Hi Susan, my answer to your first question is no, never have tried making my own seed tape for any veggie. Seems like it would be a tedious task to bond tissue paper & seeds with paste. Just directly planting the seed as is works ok for me, with just some later thinning required as needed. Was curious as to what type of "paste" you plan to use?

It would make sense to make seed tape for radishes, cilantro, basil and other small seeds with a high germination rates above 80% but not for carrots averaging 60%-80%. You'd end up large gaps with no carrots growing by placing single seeds 2"-4" apart. Spinach has a very low germination rate sometimes below 50%, so another one you need to sow thick. But if you want to make carrot seed tape use cheap paper towels, cut them into strips, dot a line with elmers glue every 1/2" or so to compensate for the low germination rate, and then quickly sprinkle the carrot seeds over it and dump off what doesn't stick.

My way to sow carrot seeds is through a straw. I use some heat and seal one end of the straw cutting a small "V" in the same end, I fill the straw with some seed through the other end and fold it over. I tap the straw to move the seeds down and out the "V" trying to get seed spacing one half to one inch apart, it may not be perfect but at least it's in a straight line. The tapping is kind of like tapping a pepper can to get the pepper out without dumping a load on the food.

I sift some soil and cover the seeds a 1/4" deep, then lay old thin sheets over the carrot bed stapled down with landscape staples. The sheet helps keep the seed moist and from washing away when watering or raining. At the two week mark I start checking for germination every day, removing the sheets when I see a few popping up.

Some people use boards but I don't know how they get carrots to grow. Carrot seeds are a Positive Photoblastic variety requiring exposure to light to break dormancy to begin growing. About a 1/3 of common vegetable and flower varieties are the same, and if they are not germinating It could be they were planted to deep. On the flip side there are many Negative Photoblastic varieties where light stops germination, so the vegetable or flower seeds may have been planted to shallow if they don't sprout. There are also Neutral Phtoblastic varieties that just don't care if the lights on or not.

Bottom line, Carrots seeds must stay moist, they have a low germination rate and must be planted above 1/2" deep to grow. Failure doesn't mean it was because of the seed tape.

I've watched someone do it, it's pretty tedious. Toilet paper works well, because it's made to disintegrate on contact with water. Kleenex and other tissues are made to survive getting wet or damp, so are less likely to disintegrate in your garden. You can buy carrot seed in tape, which is what I'd do if I wanted to use that method. You do need to soak the tape really well, because if the paper dries out, the seed dies and carrots take a long time to germinate.

I've never tried making any seed tape. I use pelleted seed for carrots which makes it much easier to sow and greatly reduces or eliminates the need to thin. Yes, pelleted seed is a bit more expensive than conventional seed but well worth it IMO.

Some years I have great success directly sowing carrots. Other years, like last year, nada. I might look for pelletized seeds, if there are some available in heritage varieties.