How do you plant those really tiny seeds without so much waste?

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I have planted this years' lettuce, carrots, onions, etc. and again this year realized when planting them that it is really hard to plant "1 seed per 1-3 in." with those really little seeds. Always end up pulling out a bunch of grouped together seedlings and it seems like a lot of waste. Anyone know of a good way to plant those really tiny seeds better?

-- Lisa (tepeeclan@nidlink.com), May 28, 2001

Answers

My landlord always used a tweezers. He had the best garden of anyone I know.

-- Wendy (weiskids@yahoo.com), May 28, 2001.

I mix my small seed with dry sand----then plant---works great for me & has for 50 years!!! Sonda in Ks.

-- Sonda in Ks. (sgbruce@birch.net), May 29, 2001.

use a new pencil,, wet the eraser, dip it into the envelope thats holding the seeds

-- stan (sopal@net-port.com), May 29, 2001.

Lisa, We fussed with those little carrot seeds for years and this year we broke down and bought one of those little seed planters in the seed catalogs (looks like a syring). My husband loves it! He planed all those little seeds this year without griping!

-- Emily in central Ky. (BellyAcresFarm@kyk.net), May 29, 2001.

I just planted a bunch of those little tiny seeds myself yesterday. I've always had the same problem, but this year for the first time I used a seed planter I got for $1.99 from the Jungs catalog. It's a little plastic trowell with a few ridges at the end and a little wheel you turn that shakes it and it releases one seed at a time depending on how fast you turn the wheel. It came with different shields to let different size seeds pass through, but I didn't mess with that. It seemed to work pretty well, at least made the planting a little less frustrating, we'll see how the rows turn out.

-- Rose Marie Wild (wintersongfarm@yahoo.com), May 29, 2001.


Depending on what most easily comes to hand I typically mix such small seeds with either dry sand or dry cornmeal. The greater the space that is wanted between the seeds the greater the amount of material that is mixed in.

={(Oak)-

-- LiveOak (oneliveoak@yahoo.com), May 29, 2001.


Hi Lisa, I always put my tiny seeds in a salt shaker. I hold the shaker about waiste high and shake it sideways, back and forth as I walk down the row. It helps if you do it on a less windy day. This method has worked great for me.

-- Russell Hays (rhays@sstelco.com), May 29, 2001.

I don't remember which issue, but someone wrote in to CountrySide once that they made their own seed tapes using scotch tape and toilet paper. Lay a length of tape down, sticky side up, space out the seeds, and put toilet paper over that, press together and trim off the extra paper. I never tried it, so I don't know who it would work. Seems like a good thing for kids to do on a rainy day when they're bored.

-- Cathy N. (keeper8@attcanada.ca), May 29, 2001.

I also did the seed tape thing with carrots - using paper towel strips and elmers (it's water soluable, unlike scotch taper). It did give me something to do in the winter months, but I've found that I'm pretty lazy and that I'd just as soon thin the carrots (for gourmet baby carrots) than sit at a table for several hours gluing seeds down. But then, I have trouble sitting still for hours at anything, excepth my writing and this forum!

-- Soni (thomkilroy@hotmail.com), May 29, 2001.

Mix the seeds with dry used coffee grounds. This reduces your "clumping." Good luck with your garden.

-- JoAnn in SD (jonehls@excite.com), May 29, 2001.


You can also mix tiny seeds with radish seed, which germinates early and very quickly marks the planting area with green, and then you can pull them as the slower seedlings start filling in. Any you don't eat won't go to waste if you've got a compost pile.

-- Leslie A. (lesliea@home.com), May 30, 2001.

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