulous work. Within a week you should see perfectly spaced rows of little seedlings coming up!