Yesterday I got out into the garden for the first time this season. Trying not to be discouraged by the weeds surrounding my raised beds I got busy making and planting home-made seed tapes. I had seen the idea in Organic Gardening magazine and was eager to try it out. If successful it should eliminate the need to thin seedlings, a chore that seems so counter productive to me. Seed tapes are ideal for small seed crops like carrots, radishes and lettuces.
I planted two types of lettuce, Iceberg and Buttercrunch; Cherry Belle radishes and Red Cored Chantenay carrots in rows in one raised bed. Before doing so I sprinkled and mixed in some Plant Tone plant food.
In large containers, I direct-sowed Purple Top White Globe turnip, Sugar Ann peas and a container variety of Sweet Peas. I also assembled indoor starts of three varieties of Southwestern chiles: 'Sierra Fuego' Jalapeno, 'Joe Parker' New Mex and 'San Luis' Ancho.
Follow this link to OG for directions to make your own seed tapes:
Best-Ever Seed Tape
2 years ago
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I need to apologize for accidentally deleting a comment left here. I so hate to discourage readership so if you posted and never saw your comment published I am so sorry. Please re-post it or at least do not feel discouraged to post in the future. I'm still a little new at moderating comments. Unfortunately I have had to move to moderated comments because I was getting spammed in my comments section.
Update on seed tapes: Unfortunately this experiment has been disappointing. It has been so miserably unproductive that I fear I may have sabotaged myself with the plant food I added. The most successful were the radishes although I'm not sure they are maturing. A few of the butter head lettuce seeds sprouted but have not grown much and may be eaten by something. I have had better luck sprouting these lettuce seeds in a half wine barrel where perhaps fewer bugs have taken up residence. Not a single carrot or head lettuce seed germinated. Very discouraging overall.
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