Curt - i love puns so enjoyed the Bounty. I sat down last winter and glued seeds to paper towels. I think I also used Bounty. I planted my spinach and rutabagas and both have come up. I haven't done the carrots yet. I can still see some of the paper towel if I look.
Keski

I did seed mats for the first time this year. I did carrots, beets and radishes and all came up nicely. I have everything planted in my hoophouse. So far, so good.

Andrea

OK I think I have this figured out. I have cleaned the bed and put in a Mel's Hi-Rise. This I filled with about 3 inches of Mel's mix that was stored in my unheated garage over winter. It is not a nice home for millipedes anymore. It is a good home for my carrots. I have replanted a mat with 32 seeds to the square foot

Curt~

I'm thinking of trying the seed tape next year. Seeding over 400 carrots by hand about a month ago took a good hour or more to do and was very intensive.

I haven't had any kind of problems with bugs or insects in my bed - and mine is fully made of sifted compost from the compost facility.

Planted two varieties - Burpee A#1 and Sugarsnax. Burpee A#1 I planted last year - so the seed was a year old - and germination was about 83%. Sugarsnax was purchased this year from Fedco and I was lucky to just barely get 75% germination on new seed. Seems odd that the older seed still sprouted better than Sugarsnax.

Here is a link that might be useful: BsnTech Gardening Blog

I just planted carrots by dropping 1-2 seeds in each of 16 dents in a square. What's the paper towel method?

The paper towel method involves putting drops of Elmer's school glue ( water soluable) on a paper towel in a grid format. Then you take the paper towel to your garden, cover it with soil, and voila - your sprouts come up in neat rows.

I did this with a school garden because the children had trouble handling the tiny seeds outdoors and spilled them. With the paper towel, we could arrange the seeds inside while sitting at a table.

Here is something that I am trying new this year,
I cut out 12" x 12" x 3/4 boards, Then I glued plastic Marrots (the things used to connect wires together) on the bottom at 2" spacing , I put a handle on the other size,
So all I do is push down on the handle in the soil , and I have in this case 36 little dents in the soil, So far works slick, I have made all the other sizes but so far have only used the 2" spacing for radish and carrot,

Sounds good; Many of us have planting boards with the spacing cut into holes in them. I have 11-3/4 by 11-3/4 inch boards of 1/2 inch plywood with 3/8 inch drill holes witch I use a sharped pencil to mark holes. Or I drop the seed into the hole and tamp with the eraser end. I have 4,9,16,25 hole boards i use. It makes it easy to plant most seeds. My big problem here is the wind and carrots. Trying to keep young carrots or seeds damp is really hard, today we had winds of 50mph and as dry as a bone I am sure I lost my new seedlings I started a square foot of soil block seedlings two days ago 64 blocks to the foot with the whole square to be transferred to the garden intact with wooden frame.

I am updating this. Over on the vegetable forum a poster observered worms that look to be c. nightcrawlers grabbing and eating their seedling carrots. Maybe the millipedes weren't the only problem I experienced??

Curt~

Hello,

My update for the seed mats are great. My carrots, radishes and beets all had great germination rates. The beets and carrots are growing nicely still and the radishes are now done.

Andrea

Carrots did well, but didn't have a bounty of beet germination.
Keski