Using seed tape to get the perfect garden spacing

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How many times have you planted a handful of tiny seeds — onions and carrots or even herbs like basil!  Have you sown a row of tiny seeds, only to end up thinning out over half the seedlings? Using seed tape to get the perfect garden spacing will reduce the work you have to do in the garden.

After those seedlings grow up some, have you forgotten or been too busy to thin them out?  You end up with a bunch of seedlings that never really reach their potential.

I have your solution!  Using seed tape will help you keep your seedlings spaced out correctly as to avoid those issues.

Other possible reasons for using seed tape

But it’s not just a matter of going cross-eyed when seed-sowing time comes around. Sometimes the weather doesn’t cooperate, and the wind decides to pick up as you flick down a fingerful of seeds.

Sometimes all you want is a couple of seeds as you gently shake out the packet, and a whole year’s worth pours out (kinda like getting that last sip of iced tea in your glass, and you end up with a face full of ice). I’ve been there.

Using Seed Tape to get the perfect garden spacing

But now I have seed tape.

Seed tape — basically a strip of paper with seeds embedded for precision planting — is sold at many nurseries, but you likely aren’t going to find seed tape in the variety you want. It’s also expensive for what it is, especially since I’m all about affordable DIY.

You can make your own seed tape at home with nothing more than toilet paper and school glue!

First, find a cheap roll of one-ply toilet paper. You can also use two-ply and just split the toilet paper apart. Roll out a length to fit your garden bed. I usually don’t work with anything longer than 4 feet, just because it’s easier to manage several shorter lengths of seed tape than one extra long tape.

Any gardener knows that it’s hard to space small seeds, similar to carrot seeds, in the garden. Here are three simple steps to make your own seed tape!

STEP 1

Unroll a piece of tissue on a table (twofold handle works best), mist it with a spray bottle filled with plain water, and place the seeds along the focal point of the strip. Make sure to space the seeds in light of the seed parcel’s suggestion.

Also Read:  Seed Saving – Quick tips for saving seed

Tip #1: Alternate carrot seeds with radish seeds since when the radishes grow, they help to stamp the column and break the ground.  

STEP 2

Beginning along the strip’s long edge, overlap 33% of the paper over the seeds, at that point overlay the other third finished to cover the seeds totally. Press pack the paper, moistening it again to secure the seeds. Make the same number of these strips as you require. At that point precisely convey them to the garden.

Tip #2: You can also place the carrot seeds (main crop) at the recommend spacing on the seed tape and then place a faster maturing seed such as radishes or turnips in between the carrots.  The radish or turnips will be ready long before the carrots are mature.

STEP 3

Make shallow wrinkles in the readied soil, lay the strips down, and cover them. In a jiffy, your little seeds will be planted and flawlessly dispersed.

The result

The result will be properly spaced seeds that will turn into mature crops that can be harvested to feed your family.

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Also, check out our article on What is succession planting? or How to grow Carrots!

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Using seed tape to get the perfect garden spacing, seed tape, using seed tape, Backyard Eden, www.backyard-eden.com, www.backyard-eden.com/using-seed-tape-to-get-the-perfect-garden-spacing

Hi, I’m John.

John grew up on a farm where his family raised chickens, goats, rabbits, and grew a huge garden. John has a family of his own and gardens to know where his food comes from. Learn more..

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