“EZ Seed Tape” is simple enough: a strip of biodegradable paper on to which seeds can be adhered. Planting the whole thing in a row not only gets you perfectly spaced rows of plants but does so with a minimum of seed waste.
(The man made out of terra cotta plants probably doesn’t have anything to do with the product. I just thought it was cute.)
Each roll of EZ Seed Tape is $7 plus shipping. You could probably get similar results with careful planning of pilot seed holes, but this still seems like it’d save some hassle.
Product Page [Seed-Tape.com via Apartment Therapy New York]
On the “probably get similar results with careful planning of pilot seed holes,” there was a somewhat brilliant idea that could be gleaned from the Martha Stewart site for doing that.
In their thing they made for creating pilot holes they had a square board with little 2 inch or whatever dowel rod sections adhered in a grid.
To make a better straight line instead of square, just use a board/yardstick/etc and do the same with dowel pieces or similar items, press it into the ground and voila evenly spaced holes for seeds in a straight line.
This has been around since at least 1998, when I worked for the now-defunct Unwins seed company in the UK. I believe it was a relatively new product for them at the time. Not a bad idea, but only if you’re completely incapable of reading the back of the packet or in a really, really big hurry.
I remember planting biodegradable seed tape like that with my mom back in the 70s. The tape was yellow and had zinnia seeds, if I remember correctly.
Yes, #3, it’s been around at least since the 70s. And Bas, Martha didn’t originate the idea of what’s called a dibble stick, or board. Farmers have been using them for, um, a really really long time.
I’m quite certain I’m right, but in the spirit of full disclosure, I admit to heavily inhaling during my years as a hort major, and worse as an FFAer (Future Farmers of America)
I did that with carrots one year. Tiny seeds, hard to see when planting. Had a lot of time on my hands in the winter and made seed tape with paper toweling and Elmer’s glue. Worked like a charm!
And how is this any better than a 50 cent yardstick?
How long would normal paper masking tape take to break down? Too long?
Many kinds of masking tapes contain plastic, either in the paper itself or in the (usually silicone) adhesive. It would take years for them to break down.
There are water-soluble, biodegradable masking tapes out there, but they can be really specialized and expensive. The tape used to mask off circuit boards for wave soldering costs up to $30 per roll.
hmm, what if you made a garden hack by using that old style dot matrix paper. Take the holey border, lay it down on your garden bed and put one seed in each hole?
My family grew an entire garden the summer of 1975 from seeds on a tape like this. It did very well and tasted great as I remember. Planting this way was fun and easy.
That’s not a terra cotta man. It’s a little robot made out of tiny flower pots. But you’re right. He’s cute.