Seed tape update

I have been a bit to busy working in my garden to be posting. Spring and early summer is always my busiest time in the garden with weeding, pruning, planting new plants and getting things started. It should slow down somewhat soon, although I have a few projects I like to accomplish this year. I will tell about my garden projects in another post. Hopefully soon.

So I tried out the seed tape I bought online. I glued some seeds on with a cornstarch paste making sure I used a enough of the paste so they would stick to it. You are supposed to be able to just roll the whole thing up once the glue dries and then plant the seed tape when you want to plant it.
Well, let me tell you so far I am not impressed with the product, maybe I am doing something wrong but one should think you would get at least some vegetables out of the deal.
I started with carrot seeds, three different varieties, fresh seeds purchased this spring. I planted them right away after the glue was dry. I added some light dirt thinly on top of the seed tape and watered it. It would not stay moist, dried out faster then I could wet it. My whole vegetable garden is on automatic watering with drip irrigation, I even added some micro sprayers, thinking it needed more water then I was giving it. It still dried out to fast. I had my timer go off twice a day, total watering time was one hour but it didn't help. Nothing sprouted.
Then I set my timer to go off 4 times a day for 15 minutes at each cycle. Still nothing sprouted, it was a bit moister then before but still after about 1 1/2 months I only got a few carrot plants with my efforts.
We did have quite some hot days in May, but it wasn't that hot when I first put down the tape, they should have been sprouting.
Late May I tried the same with some Bulb Fennel seeds. Usually Fennel sprouts for me quite easy. I read something online that maybe the corn in the cornstarch might be responsible. So this time I used Elmers glue. I wanted to plant them next day, but then I didn't have time so I rolled the tape up and put it in my seed box to plant it out next chance I get.
By the time I put the seed tape in the garden, some of the seeds had fallen off. I somewhat suspected that would happen. I planted them at the proper depth for Fennel, kept it moist and even covered it with some lightweight garden fleece to keep the moisture in.
After 3 weeks I got about 6 Fennel seedlings that is from 48-56 planted seeds.
This time because the tape was a bit deeper in the ground it looked like it kept moist enough for the seeds to sprout. I don't understand why those seeds won't sprout. All my other vegetables started the old fashioned way have sprouted and are growing.
I even tried to grow Radishes with the tape, not one single seedling I got out of that, while the control group sprouted fine, grew and has been consumed already.
I used seed tape, which had seeds sandwiched between years ago, it was real thin tissue like paper which almost dissolved shortly after planting. Those seeds sprouted very quickly and easily.
Now I am thinking, could it be that the Chlorine in the paper is keeping the seeds from sprouting? The seed tape is made with white bleached paper, or could it be the printing ink?
Or is the problem that it is made with just thin paper instead of tissue paper?

This product if I would rate it from 1 to 10, I would give it a 1-. I won't use it again and I suggest to everyone to not bother ordering this product. Something should have been sprouting, at least the Radish should have.

I could could kick myself, because I first trusted this product so much that unfortunately I did not seed any carrots the conventional way and so now I am without the early carrots.

Oh well.

Seed tape review

I finally got the Seed Tape, where you can use your own seeds. It took a long time to arrive. Accordingly they got too many orders and ran out of it. Only they never mentioned that to me until I e mailed them asking what happened with my order.
I don't like it when they right away charge me and then don't send it out. Hey what is with that? I like my money do interest on my account, not yours!
I ordered March 20th and it arrived just last Friday, May 1st. I was not aware that they are producing it themselves, they don't say on their website. This was their excuse, they could not produce it fast enough because of the large amount of orders.
I thought it would be just like the fleece paper seed tape I am familiar with, where you sandwich the seeds between the seed tape and it is self stick.

Now I have it in front of me, I can see it is just thin, bleached, white paper, I don't even think it is made of recycled paper. It probably will disintegrate fine, but is it organic enough for me?
It certainly is not as I imagined it. You have to glue each seed on to the tape. I wonder if they will stick long enough to not fall off before you get them out in the garden. I certainly don't want to use toxic glue in my organic garden. Maybe I manage to sandwich the seed between to strips of paper. I was hoping for something quick and easy, this does not look quick. At least one can make seed tapes when it is raining outside, I guess that is a bit of a time saver.
Nevertheless, even I am a bit skeptical I will try them out. There will be an update.

Spring is around the corner

Spring is in the air, I just can smell it. It looked like for a while like Spring this year would never come.
I am used to have my Lilacs blooming around Easter in Oregon, I often use cut branches for my decorative egg tree, it is a German tradition. I put the blooming branches in a Vase and hang my blown out, decorated eggs and other little Easter ornaments on them. This year the Lilacs did not bloom at Easter they are really late this year because of the cool Spring weather we have had so far.
So I couldn't find anything to hang my eggs on to, the Forsythia was almost finished blooming and did not look to good anymore. Even my typical Spring bloomers like the Cowslip Primula just started to bloom right before Easter. There were no Tulips yet, hardly any Daffodils. I have to admit, I had to buy Spring Flowers for my Easter table this year.
But then, all of a sudden the weather turned warm, actually almost too warm and made all my Spring flowers come out, all at once it seemed. So instead having my Spring flowers trickle in over the course of Spring, I am having a burst of Spring flowers. Unfortunately that means they will be also gone as fast as they came.
So I better share my Spring blooming garden now, before it is all gone. Would you like to visit my garden?

Early April blooms


Bosnian Hellboro


Hellboro orientalis


Hellboro Hybrid Picotee Group



Erytronium tuolumnense


Muscari armeniacum


Fritillaria meleagris


Anemone nemerosa 'Stammer Berg'


Camellia japonica 'unknown cultivar'


Primula Gold Lace Group


Euphorbia myrsinites



Pieris jap. 'Crispa'


Pieris jap. 'Bonsai'


Pulmonaria Hybrid 'Margery Fish'


Spiraea thunbergii


Osmanthus burkwoodii


Ribes sanguineum 'Hanneman's White'


Hyazinthus 'maybe Pink Pearl'



Mid April Blooms



Epimedium warleyense


Epimedium Alpinum


Primula Granny Graham


Primula veris 'Sunset Shades'


Primula verticillata


Primula denticulata


Phlox subdulata 'two unknown Cultivars'



Magnolia 'unknown cultivar'


Viola odorata 'unknown cultivar'


Fritillaria uva


Berberis darwinii


Late April Blooms


Anemone apenniana 'Alba'


Anemone blanda 'Blue Star'



Trillium luteum


Virbumum-Burkwoodi


Primula siebodii 'Pink Blush'


Rhododendron 'unknown cultivar'


Dicentra spectabilis


Dicentra spectabilis 'Alba'


Lily-Tulip


Tulip clusiana


Tulip Tarda

There are also a few other varieties of Tulips blooming right now, only one or two of each are left. I lost almost all of my Tulips this winter to some nasty Voles, which took up residence in my rock wall. They must have munched all winter, there were enough Tulip bulbs for them to not go hungry all winter. Unfortunately I will have to rebuild my stock up again. I was looking forward to a nice display this spring, after I spent all my plant money a year ago on some cool Heirloom bulbs from
Old House Gardens and John Scheepers
Oh well, at least somebody liked them. Next time I will plant them in wire cages to keep them save from critters.