Some of my friends have been making seed tapes for years. I always wondered if it was worth it time-wise. I read a thread in a group where people were sharing how the tape makes more efficient use of space and seed with much higher germination rates over other sowing methods. I had to at least give it a try. I am happy to report I found it worth my time.
The seed tape is $7 for 15 feet of seed tape. I made the equivalent of 222 feet of seed tape in an hour to an hour and a half. I saved myself a little over $100 which is not bad "pay" for that time. I can't be more precise with the time than that because I had an interruption in the form of an upstairs plumbing leak that was first discovered when it started "waterfalling" down a wall. I got back to work and let Joshua take over the plumbing problem which damaged a small section of ceiling. (I can fix it cheaply myself. I need to paint the room anyway.)
As a mother of many, I have learned to work fast to cover as much ground as I can. Well, I've always been a fast worker. They nicknamed me "Speedy Gonzalez" at a place I use to work and co-workers told me to slow down because I was making them look bad. As a young mother, I read books and learned a lot from efficiency experts because I wanted more time to enjoy my children while they were home.
So, I was rolling quickly along and not worried about neatness picking up and dropping paste with a toothpick. I mean, I AM going to cover this up with dirt. And, it's not about neatness, now, is it? It's about getting the task done reasonably well in an efficient manner.
About as fast as a hand could speed from bowl to paper towel is how fast I was going with the paste. The little seeder helped with dropping seeds too. Mistakes were "happy little accidents." A dry toothpick helped move seeds that fell outside of the target onto the paste.
The paste is equal parts flour and water. I mixed two tablespoons of each at a time. I had ceiling fans on due to the aforementioned plumbing issue. The moving air dried the paste a little so I added water to thin it again. The fans also helped dry the paste on the paper towels well enough that I was able to stack them on top of each other where they dried without sticking to each other.
The seed I am trying to use up is about 3 years old, so I let a few extra fall into the paste dots to guarantee germination. I really dislike having blank spots in my garden rows. :-)
That time includes some experimentation. Toilet paper did not work well for me. I also tried extra napkins from a restaurant take-out order. They were too thin for my liking. The half-sheet paper towels worked the best.
I placed the carrot seeds 2" apart. I made the rows about an inch apart on the paper towel. I will layer the paper towels and then cut the rows into strips before I put them in the garden beds.
Some packets of seeds say to plant the carrots 4" apart. I do not like having extra room in my garden beds. It allows weeds to grow. I REALLY do not like weeds! My thought process is "If a weed will grow here, why not plant something edible?" So intensive planting is what I do. I will do some thinning by using the some of the carrots before the reach maxium size.
I will get to see how these seeds perform against the other sowing methods I've used. Gardening is a fun skill to have because there is always something new to learn and something new to try.
Happy Gardening!
