DIY seed tape. Easy-easy-easy.

[Ricard with an H]

Ok, it's lousy weather so i'm doing the dusting and vacuuming, there is so much of that you can do before you need a break.

Todays third break and I always wanted to try out my idea of making seed tape after using the stuff and finding it so much better with the more efficient spacing.

In this case I went for radish seed, I cut kitchen roll into strips then rubbed a strip with glue-stick. The seeds stick to the glue stick and another strip of kitchen roll also with glue stick on it over the seeds to make a sandwich.

Will this amazing innovation place me streets ahead of Mrs Mouse and her six mole captures ?

[Beryl]

You must have the patience of a saint Richard. How many of those can you churn out in an hour? without the wine!!!

Beryl.

[Pennyroyal]

Hi Richard

I did my tapes earlier in the week - Egyptian Beetroot. I used the 'damp' method to stick the two bits of tissue together, but I think yours is a better idea as I had to plant mine straight away.

I have high hopes that this method will be an improvement on traditional sowing, I am usually far too heavy handed with fine seed.

I think the weather in the next couple of days will give us ample time indoors for tape making!

[Ricard with an H]

Beryl.

I was surprised how quickly it went though I did get organised and we have a paper guillotine making the strips easy to cut. I also very quickly found that my fingers were not as nimble as a pair of tweezers.

I had bough some store-bought seed tapes, in an hour I had done ten of those tapes, brewed and drank a cuppa, fed the dog, took the photos and posted along with writing the thread. Honestly, once your organised each tape takes about a minute though you couldn't possibly keep that up without a break.

Most deffinately cutting the strips is the biggest chore if you don't have a guillotine and tweezers are a must.

Penny.

Like you I always sow seed too thickly no matter how hard I try, the first tapes I sowed were of parsley and whilst I doubt it matters if parsley is sown too thickly I was impressed at the uniformity of the seedling group.

After ten tapes I still seem to have a packet full of seed, you do get less seed if you buy store-bought seed tape.

[Pennyroyal]

I have got a Pro seeder, bought for me ages ago but never really used as it was not practical for most sowing outside into drills, but would be fine for this job, probably easier than tweezers. Reviews are not brilliant but if you are going to make tapes it must be easier thank fat fingers/tweezers!

[Ricard with an H]

A Pro-Seeder ?

I better get online and do some learning.

For those of you who might attempt this don't let the tweezer anywhere near the stick-stuff on the tape. If you keep the tweezer clean you just drop the seed onto the tape. Once you get sticky on the tweezer the seed won't drop.

[Ricard with an H]

Ahh-yes, i've got it.

With the radish seeds and seed you can get hold of tweezers are fine though i'm keen to modernise if the situation requires. Some seed is so small I could see that pro-seeder being indispensable.

There are a number of types and whilst I can see that the pro-seeder has different sized nozzles for different sized seed I don't understand how some of the others work unless you're happy with multi seed drops.

Right, i'm on a mission. Find some tiny seed to test the tweezer.

[Pennyroyal]

I saw some discussion about them on a gardening forum and the general opinion was that the Pro Seeder was a waste of money BUT the I assume the users were sowing into pots or modules, so other methods may well have worked better. But when making tapes you are always going to need to pick the seed up individually, so the fact that sometimes you might get two or three is less important than the ease of picking them up.

I could bring mine up for you to have a try with if you like (looking like tomorrow now ) before you buy?

[Ricard with an H]

I doubt I will ever sow direct now I have mastered seed tape, at least you can see the seed on the white paper. Not so once ints dropped into the compost.

It's tweezers for me but I would love to compare.

Smallest seeds I can find are a mix of cut-and-come-again loose leaves seeds by Unwins. Not much of a mix I have to say from last years sowing.

The seeds are easy to pick up and drop with tweezers and you never pick-up more than one so you only drop one. I just realised some tweezers are better than others at dropping, doubtless the jaws need polishing with a 600 grit abrasive. Or something.

Whilst on the subject of seed mixes the last sowing was from Johnsons and they do warn you of variations. It's clear when you spill the contents onto a table that you don't get much of a mix so would it be better to get a few different packets then mix them yourself.

How long do these seeds last before they go into deep-dormancy I wonder ?

[JohnN]

Why cut the kitchen roll into strips? I plan to try this good idea but thought I could just "sow" the seeds in 3 rows on to squares of kitchen roll and "plant" the squares end to end, therefore making long rows. Or am I missing something?
John N

[Ricard with an H]

Or am I missing something?
John N

What a good idea, i'm going to try this a little later in the day.

Perhaps draw lines or patterns on the kitchen paper, then apply the glue-stick on the lines. Perhaps add more glue stick so you can just lay another sheet of paper over then cut out what you want. Yes.

Thanks John, keep-Em coming.

I just did a tweezers-test, (I can't believe I wrote that) out of four tweezers one was hopeless another was average and the remaining two never faltered. I do however have a super-tweezer.

It's pink.

[Pennyroyal]

I just made the very silly mistake of opening the front door to go up to the garden to get my Pro Seeder down to test it - absolutely lashing down as only it can in Pembs.

Plan B should be making fat balls for the birds, but I can't be bothered! Why does bad weather make us so slug like?

And I can't find my glue stick, so can't try making tapes either

[Ricard with an H]

I just made the very silly mistake of opening the front door to go up to the garden

Three trips to my shed and back, about 25 metres from the house and i'm having to hang my jacket to dry. Everything is sopping-wet and I had to make sure all my plants in pots on the outside tables are on draining mats.

There are other ways of gluing the seed down, why not try a small mix of flour and water then apply it with a paint brush.

I just tried John's idea and I found the smaller salad leaves stick to the glue stick and don't really need another layer of K-roll over the top.

Back to the shed, it's a tip in there.

[Primrose]

I'm intrigued by this idea. I find bending down to sow and thin quite tricky these days. What kind of glue did you use? Was it something like a Prit Stick? I would have thought that might have stuck to the tissue as you were rubbing it over it.

As a general comment I find that seeds stuck to tissue paper germinate OK. (would certain types of glue kill them?). I usually drain my washed & saved tomato seeds onto kitchen paper once most of the mucus has washed off them and then when I'm ready I just sow the seeds still stuck onto the tissue straight into the compost. it always works OK.

[Pennyroyal]

I have just made some strips using kitchen towel cut into 1 1/2" strips then the two layers separated - my kitchen towel has one layer much thinner than the other, I used this for the top sheet. I made up some flour and water paste and painted a stripe along the centre of the papaer strip with a pastry brush. I placed the seeds at an appropriate distance and put the thinner, second strip over the top and pressed down gently. I made four strips in total which will give me two rows in my small raised bed. These seeds were golden beetroot. I could plant out now, but might leave they to dry to see what they are like then. Took about 10 mins, but if it works will save time ultimately with thinning out, which I hate doing.