Home Made Seed Tapes

   One of my favorite winter activities. 

I get rolls of paper towels, or rolls of toilet paper and roll out a length. Then I take cornstarch or flour and water (you can mix in compost or manure tea, if you like) till it is a thick paste. 

Then I dot the paste onto the paper roll, and place a single seed on each generous dot of cornstarch paste. You can do monculture rows of seeds, perfectly spaced, or you can mix it up into strips. 

The paper towels are the perfect width for a border mix, or for mixing it up and doing interplanting. When it dries, you roll it up gently (you can cut or 
tear it to the exact length you need) and put it in a ziploc, or a 
shoebox, or any kind of seed storage device. 

Then work on your next one. When it is time to plant... place the paper towel seed side down on the soil and water it in. The seeds don't wash away, and the 
soil doesn't dry out so bad. 

You can also use threadbare rags, by the way. I've had material so thin it was about to waste away, and used it, and by the end of the growing season, it had rotted right down into the soil. 

Just make sure you aren't using a nylon, or other non-organic fabric that will cause problems.
From: cynthia brennemann thornkell@charter.net