There's no reason why the cornstarch thing shouldn't work. I sometimes mix tiny seeds with sand. I figure a couple of finger tip dribbles back and forth will make things pretty even on an average. Seems to work.

I saw it in a movie, one of Richard Gere's worst, and they were planting tobacco.

I've never done it but it is quite a well known technique. Wall paper paste is often recommended, or flour and water paste. Try Googling 'Fluid Sowing' for more info.

I'm trying cornstarch gel for winter green leafy stuff - as a germinating medium, then will transfer to the veggy beds.

If it works or not, I'll let you know

OK ... I tried it as a germination substrate. Cornstarch gel goes bad quickly - liquefies and gets moldy.

I don't think it has any advantages over my usual overnight soak before planting.

It MIGHT work to put the freshly made, cooled gel in the furrow and drop the seeds in it - a water reservoir.

It also might work as a diluent for tiny seeds, although sand or coffee grounds works just as well.

I haven't perfected this technique, but one year I glued small seeds to crepe paper with water solvable Elmer's and then planted the crepe paper in the row. With water/rain both the glue and the crepe paper dissolved in the dirt. Plants came up fine and were fairly well spaced. I've never tried cornstarch, but maybe next spring.

But why?

Campanula - "But why"' Why plant pregerminated seeds? Because it means I don't have to keep a seed bed properly moist for the entire germination period. In the arid southwestern USA it is not easy.

It means lower losses to thinning if you can plop them in at the correct intervals.

No, it's not the pre-germinating (I often chit seeds myself) but the glueing onto tape which seems like a lot of faff (for someone going under the moniker of 'lazy gardens'...speaking as someone who wrote the book on idling.

It's useful because you can plant large amounts of very small objects at a constant rate. If the mixture is homogeneous then you can use the rate that the gel is dispersed to measure how many seeds are sown per length of area. You typically have a tank and a nozzle of some kind with a set flow and the apparatus moves along the field at a specific speed.