September 22, 2009: Home Made Seed Mat Tutorial

There are several ways to plant small seeds, such as carrots. You can scatter the seeds by hand, in a row, then spend a lot of time thinning out the excess plants so the survivors have room to mature. Another way is to put them in in a container with a shaker top, sprinkle them over a wide row and, when the tiny plants emerge, carefully draw a garden rake through them to thin them. I prefer to make seed mats, which work especially well in a square foot type garden. These seed mats take very little time to make, and there is absolutely no thinning and wasting of plants. Following is a tutorial I shot using lettuce seeds. Carrots would be done the same, but with closer spacing.

Start with a cheap paper napkin. Test it to make sure it will disintegrate quickly in the garden. Wet a corner and see if it easily tears with your fingers....if it does, you're good to go. This napkin was purchased from the grocery store, and it proved to be a bit too flimsy as it let the glue seep through to the other side. If that happens, just hang it over a clothes hanger to dry. If you can get some napkins from a fast food place they work perfectly.

I use a Sharpie pen to make dots at the proper distances. Here, with lettuce seeds, I'm placing the dots about 4" apart in all directions. Note the first row has three dots, the second row two dots, the third row three dots, etc. For carrots I would put the dots 1-2 inches apart in all directions. Be sure to protect your work surface, as the ink will bleed through. I also write the name of the seed on the napkin at this time, which helps when I'm planting several different varieties.

Using a water soluble glue, I place a dot of glue on each mark.

Sprinkle a few seeds out onto a plate (or the table) so they are spread out just a bit. Dampen a toothpick or the end of a pencil (just spit on it!) and pick up one seed at a time and touch it to a spot of glue. Try not to get the glue on the toothpick, spit works (releases) much better.

There. I have 13 seeds on each of my squares. That's a few more than I should have, but I find this spacing to work just fine for cut and come again crops.

I lay out my five seed mats to dry. They contain the seeds of five varieties of lettuce.

When the mats are dried, they can be stored until ready for use. I'm going to plant mine, so I mix up a bucket of compost and vernmiculite and head for the garden.

I prepare the seed bed and rake it smooth.

Four mats fit perfectly in the four foot wide bed.

I sprinkle a bit of my compost-vermiculite mixture over them to hold them in place.

Then I cover them completely, to a depth of about 1/4 inch...or just enough to cover all the mats so no paper shows.

I tamp it firmly with the rake.

Then carefully water it.

It's all ready to grow!



The carrots on the left in this bed were planted 2" apart on seed mats. Germination was very close to 100%, and there was no thinning. After I covered these mats with vermiculite/compost and watered them, I covered them with a board. After 4-5 days I checked daily for any sight of growth. Once growth was detected, the board was removed. These were planted on June 28th (photo taken August 10) and are now being harvested.

Now I'll have to tell you that, although I got nearly 100% germination from my earlier mat-planted carrot seeds, this lettuce bed was a bust. The seeds all germinated and I had some tiny little plants, but a wind storm toppled those parsnips over, breaking the barrier I had made, and smashed the lettuce plants to pieces. I did find three survivors that were moved to another area, but all the others were lost. So go the ups and downs of gardening.