And your reason for doing this, rather than direct sowing is.....?

rhizo,

Is your question in regard to seed tapes in general or in regard to this particular testing?

Jim

Would masking tape work? Especially the new blue stuff, since it isn't as sticky.

runswithscissors there is a Garden Experiments Forum - GardenWeb. It is a low traffic forum and usually rather boring but you might be interested.

As a graduate student I once looked into seed tape research as one of several suggested projects. (I finally settled on in vitro propagation.) In my preliminary work I looked up a patent number on a tape of carrot seed. The patent was for coating the carrot seed with iron powder. The tape was then passed over the container of carrot seed and a magnetized iron above the tape would come down once every two inches of tape pulling up a carrot seed through a small hole which would then stick to the tape. The patent did not indicate how the iron dust was adhered to the carrot seed or how the seed stuck to the tape.

I'm curious about seed tapes in general, I guess. Runs, I had a neighbor who used to make her own seed tapes. I believe she used newspaper for the tape and a paste of flour/water. Seems like I've seen some made with crepe paper streamers. I would think that unflavored gelatin would make a great 'glue', too.

I sow tiny seeds by mixing them with grits and sprinkling them from a salt shaker. After sifting some fine compost on top, I water with a misting or fogging nozzle.

Good discussions about seed take from last year linked below. Several others scattered throughout the forums but this one was quite popular.

Personally I find them to be a lot of extra work and prefer to just mix the seeds with corn meal (or grits too) and direct seed them. But strips of tissue paper (the kind used in gift boxes) and Elmer's School Glue work well IME.

Dave

Here is a link that might be useful: Seed tape success

Thanks for the discussion. Rizo, the reason I'm doing this is just to experiment on which product works best for seed tapes in general. I chose radish seeds because they are the perfect test subjects...they will germinate on an ice-burg or volcano. (smile) I tried the flour and water, but after the tapes dried many of the seeds came loose and then of course the two strips of paper fell apart too. The newspaper sounds good, but again the soil would have to be pretty moist for fairly long to fall apart, and I think many seeds might germinate too quickly and then be smuffocated.

wertach, I tried the painters blue tape too, and discovered that the adhesive gets loose and slippery in lots of water, but not in soil moisture. Plus you would have to plant the tapes sideways as the roots would be hard pressed to penetrate the tape going down.

I've used the cornstarch trick and I like it, but I do alot of companion gardening so I like to plant many types of seeds in the same row. Ex. carrot, radish, 3 onions (one one comes up) carrot, marigold, radish, ect. I like to use alot of radishes, because they grow so fast, you can use them as a perfect thinning for carrots. Pull the radish (carfully) and more room for carrot!

My experiment has satisfied me. My favorite method is with the half glue/half water. Mainly because it worked well but especially because I can just add water to a glue bottle and keep it until it runs out. No mixing and heating up and putting the mix in a bag and cutting the corner...and all of that business. Just twist the top and away you go. The cheap glue cost me a buck.

Dig, can you explain why the mixing with cornstarch or sand or whatever? Does it spread it out more, or what? Nancy

nancy you are bit confused the sand cornstarch are two different process.

1. the sand is mixed with carrot seeds in salt shaker minus sauce as way to spread out the seeds when sprinkling them over an area for sowing.

2. with seed tapes liquid corn starch is used as glue.

Corn meal (not corn starch), grits, sand, anything of that type grit can be used to mix with small seeds and then as the seeds are planted you get automatic thinning of the seeds. It spreads the seeds out. Using corn meal has the added benefit of killing cutworms.

Dave

Dig dirt
Last year I had cutworms play havoc with my pepper plants.
If I spread corn meal over the area I plan to use this year
a week before I plant the seedlings will that help control , kill the cutworms?

Fred

yes the corn meal will kill cut worms.
to be safe remember to put collar around plant too.

Thegreat and Dig. Thanks for the differing answers! They were both great! Nancy

runswithscissors there is a Garden Experiments Forum - GardenWeb. It is a low traffic forum and usually rather boring but you might be interested.

Yeah, one of the most active threads over there is a woo-woo thread about crystal power. Its just one thread, but in all honesty I wouldn't want to go anywhere near a board where someone is talking about psychic energy crystals that isn't immediately laughed off the site.

It's too bad more experiments are not undertaken by us gardeners. Usually our experiments are of the "try something and see what happens" variety. Some aren't even that well designed.

Gardeners (and I include myself) have many opportunities to perform real experiments, with controls and measurable results. It's a fun way to satisfy our curiosity about the effectiveness of different gardening practices. And the Garden Experiments Forum would be better for it.

Linked below is a thread I created several years ago on that forum about an experiment I did. Wow, it's been a long time. I need to think of another experiment and get around to doing it.

Jim

Here is a link that might be useful: Foliar Feeding Experiments

I was reading that to make adhesives for experiments mix the cornmeal, flour or whatever with milk. The blog did not say why and was not otherwise worthy of mention.

It said to mix powdered milk with the cornmeal or flour so perhaps it was just a technique to moisten the mixture more easily.

This post was edited by albert_135 on Sat, Dec 29, 12 at 13:53

Hey Jim, I have a question about your foliar feeding experiment.

I read where you were careful not to let the foliar feed drip into the soil, but (and maybe I just overlooked it), I don't see anywhere that you said you were giving the non-foliar plants the same additional food through the roots?

From my experience, the question isn't "Can plants absorb water and nutrients through the leaves", but "Is foliar feeding more effective than simply pouring it directly into the soil?"

I mean, if both sets of plants are treated the same otherwise, and one is getting additional feeding, it seems rather straight forward that it would do better. The real question is efficiency. If both plants receive the same amount of feeding, only one gets it only on the leaves and the other gets it only on the roots, which one will do better?

hi folks i have a couple of thoughts, first of all isn't corn gluten a weed germination preventer in a commercial product? i won't say the name.( i don't know how this differs from corn starch) and i believe i read somewhere that milk contains an anti bacterial or fungicidial component. i am sure i saw where it was recomended in very low concentration for powdery mildew on cucumbers

Edymnion,

I copied your post to the Foliar Feeding thread on the Garden Experiments Forum and replied to it there so as not to hijack this thread and to include your comments in the documentation of the experiment. See you there.

Jim

Here is a link that might be useful: Foliar Feeding Experiment

This post was edited by jimster on Tue, Jan 1, 13 at 21:00

I loved reading the Foliar Feeding Experiment. Thanks Jim. Isn't conducting experiments so interesting,.... unfortunately I've never had a eureka moment. Still, I wish that more of us GW members could get together on one forum with results from all of our "lab" results, scientific or not. Why recreate the wheel when we could expand on each other's results. (Great Garden Tips-if you like. i.e. "Don't forget to add surfectant to foliar feeding solutions.")
Thanks to Jim's experiment I now intend on trying my own version. My next big one is going to be in adjusting my water PH for watering my seedlings. My well water is a slightly high 7.2. I'm wondering if lowering it to 6.5 will help with seed germination and immediate availability of nutrients to my sprouts.