[ColcordMama]

Have you ever noticed how expensive seed tapes are? If you're a gardener (or want to be if TSHTF), then let me tell you just how easy it is to make your own seed tapes.

I bought veggie seeds from the dollar store. Keep your eyes peeled for those seeds, they'll be in a cardboard shelf display or on a floor rack. Dollar General, Dollar Tree and Family Dollar sell them, and they'll be really cheap. I've paid as little as ten cents a packet before. One of the best things about them is that of all the seeds I've bought, not one was a hybrid. Why is that important? Because hybrid seeds were created by a company (Burpee, Gurney's, Park Seed, etc) and are way more expensive, plus which won't breed true from saved seed. If you save the seeds of Kentucky Blue, your crop will be stringy and tough. If you save the seeds of an heirloom--non-hybrid--like pinto bean, then you'll be harvesting exactly the same kind of bean. That could be really important if TSHTF and you need to be able to save seeds because you won't be able to buy any more seeds anywhere.

ANYway, back to the seed tapes. You'll need plain old newspaper, Elmer's glue or any plain white school glue, ruler or yardstick, seeds, a pencil and scissors. Cut the newspaper into strips. On the end of the strip, write what the seeds are. Put some seeds into a little saucer so you can pick them up one at a time, figure out from the back of the seed packet how far apart they need to be planted, and put drops of glue all down the strip. Now set a seed in each drop of glue, and put the strip aside to dry.

That's it. Make sure you use white newspaper with black ink, not the colored slick ad pages (could be chemicals in the colored inks), and don't use any fancy carpenter's glue or super glue, just good old plain white kindergarten glue. If you can't get glue, make a paste of flour and water, but it will take longer to do and be much messier. Store your dried seed tapes in a paper bag so moisture can definitely evaporate and not make your tapes moldy. When it comes time to plant, just dig a trench as deep as your seeds need to be planted, lay the tape in and cover it over. Done. Now wasn't that easy?

If you want to get creative, in the spaces between the seeds on the tape you can put radish seeds. Radishes grow like little red rockets. Plant and stand back and watch. Plant a radish seed and you could be harvesting a Cherry Belle in 21 days. That's three weeks, folks. Rockets. So put radish seeds between your, for instance, carrot seeds and the little radish plants will come up first, marking the rows of carrots so you can see them clearly. When you harvest the radishes, the carrots will be coming up and you'll be leaving little holes where water can collect to drain in slowly and nourish the carrots.

So how much did this cost you? A dollar for the bottle of glue, or nothing if you made paste. Ten cents for the packet of seeds. How much would have that many seed tapes have cost if you'd have bought them from Gurney's? Five bucks for fifteen feet of seed tape of Danver's Half Long carrots, and that's without the radish seeds interspersed as row markers. Oh yeah, and your seed tape can be stored for a couple of years (at least!) in a dry place.

[Solar Geek]

I love this idea. It would even work in raised beds or smaller but long container planters. I have used Burpee tapes - very expensive and at least 1/2 of the seeds never came up. I have used the 10 cent seeds every year and they always produce. I will be trying this in spring on our balconies/decks here in the city. Thanks for such a great idea. SG

[Unswydd]

What a wonderful idea Mama! You are always coming up with the best stuff. Another plus to planting radishes with your crop is that they will keep bugs away from your other plants too. Great companion plant radishes!!!!!

[Cajunlady]

Ladies, you are great assets with this info. Still have some planting to do and will get started on seed tapes. Also have many radish seeds left. Thanks a mill.

[ColcordMama]

I just betcha none of you know that radishes, on top of being the fastest veggie except sprouts to grow, are good as a cooked vegetable? Just scrub, boil and butter them. They were a favorite that way back in Shakespeare's time. The French like them raw and sliced onto buttered French bread as a breakfast food, too.

[Celticwarrior]

Heck of a great idea! Those darn carrot seeds are way too small. Maybe it's my eyes, but they seem to get smaller every year! The premade tapes ARE really expensive, and this is a great homemade substitute. Always thinking Colcord!! Gotta try that next spring. Thank you very much.

[Omega]

This sounds like a great idea. Would you happen to have any pics of the finished project just for reference?

[lpm67]

Originally Posted by ColcordMama

I just betcha none of you know that radishes, on top of being the fastest veggie except sprouts to grow, are good as a cooked vegetable? Just scrub, boil and butter them. They were a favorite that way back in Shakespeare's time. The French like them raw and sliced onto buttered French bread as a breakfast food, too.

And the tops are lovely in salads too.
Great thread CCmama!

[garret]

Originally Posted by lpm67

And the tops are lovely in salads too.
Great thread CCmama!

so are the bottoms if you like your salad with a bit of bite like i do

[ColcordMama]

Originally Posted by Omega

This sounds like a great idea. Would you happen to have any pics of the finished project just for reference?

Nope, I don't have any photos and I'm too tired from shopping to take and post one right now. Just picture a pile of 1" wide strips of newspaper with dots of dried glue at 3" intervals down each strip, and a seed stuck in each dot.

When it comes to handling those teeny carrot seeds, I find it's easier if I sprinkle the seeds out on a white plate, then barely dampen the tip of my finger (okay, I lick it, ya happy?) and pick up the individual seed that way. Works like a charm for me.

You know, an enterprising individual COULD make a business out of this. Advertise on the internet that you'll make seed tapes to order and charge less than the big seed houses charge, plus put the radishes (or marigolds for bug repellents!) in between. That way folks could have the veggies THEY want on seed tapes, couldn't they? For a slightly lower price you could make seed tapes of the seeds really picky people send to you. Like if someone wants yellow beets with white icicle radishes in between, or blood red carrots and marigolds, you get the idea. It's work you could do in the comfort of your own home, right at your kitchen table, huh? Someone could order specific number of feet of each veggie they want to plant. They could have their whole garden mailed to them in a box, ready to be laid in trenches next spring and eliminate that whole tiresome bending over to plant each seed. In fact, someone could make a whole garden in a box thing, starting from knowing the climate zone, size of garden, and preferences as far as veggies. You could draw up the garden plan on the computer, placing veggies where they should do best (taking into account tall veggies not shading other ones from the afternoon sun, which veggies do best next to others, what veggies should grow up the existing fence, etc) and make the exact seed tapes necessary to plant, then mail off the computer "blueprint" along with the seed tapes and planting guides printed off the internet for each specific veggie. That would be a VERY valuable service for gardening noobs who want to spend a little cash to ensure a good crop, and pretty much all it would take as an investment is newspaper, glue, seeds, and computer paper. Oh yeah, and boxes to mail it in. If you want to REALLY provide the whole service, you could have the customer send you a scoopful of dirt and you'd do the testing (like I already explained, with a washed out mayo jar and a cheap test kit from Home Depot's gardening department) and give your customer recommendations and guidelines on how to prepare the garden soil now, so it can overwinter and be ready when the soil warms in the spring.

Who da idea queen, huh? C'mon, who da queen?