Mary, I did an experiment with carrot seed this year, using a couple of different methods. Here are the notes I kept:
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8/23/2008
EXPERIMENT: Placed glue dots at 2" intervals, staggered rows, on one side of 1 ply of tissue (Kleenex), put a carrot seed on each dot, folded the unglued side over the seeds. Messy, hard to pick up seeds with tweezers, glue seeps through tissue. Planted the half-square in the herb garden. 8/29 Forgot to note WHERE I planted it, may have set the sweet potato potted plant over it. 9/1 it looks as though a few carrots are germinating next to the potted plant, so this is probably where I planted it. UPDATE: 9/7 These plants have germinated, probably 90%. Perfectly spaced, will need no thinning. The labor it took might just be worth it!

EXPERIMENT: Made seed tapes out of strips of newspaper. Placed dots of glue on one strip, at 4" intervals and dots of cornstarch/water mixture on the other. Placed a lettuce seed on each daub and planted them in bed #3, Elmers Glue to the north, cornstarch to the south. 8/29 3 plants from Elmer's glue and 1 plant from cornstarch.
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I do think the Elmer's glue works better, but I plan on using newspaper strips and laying them out on cookie sheets to save my countertop from the mess. Others have suggested a paste of flour and water.

I also learned it's much easier to work with the tiny seeds if you moisten the lead end of a pencil and pick up one seed at a time.

Granny

Here is a link that might be useful: Annie's Kitchen Garden

Not sure it's harder to plant one seed at a time than to pick up one seed at a time and placing it on a seed strip with glue on it.

the royal icing definatly will feed the seeds once germinated. so that will be good. maybe you could do that and granny's method? now that would be awesome if you mixed them. ya know? ~Medo

Here is a link that might be useful: barehanded totally nutso gardener :'}

Thanks Granny, I will try your method with the newspaper and Elmer's glue. I plan to use this for the scallions, and if it works well, carrots this Fall.

Mary

Sinfonian, the thing is, you can sit at the kitchen table with one eye on the carrot seeds and one eye on the TV, while carrying on a conversation with the spouse, all the time being in a warm house. Beats going out in the cold and wind and trying to drop one tiny carrot seed at a time!

Mary, I would be sure to use the Elmer's School glue, it dissolves easily in water. I think the icing would work just as well. I didn't care for the cornstarch/water method, as it was too soupy and didn't dry.

Granny

Here is a link that might be useful: Annie's Kitchen Garden

Mary, I found my blog that referred to the experiments, with pictures. According to that, I was not happy with the newspaper method (it went into more detail than I had in those notes). Take a look at the pictures and see the difference...there was also another method tried.

Here is a link that might be useful: Granny's Seed Experiment

And what's wrong with planting carrot seed one at a time (exactly where it's supposed to go in each square) while braving the elements? That's how I do it....Oh yeah....I forgot. The "weird thing". Well....I like being weird, and also a "poopy head", Granny. Hmpfh. Heh.

EG

There's some good information on homemade seed tapes on the Vegetable Gardening forum, page 4.

I would probably stay away from the icing because I remember when Granny was doing her experiment I asked a farmer friend about the sugar thing and he said it would guide ants to a lovely meal: sugar with a bit of seed. I'm going to read what they say on the veggie link that oldpea suggests. Though, I was planning eg's method, lol.

I just make shallow holes with my finger at the proper spacing in each square. For really small seeds, I mix with a little sand and sprinkle lightly from a salt shaker directly into the hole.

Hi

I've been a lurker here for a few months and am a very, very new gardener so am a bit reticent about suggesting anything, but on reading Granny's post about the kleenex and glue experiment being messy but effective, I thought about something I have run across in crafting that might be useful.

What about using a water soluable adhesive spray instead of messy glue dots? That way you could lightly spray one kleenex, drop seeds where you want and place a dry kleenex on top to sandwich the seeds, then cut out the tape, shapes etc.

Allene

That's a great idea Allene! Welcome.

Allene, where have you been all my life? I think I even have a can of that stuff way back somewhere on my laundry room shelf! I really was impressed with the kleenex experiment, the carrots were perfectly spaced and NO THINNING!

Can you tell I don't like thinning carrots?

Granny

Here is a link that might be useful: Annie's Kitchen Garden

Granny - 16 carrot seeds, placed in evenly spaced holes + time = NO THINNING. Heh.

EG

EG, it's cold and windy in April where I live. It's not easy to put one tiny seed in at a time. Now, when I was doing wide row gardening I put the seed in a salt shaker and sprinkled the seeds over the entire bed. As soon as they were up and showing their first true leaves, I'd drag a rake over the surface to thin them. Now, with such a small area to plant, I'm going to glue those little suckers to kleenexes!

Or something.

You poopy head.

Granny

Here is a link that might be useful: Annie's Kitchen Garden

I've always figured that I got the best return on my time for the $ spent on carrot seeds to just broadcast and then eat what I thinned out in a salad until they got big. Thinning seems to take less time than trying to glue seeds on, with more to show for it.

Well, Ray..I've been planting and thinning carrots for more than forty years of gardening, and I'm tired of thinning. I have nothing but time now, so I'm going to glue, you can thin.

Here is a link that might be useful: Annie's Kitchen Garden

Granny - Thanks for always letting me know what I am. I was always taught, that there's nothing wrong with calling someone what they are. :) Mrs. "carrot seedling murderer"

EG (poopy head)

Ray, do you eat the greens in the salad as well as the baby carrots?

Poopy Head, it's the ones who thin carrots and throw away the thinnings who are the baby carrot murderers. I am "Granny Cheapskate Whose Package of Seeds Will Last Twenty Years". You may call me GCWPOSWLTY for short.

BTW, I never murdered a carrot in my life...I feed the thinnings to my rabbit, Cookie.

GCWPOSWLTY

Here is a link that might be useful: Annie's Kitchen Garden

Now guys. No fighting, no biting. :)

Either way, thinning or glue and tissue, it all sure beats tripping on your way to the boxes, spilling the entire seed packet and then spending the rest of the season looking at things and saying..."Weed? Carrot? It's a weed. I'll pull it...CRAP!"

Wouldn't a paper towel work better than a Kleenex? It's 12" sq and a little easier to handle.

"Wouldn't a paper towel work better than a Kleenex?"

Probably a cheap paper towel would work best. I just didn't have any that would have disintegrated quickly the night I did the experiments, so I used the one ply of tissue. The brown paper towel the OP spoke of is probably the answer.

Granny

Here is a link that might be useful: Annie's Kitchen Garden

Has anybody tried the water-soluble glue used for sewing?

John

Here is a link that might be useful: Johns Journal

John, this one sounds good, but all the spray adhesives were rather expensive at $12 and up. Of course, they would last for ten years or more when used for gardening, LOL!

Adhesive Spray:
Helmar HR Five Temporary Adhesive SprayThis is a Temporary Adhesive Spray that can be used for basting quilt layers, stabilizer layers, and more. Its water-soluble, so it washes out completely. HRFive can be used as a repositionable spray. This will allow the item to stay sticky. but to be repositioned onto another surface. HRFive also works on paper, and can be used as a no-show adhesive on vellum.

Here is a link that might be useful: Annie's Kitchen Garden

Hi Everyone,

I am the original poster to this thread and I must tell you I have had excellent results using toilet paper and school glue in making my seed tapes. I have used it for carrots and now bunching green onions. I separated the two-ply toilet paper using six squares at a time. Drop tiny glue spots on the single ply, spacing according to the correct measure for the seeds. Once you have dropped seeds on the glue spots, lay the second ply tissue on top, gently tapping each glue spot and lifting the strip at the same time to prevent sticking to the counter. Drape the finished seed strip over a hanger until dry. To plant, just lay your seed tapes on top of the soil and gently cover with dry soil until completely covered. Water with a soft spray. This works like a charm.
Mary

I have read this thread partly chuckling, and partly in admiration at the creativity. I am going to try making seed tapes. I was wondering how I was going to get those tiny seeds in the ground during the Oklahoma spring winds we have.

Flaming brilliant!!!

Granny, wasn't it in this thread that I asked you about what varieties of carrots you had planted with your seed mats and other questions on spacing, etc ? Have those posts disappeared from this thread ???

This works well when gardening with kids. We have a SFG at school, and the students had a hard time putting the tiny seeds in the holes. They got mixed up about where they already put them and the seeds were hard to see in the mix.

We used paper towels and Elmer's school glue with great success. After a short demonstration my 2nd graders could put the glue dots on the paper towel and put one seeds on each drops of glue. The radishes and carrots sprouted in about a week.

I am just now back from the local food store with two brands of paper towels both are 11x11 inches square with patterns on them. Time to do some carrot seed spacing. The Bounty has squares pressed into the paper. I am able to pick out a pattern for 16 seeds or for 32 seeds I think I will go with 32 on one test last year I had 50 seeds planted but only had 25 survive in that square. I will do like granny and use Elmer's washable school glue I used it last year with great success THANK YOU GRANNY! Your tips are great. Well to work, to work, times a wasting.

Curt :-)P.S. 32 seeds on 11x11 is 2inch spacing.

Angela, I gave you a really long answer on this, but I don't see it (or your question) here. Either it's gone, or we have the wrong thread. Anyway, the tutorial link is below. I had great luck and almost perfect germination with Imperator and Chantenay varieties. Not so good with Rainbow Blend, which also didn't do well with traditional sowing. Either 1" or 2" spacing works. I use 1" and pull every other one for fresh baby carrots.

Curt Grow, I hope those Bounty towels disintegrate easily. The cheaper ones actually work better, and toilet tissue or cheap paper napkins work the best for me.

Here is a link that might be useful: Annie's Granny's Seed Mat Tutorial

Granny I used them last year. I covered the seeds with fine vermiculite and put shelf liner over that for a cover then watered often. Cheap liner sells up here for one dollar for a 1x5 foot roll. I get the kind that is a fine mesh with soft rubber/plastic coat on it. Anyways carrots worked fine, but radish came up to fast and would not root. So I will try tp next.Thanks.

Curt :-)

Yep, I remember it was a long answer and you gave more detailed info on several things. I'm fine on it although disappointed, but it's too bad, because it was good info for people who are reading this for the first time and I would have liked to refer back to it. I did do a search thru all of gardenweb and cannot find the thread. Plus, I am nearly 100% sure that it was this thread. I sent an email to the powers that be asking if some posts were lost when they were experiencing technical difficulties not long ago. I have not gotten a reply back yet, but I just sent the email on Friday.

Granny, Angela ; I am quite sure it was on this thread also! I do remember the post.
Curt

Granny, I just read your seed mat tutorial. Thanks. One question: Why did you put a board on your carrot seeds-then check them for germination, then remove the board? Of course I understand why you would remove it, but why put it on in the first place? It seemed that the carrots were the only ones you placed the board on. (??)

I'm going to be raising cool weather veggies for the first time this fall, so I'm going to get carrots-etc. ready soon.
Thanks.

The board thing did not work in my garden. The nightcrawlers worked under the board eating night and day. I now cover with fine soil and leave a light burning over night to chase the crawlers into there holes till the carrots are established. I am sure not everyone has My problem.

Curt~