How to Make Seed Tape

A seed tape is a strip of toilet paper that has seeds “glued” to it. It can be made ahead of time and then planted in the garden. In this post, you’ll learn how to make seed tape at home, what the benefits are of preparing a seed tape, and how to use it.

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When my kids were younger, I was constantly trying to find ways to include them in the process of growing food. Gardening is my passion and I wanted them to enjoy it as much as I do. 

But, let’s be honest… Kids can make a huge mess super fast (at least my kids). I would let them plant something in the garden and end up with a million seeds planted in one spot, plants in weird places, and plant spacing that I couldn’t correct. 

How to Make Seed Tapes…

So in the beginning, I came up with the idea of having a separate space just for them, I called it the Kid Garden Project. I did some research and chose different kinds of vegetables that are small, not too hard to grow, and can be consumed right there in the garden. 

It turned out to be a great space for the kids, however, one problem remained… I still had a hard time teaching them how to plant with the correct spacing. Then, one day I heard about homemade seed tapes. I can’t remember how this idea came to me but I knew right away that it was going to work wonderfully!

What Are Seed Tapes? 

Seed tapes are simple toilet paper tapes that have seeds glued to them. You can make them ahead of time and when the weather is right, you can plant them in the garden.

If you grow vegetables by the square foot growing method, you can use napkins instead of toilet paper to make seed mats since they fit perfectly for this gardening method.  

What Are the Benefits of Seed Tapes? 

Make ahead – pretty much every gardener dreads the cold winter months when the ground is frozen and there is pretty much nothing that can be done in the garden. To relieve the pain, we often devote this time to planning the garden, making a planting schedule, ordering seeds, and starting seeds indoors. Well, now you can add to this list making seed tapes! They are perfect to make ahead of time, a perfect activity for kids (and mamas) during the winter, and will last easily until planting time.

A wonderful activity for kids – Have I already mentioned that it’s a wonderful activity for kids? It’s an easy gardening/craft project for the whole family. 

Eliminate the need to thin – one of the greatest benefits of seed tapes is that it can help you prevent the need to thin plants in the garden later. One gardening chore that most gardeners hate is the time consuming process of thinning seedlings. 

This is a necessary chore that we often have to devote time to especially in beds that are sown with tiny seeds like carrots or lettuce since it’s hard to space those seeds correctly at planting time.

When you make seed tapes, you space the seeds in the correct spacing to allow each plant enough room to grow. So then, after you plant the tapes and the seeds germinate, they germinate in the correct spacing and you don’t have to spend any time thinning. 

This is especially great for kids because they plant the tape instead of the tiny seeds so you don’t have to worry about someone dropping ten thousands seeds in one spot. It’s not only better for the plants, it also saves you a lot of money buying seeds.

Perfect for square foot gardening –  napkins are exactly 12 inches by 12 inches. In this post, I’ll show you how to make seed tapes for row planting, but if you grow vegetables according to the square foot gardening method, you can use napkins instead of toilet paper. 
My friend Rachel from Grow a Good Life uses napkins to plant her square foot garden. You can see how she does that here.

Easy to plan succession planting – usually, most of us don’t need 20 heads of lettuce to be ready for harvest at the same time. Seed tapes are easy to label so when you store them you can include the date of planting on the tape. This way, when it’s time to plant it’s super easy to plant only the tape with the right date on it and leave the rest for another time.

What You’ll Need to Make Seed Tapes…

1. Seeds. Seed tapes are best for small seeds like radish, carrots, lettuce, spinach, celery, arugula, and so on. 
2. Toilet paper and scissors to cut the paper to the length of your row or garden bed (or napkins).
3. A small bowl to mix the “glue”.
4. All purpose flour and water (one tablespoon of each). This will be our homemade glue that will not harm the seeds. 
5. A small paint brush to mix the glue and apply it to the toilet paper. 
6. A ruler and a pencil if you want to measure the space between the seeds exactly. 
7. And lastly, a ziplock bag to store the seed tapes or a paper tape to roll them and hold them rolled for storage. And make sure that you also have a sharpie for marking the tapes.

Making Seed Tapes…

Step 1 – prepare the “glue”. To a small bowl, add one tablespoon of all purpose flour…

And one tablespoon of water…

Use the small paintbrush to mix the two to create a paste.

Step 2 – prepare the toilet paper. Cut the toilet paper as long as you’d like it. It is a good idea to measure your garden bed or row to know exactly how long you need your tape to be.

Lay the toilet paper on a table and fold it in half to create a thinner strip of paper…

Step 3 – plant the seeds. With the brush, add a little bit of the flour paste to the paper tape…

And add the seed right on top of it. In the picture is a tiny carrot seed. You can add one or two, or more seeds if you are worried about germination, especially if you’re planting old seeds.

You can use the ruler and pencil to measure and mark where the next seed should be, then add another dot of the flour paste and another seed on top of it and so on until you get to the end of your tape.

Step 4 – let your tape dry. Now all that is left to do is let the flour mixture dry for a couple of hours. When it’s dry, you can roll the tape or fold it and place in a ziplock bag until it’s time to plant it.

Remember to mark the roll so you know what seeds you have on it! If you’d like, you can also write the planting date so you know when it is the right time to plant it.

How to Plant a Seed Tape…

Planting your seed tape is very simple! You can dig a trench, place the tape in it with the seed side pointing up and cover with soil. 

If you are planting in a raised bed I find that it’s sometimes easier to scrape the top one inch of the soil and transfer it to a bucket. Place your seed tapes wherever you want them and then cover back with the soil that you previously removed. 

After covering the tape with the soil, remember to water the bed well and you are done!

Frequently Asked Questions…

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I hope that you give this project a try! DIY seed tapes are both fun and useful. They are a great way to handle tiny seeds and a great gardening project for those cold and dark winter months!

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• How to Make Toilet Paper Roll Seed Starter Pots
• Easy Garden Preparation, the No-Till Way
• Building Raised Garden Beds – Simple and Quick Construction
• What to Consider Before Planning a Vegetable Garden

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