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How To Make Your Own Seed Tape Strip |
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Written by Magic
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Tuesday, 21 December 1999 |
Have you ever seen those factory made seed tape rolls? The ones that you roll-out in the spot, you have selected and prepared.
Well, this Rabbit has one “trick” up his sleeve, that I'd like to share with this community. For I will start off with listing the materials needed. As you will see below, easy, VERY cheap to make and even give as presents... or for just your own personal storage and later use.
Materials needed: (Surely, if anyone can add to improve upon these instructions or materials--- please do) - Purchase a roll of plain thick paper towels. Not a roll with fancy designs, if possible.
- Purchase, if you don't presently have some, plain flour. Unbleached, if possible... but I think bleached flour (although NOT good for your body) should also work.
- Purchase a blue bottle (darker color, is best) of food coloring and/or use if you already have even green, possibly even red. Now use just a drop/or less. You want this coloring to be more on diluted side.
- Distilled water if possible, but de-chlorinized clean water should also work.
- A large enough zip-lock baggy, for the finished thoroughly dried seed strip. One for each strain. But if you are making the same strain of seed strips, fit as many of the same kind in this single baggy, but loosely that is.
Now the fun begins... You get to be a kid for a moment.
First, I'll give you the concept and hopefully... with that and the following info, it will paint that picture clear enough, for ALL to completely understand.
Now get your flour, chosen food coloring and your water all together. You want a pancake type of consistency, when all 3 above are mixed together. This is something you will have to experiment around with. Not knowing how big of a batch you will require, you must calculate that end (don't worry, too thin-add more flour. Too thick-add more water-REALLY simple) After you batch is thoroughly mixed-up---> next: Lay out a sheet of paper towel on a clean table. Using an end (not the bristle end, the point tip) of a child's paint brush and/or a q-tip with most, if not all the cotton at the end removed.
Before this next step, again try to stay with the same strain of seeds. This will help in the long run, with the careful “spacing” out of what is required by the seed growth knowledge we already know or what is printed right on each seed package, info given in their catalog/or on the net itself. The spacing of these seeds, will be critical later on. Hope I explained that well?
Next:
Pick-up your chosen rounded, but somewhat dull-pointed tool, now dip it into your freshly mixed and colored flour batch. Trying to keep each blob of similar size, while dropping them onto the towel. Map out a grid... by eye as you do this project, keeping these little globs of color uniform and sticking within the (grid-line) pattern. Or draw the grid out, “before” you start to drop the globs.
Now... laid-out before you, this should now look like wet “gleaming” little rounded color globs. Dotted in, as straight as you can... in perfect (or close to perfect) rows going NSWE. Can you see this ?
Onward:
Before you take your clean, sanitized fingers/gloves on ?/or you just decide on tweezers only to use--->
Get your seeds close by, to the now prepared seed towel strip. Pick-up one seed and push lightly into this tiny glob (approx. a tad less that an eraser's diameter, at the end of a pencil-and it also depends on the seed's size) covering it, until it disappears.
After you finish ALL of your globs, with impregnating them with your batch of seeds... write the date done and the strain's name on the outside, of a larger sized zip-lock baggy, that will be the storage for... the eventually dried seed tape.
Allow the towel to sit and completely dry... then roll up or fold over (another choice, you'll have to make) Keep in mind, how the commercial seed tapes are constructed... one fold enough? Or will two folds be too much kind of thing. A lot has to do with the condition/type of the soil, that you will be placing this home-made seeded tape strip onto/or into.
So there it is...
Spring is about to SPRING-FORTH... just-ta “bite'in at the bit” She is !!! Well then, get go'in !!!
Good Skill To You ALL !!!
Best-Sent
Most Respectfully,
Magic Rabbit |
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