Seed tape?

[Davinci]

I like to use carrots that come in a seed tape because I am terrible handling tiny seeds. I try to scatter them but they land in one clump and 500 carrots come up in one place then I have to thin, which I HATE!

Today the seed place is all out of carrot seed tape. I swear they only order in 5 pkgs!

Last year I tried making my own seed tape by gluing seeds to toilet paper. I found this awkward to handle, it kept blowing away and the toilet paper floated to the surface when I watered. Didn't work so good.

Now I'm trying the same thing, but with sheets of paper towel.

2 ply, spilt into two separate sheets. Dab on diluted white glue on the grid I have marked where I will never need to thin. Then with a wet paintbrush I pick up one seed at a time and set it on a glue blob. This is very tedious. However! I hope it saves me the task of hours spent bent over trying to decide which carrot to pull, which to leave and pulling them both because I'm clumsy. What else is there to do except glue seeds to paper towels?

[ooptec]

And that's easier than thinning?

Always this for $2.99 http://www.earlysgarden.com/starting-supplies/dial-seed-sower

[Davinci]

For me it is easier than thinning!

I have such a terrible time trying to grow anything at all, that it is like sticking a hot needle into my own eye to pull out and actually throw away a living, green plant! It is AGONY!

I admit, this is a little fiddly. BUt the seeds are glued on right where they need to be. If each one comes up they will be able to grow to adulthood without one single carrot being yanked. I had 8 sheets of seeds, which I set in the garden and sprinkled soil over. Have 8 more sheets set to plant. Just have to be sure to bury them well or the squirrels come and dig them up!

I have such extremely limited growing space and limited success that I have to make the most out of each inch and each seed. I am really hoping this works and that glue is water soluble, otherwise I'm in big trouble!

[Chickenlady]

You might trow away a living green plant, but you pay so much more for those seed tapes, that you can afford to trow some out ;-)

But seriously..I never ever thin my carrots...I hold the seeds in the palm of my hand..and with thumb and index finger I pick them up en sprinkle them in a nice row in my garden...works perfect.

Another thing is to buy a little wheel where seeds come out when you shake it..and you can seed thin with that too...(an empty tic tac container works too)

picking up seed by seed to stick them between the 2 layers of papertowel...THAT would drive me craze.

[Fowler]

I just kind of scatter them in amongst the other garden plants and rake over after. I rarely have to thin.

[Davinci]

I did buy pre-made seed tape one year and I ripped each seed off individually and plunked it in a hole, spaced as I thought was appropriate. That worked well. But this year they were all out of seed tape or I'd have done that again. My home built toilet paper seed tape didn't work so well. But so far I'm happy with my paper towel sheets of carrot seeds.

I think most traditional gardeners with large, flat plots of earth, rototilled and hilled and...whatever, have no concept of how I garden! We live on BEDROCK. Every handful or soil had to be purchased and hauled and shovelled. None of it is on the ground! It is all in 5 small raised beds. These raised beds are subject to no sun due to stupid enormous fir trees, pine trees, birch, cedar and poplar. Deer attack the few green things that grow. Rake my garden? Hah! My gardens are 3x5 boxes and my one extravagant sized 4 x 12 box. So, as you can see, I am NOT doing this to fill a freezer or can or pickle. In my dreams! I do this for 4 or 5 feeds of fresh carrots, or enough potatoes for 4 meals. That I try at all in the face of chronic annual failure is testament to my stubbornness, hopefulness or outright stupidity.

ANd while we're talking gardens, mine not really qualifying as a garden, does anyone grow peppers with any success? What is the secret? I have never been able to grow a pepper. (or anything else for that matter!)

[ooptec]

peppers need to be started extra early so they go in fairly tall. Tho I have grown sweet green bell peppers by seeding in garden

they like lots of sun and especially hot weather tho

[ooptec]

Container gardening may be of some use, lots of tomato var will grow well in pots

[Fowler]

Around here, I've become convinced that I'd need some sort of greenhouse, hot bed or something to grow peppers.

[Fowler]

Cloches also work. I just remembered that my parents used to grow green peppers. Being a farmer, my father had a steady supply of heavy duty clear plastic fertilizer bags. They'd just cut the ends open and use stakes to keep them spread and upright. I once tried some tomatoes with and without and they made a huge difference. Hard finding a suitable plastic though.

[ooptec]

That's interesting

I got a greenhouse cover that is clear plastic for free

Places that run greenhouses replace them periodically even tho there there is still lots of life in them

is clear and very light weight

will try this this year as put tomatoes in cages already

[Fowler]

Hmmm, maybe I'll see if I can find some of that.

I should add, the pic I found is close to what we used to do but we left the top open. Meant they needed to be covered for frost warnings but they couldn't overheat on hot days.

[niglefritz]

Davinci, peppers like acidic soil too. Those evergreens could come in handy.

I find the comment about getting discarded greenhouse plastic interesting. i don't remember seeing any go out when I worked at a nursery...I will have to go ask around to see what all of the greenhouses in the area do with theirs when they are replacing plastic.

[Davinci]

I am not the only one around here who can't grow peppers, this makes me feel a little better aobut myself.

A couple years ago I built these round wire planters, maybe 18 inches across. I lined them inside with black weed paper. That was to keep the dirt in, the holes in the wire were pretty big. I planted asparagus in these. It looks like my asparagus is kaput. I was thinking that the black fabric probably attracts heat. Am going to give the asparagus a little while longer to revive itself and if nothing, I am going to try the peppers in these black lined wire cages. The black liner comes all the way up to the top edge, but the soil is quite low, so there is a lot of black paper exposed to attract heat...and bake those little pepper plants!

My tomatoes do fairly well in the raised bed, until the deer come along and bite them off the plant and spit them on the ground. I have hung up netting. I have the ugliest garden in the world!

[prairie dog]

?? why the black plastic ? and around a plant in the sun is just a recipe for disaster . As far as deer go , if they are such a huge problem then build a chicken wire top for the plants ? a small frame work and make it about three feet tall and just place it over the plants to keep the pesky critters away

[Davinci]

THe black fabric (not plastic) was used to line wire planters to keep the soil in. I made these planters out of stucco wire.

Also remember that I do not, at any time, get full sun, EVER, on anything! Surrounded by trees I only get part sun, or dappled sun. Don't worry, direct sun blasting is NOT a problem!

Yes, have wired out deer. But since my garden is a spot here and a spot 30 feet over there an a spot under the trees over there, fencing the whole area is impossible. It's spread all over the place. I net/cover what I can, but it isn't always possible. If it's not the deer eating then spitting out the tomatoes, its the squirrels digging up my paper towels to line their nests! I tell you, the wildlife is out of control around here!

[prairie dog]

Just cover the plots is what I'm saying .......

[niglefritz]

I knew of a lady who peed in some cups and set them out around her garden. She always had trouble with deer. Of course, when it rained or after a while, she would have to redo it all. She claims that it worked very well.

As for the squirrels, I have no idea except for shooting them.

[Davinci]

Peeing in the garden...I'll have to think about that.

Prairie, I do have the individual beds covered, at least on crops that don't get too tall. Bt it's hit or miss around here.

I spent more time tonight making paper towel seed sheets. Tonight it was spinach and carrots, all spaced exactly as they should be. Reminded me of those grade 1 art projects where we glued macaroni to an old shoe and then spray painted it gold and gave it to our mother for oOther's Day. A crummy shoe with glued on pasta and badly spray painted, if that doesn't say love, what does?

[ooptec]

I've also heard dog hair and mothballs also deter deer. Never tried as the dogs keep them away from mine.

Squirrels, around here either shoot or live trap

[niglefritz]

You should avoid the mothballs. They have formaldehyde. They are supposed to work, though on more than just deer.

The idea with the pee thing is that you are marking your territory. I've also heard that you get the male of the house to do this around the perimeter. They don't need a cup, of course.

[ooptec]

Real mothballs are made of napthalene, they just eventually sublimate (solid to gas)

[prairie dog]

Never have a lot of issues with deer here ? A few wander through once in a while , but that's about it . I'd still get those bear bombs and set them up when you're not in the garden ......scare the crap out of them and teach them to avoid human contact altogether

[Davinci]

Report on seed tape.

Yes it was fiddly to glue all those carrot seeds to sheets of paper towel, but it didn't take that long. The only down side was setting the paper towels all over the tabl to dry only to discover the glue had oozed through the thin (separated) sheet of paper towel and glued itself to the table! Had to pry up a few sheets, but will take steps to prevent this next time.

The carrots are coming up! In perfect, staggered, accurately placed order. I will not have to thin one single carrot! I can see that maybe I spaced them a little closer together, but if we eat them when they are young, that won't be an issue.

It seems that both glue types, the diluted kids white craft glue and the flour/water glue have allowed the seeds to sprout. Inquiring minds want to know.

I also recently managed to score some sheer curtains from the thrift store which work perfectly to hang on the ends of the long, narrow garden box. Bugs can get in to pollinate, deer can't get their heads in to nibble. Although the netting I hung on the long sides has very large openings, 6x6 or bigger, and a determined deer might just stick its face through the holes. Oh well, as the sheers billow in the wind it looks like I at least cared abut my garden décor. I want it to look nice for bear, deer and other visitors.

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