Time to Plant: Make Your Own Seed Tape

I have a big garden (280 square feet) and sowing seeds always takes more time than I expect. Leaning over the garden tires out my back, so I make the process easier. I make seed tape for things I sow directly in the soil. Lay your seed tape down in the garden bed, water, cover with a thin layer of soil (according to planting instructions), and water again. Voila, the planting is done!

I use paper towels (organic unbleached) as the tape, maple syrup as glue (other good alternatives include non-toxic glue like Elmer’s or a mix of flour and water), seeds, and a chopstick to glue the seeds in place. I do this at my kitchen table while drinking a glass of wine and watching a movie a few nights (up to a week) before planting. Note that is you are using maple syrup or any of these methods, be gentle with the paper towels after the seeds have been placed. Let them dry before stacking them on top of one and other and handle them gently to avoid displacing the seeds before you are ready to plant.

First step: make a garden map. Sketch a garden map to lay out the dimensions of each seed type (radishes, carrots, beets, etc). For example, let’s look at French breakfast radishes. I plant radishes early in my veggie bed. The section of the bed for these radishes is 3-feet wide by 4-feet long. The directions for sowing these seeds say to space plants 2 inches apart with rows 12 inches apart. I make my rows tighter so I can pick small radishes as they grow and thin them to the suggested width over time. So I will space the plants 2 inches apart and the rows 5.5 inches apart.

Second step: make the seed tape. Tear off sections of paper towels the length of your bed. My radish beds are 4 feet long by 3 feet wide, so I prepare 4 strips of paper towels that are 1 foot wide (width of paper towel) and 3 feet long. Make rows of dots are 1 , 5.5, and 11 inches from the edge to establish my row spacing. Then move two inches from each dot and add another dot to establish the plant spacing for the seeds. You will eventually create a grid of dots across the 3 foot length of you paper towel for your rows and columns of seeds.

Once your paper towel is marked, pour some maple syrup into a small bowl and arm yourself with a chopstick. Put a dot of maple syrup over each dot on your paper towel and drop a seed on top of the maple syrup. Repeat until you have a seed on each dot. Let the maple syrup dry to secure the seeds in place while you begin seeding your next paper towel. Let them dry before stacking the paper towel or they will stick together. Now you are ready to plant.

Third step: Plant! Once you are ready to plant, just lay the paper towels down in your bed, spray with water to saturate and prevent wind from moving the seed tape as you lay others down, and cover them with the soil to the thickness described on the seed packet. Don’t forget to water the soil really well once the tape is covered by soil. Radishes will be on their way once they sprout!

I make seed tape for carrots, beets, kale, Swiss chard, arugula, watercress, mustard greens, and radishes. These are all the things I sow directly into the soil rather than sprouting in my house and planting as seedling. Creating seed tape avoids back breaking thinning of seedlings that are too closely spaced and it saves me time on the day I am sowing seeds. I have been using this method for the past 5 years and think it is the way to go when you sow small seeds. Give it a try and let me know what you think.