This year I thought I would prepare seed tapes for planting beets in an effort to be more mindful of not wasting seeds. Here's how I did it ...
I cut paper towel strips into approximately 1-inch strips. (You could also use toilet paper.)
I made up a 'paste' using equal parts flour and water.
Using some of the paste I 'glued' 3 pieces of paper towel together end to end and marked a dot every 6 inches using a marker. It is recommended to plant beets 4 - 6 inches apart. I went with 6-inch spacing between seeds.
Using a straw, I put a dollop of 'glue' on each marker dot and dropped 2 seeds on each 'glue' drop. I used tweezers to drop the seeds onto the 'glue.'
Each beet seed has the potential to produce up to 6 plants, but these are old seeds, so I dropped 2 seeds for better germination success once they're planted. It usually takes 14 - 21 days for germination to occur once planted.
The completed seed tapes air drying.
Detroit Red Beets
Plant on March 7th
The final thing I do, is go to my planner on March 7th and write 'plant Detroit Red Beets' (this is 4 weeks before our last frost date)
58 days later on May 4th, I'll write 'approximate harvest date for Detroit Red Beets'
For my area, if I want to do a fall planting, the planting date is September 20th, with an approximate harvest date of November 15th.
Additional note on growing beets: plant beets when ground soil has reached 44 degrees and harvest when ground soil is no higher than 84 degrees. Beets become woody when temps go above 84 degrees.
I hope this info is helpful. I plan to make seed tapes for lettuce, carrots and radishes as well. Of course, the spacing for all of these will be different as will be the planting dates, etc.
Until tomorrow ...
Patsi
Sharing 42 years' experience of frugal, prudent living and pantry building
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Thanks for the tutorial, Patsy. This certainly looks like it makes planting seeds easier than just trying to drop one or two seeds directly into the soil. Cookie
ReplyDeleteCookie, you're welcome! It does indeed make it easier to plant those smaller seeds that need spacing.
DeleteWhat a great idea. Was catching up on my reading. Wonderful blog, Sherry
ReplyDeleteSherry, thank you!
DeleteThank you for sharing this. Since I have so much oregano and basil, I'm going to devote that space to carrots and radishes this year. Since these will go in planter boxes, I'm thinking of trying the TP route. Sprinkling a whole packet and then thinning once they germinate is such a waste of seed (and time).
ReplyDeleteLori, saving seed instead of wasting them is the motivation behind this method for me.
DeletePatsi, thank you so much for putting together this tutorial! We live up on a hill and it is often windy during planting season. I think seed tape will be a great solution for the smaller seeds like lettuce and carrot that would otherwise blow away. I think this would be a great project for the children to help with, too.
ReplyDeleteKelsey, yes, I believe it would help the blowing and washing away issue and yes, your children would feel so accomplished and like they were contributing by dropping those seeds.
DeleteWhat you are counting as a single seed, is actually a multi-seed cluster containing 2-5 seeds each. Potentially, you could have up to 10 seedlings at each of your 6" spacings. If left to grow long enough before thinning, the young plants make tasty additions to salads. Going forward, you might want to put just one seed cluster every 6" or purchase seed that's genetically single seeded or the clusters have been mechanically cracked to release the individual seeds. For more info, these articles have a good information:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.gardenbetty.com/why-do-multiple-seedlings-sprout-from-a-beet-seed/
https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/edible/vegetables/beets/beet-seed-planting.htm
Shepherdess55, I tried to address that, maybe I didn't do very well at expressing what I was thinking, when I said ...
Delete"Each beet seed has the potential to produce up to 6 plants, but these are old seeds, so I dropped 2 seeds for better germination success once they're planted. It usually takes 14 - 21 days for germination to occur once planted."
I'm always willing to learn and thank you for the links, I will check them out.
My apologies. When first reading the post, I inadvertently skipped the paragraph about you using older seed.
DeleteShepherdess55, no apologies necessary, I appreciate your help. It's easy to leave something out or assume others know what you know. That's an important bit of information about growing beets. Thank you!
Delete