Making Seed Tape

It’s cold again today, so I decided to do some prep work for the garden. I made some seed tape with some lettuce seeds. I have not made seed tape before but I know the theory.

Last year I planted lettuce for the first time and it did really well. I think we ate lettuce every day till it bolted. But one of the proplems that I had was that lettuce seed is really small and I am not a patient person. After attempting to plant them spaced out, I finaly got so frustrated that I just tossed the seeds into the bed and raked it lightly. I figured that I could thin it out when the seeds started to grow. Nah… That didn’t happen. Being the over-loving gardener I am, I could not bring myself to abort the baby plants, even though I knew it would be for the greater good of the bed.

I ended up with way more lettuce than I needed and plants that were stunted.

So this year, I thought I would try making seed tape. So I started with a small paper bag, a packet of seeds and a little flour paste. Flour paste is easy to make. Little bit of water, little bit of flour, mix into a thin paste.

I used Mesclun Spicy Mix from Burpee. Last year I used a gourmet lettuce mix, which was good, but I like to mix it up a bit from year to year.

As you can see in the pic, the lettuce seeds are pretty tiny.

I cut the paper bag into strips

I put drops of flour paste on the strips at the prescribed planting distance and placed a seed on each drop. Then I let the strips dry. The seeds are then stuck to the paper strips.

The next warm day we get, I will plant them in the ground. Just lay them out and cover with a little dirt. I may make some more of these with carrots and radishes later. I want to see how it works first.

UPDATE 4/9/06: The lettuce was sprouting so this works. I will be doing the radish this week.