Carrot seeds on toilet paper: how to do it correctly, paste for gluing

Advantages and disadvantages

Planting carrots on a tape helps to get rid of the tedious thinning procedure (read about different methods of planting carrots in which you do not need to thin them here).
Root crops grow large and even.

This method of planting is not suitable for large-scale sowing of carrots, since if you use purchased tapes, it is very expensive, and making them yourself in large quantities is labor-intensive.

Carrot seeds on a ribbon are not the best option for those who like to buy for future use. For treated seeds, germination directly depends on freshness .

Sowing carrot seeds on toilet paper without paste

When preparing carrot ribbons, you can do without paste. You won't need to glue the seeds, but to do this you will need to make it from two-layer toilet paper. The sequence of actions will be as follows:

Lay out a piece of two-ply toilet paper on the table.
Bend its upper edge inward to the height of deepening the seeds into the soil.
Take a needle and split the paper into 2 layers along the entire length.
Fold back the top layer and place the seeds inside at the required distance.
Having returned the top layer back, spray with a spray bottle.
Leave for some time to dry. Since toilet paper has a porous structure, the seeds will not fall out when wet and then dried.

When to land?

Considering that the faster the tape and glue dissolve in the soil, the better the germination of the seeds will be, you should not delay planting. It is in spring that the soil contains enough moisture to dissolve the adhesive and paper. If you plant carrots in early April, you will be able to harvest them in July.

Another advantage of early planting is the possibility of re-seeding in case of poor germination.

Also, the tape method has proven itself well when planting before winter , if cold-resistant varieties are selected for planting.

Planting carrots on a ribbon

2 weeks before transferring the ribbons to the beds, prepare the ground for sowing. It is dug up to a depth of 10 cm and leveled with a rake. Fertilize the soil in the fall with humus or manure, per 1 square meter. m. 4-5 kg of fertilizer are distributed. In the spring, any complex fertilizers are added to the soil, approximately 3 weeks before sowing. The fertilizer must include phosphorus and potassium. Additionally, the beds are sprinkled with wood ash. The site is chosen to be flat. The soil should be light and loose, with good water permeability.

Carrots are planted after April 20. Mid-season varieties are sown before May 5. In the southern regions, carrots are planted twice - in May and June.

Furrows are made in the beds 2 cm deep; it is advisable to level the bottom with a small board. The gap between the furrows is 15 cm. Water the soil abundantly. Paper strips are placed at the bottom of the holes, and the rolls are carefully unwound on the ground. It doesn’t matter how you lay out the ribbons—seeds up or down. The thin paper will quickly soften from moisture and the seeds will germinate. Then the strips are covered with soil and watered. Moisten the soil frequently so that a crust does not form on the surface, otherwise the seeds will not break through and die.

You can plant carrots in any way: using a salt shaker, seeder, strainer. An alternative to such methods is to plant carrots using paper strips. Having prepared paper preparations in winter, you don’t have to worry about sowing vegetables in the spring; planting will be quick and the yield will be good.

Which varieties to choose?

Any variety of carrot that can grow in the local climate and soil is suitable for strip planting. The only difference is in the ripening time of one variety or another.

Early varieties : Tushon, Children's sweetness, Alyonka, Nandrin, Abako.
Mid-season varieties : Vitaminnaya 6, Detskaya, Karotel, Nantskaya 4, Samson, Red Cor, Losinoostrovskaya 13, Shantane Royal.
Late varieties : Red Giant, Queen of Autumn, Emperor, Incomparable.

Rules for choosing seeds

The quality and size of the crop depend on the choice of planting material.
The size of the harvest of any crop primarily depends on the quality of the planting material, therefore, before making tapes, you need to check the germination rate and reject the seeds. A good germination rate for carrots is from 70% . To determine this figure, 20 specimens are taken from the batch and germinated in a warm place, wrapped in a damp cloth. If out of the total number of sprouts there are 15 or more sprouts, the quality of the seeds is good.

Expert opinion

Yulia Safronenko

Big fan of experiments and personal gardening techniques

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After checking germination, I carry out the rejection procedure in a saline solution - 1 tbsp. for 1 l. water. I mix the seeds and drop them into the liquid. After 10 minutes, I drain the floating specimens, and wash and dry those that have sunk to the bottom. This calibration method helps to use for sowing only full-fledged specimens that are sure to sprout.

Step-by-step instructions: how to plant correctly in open ground?

Preparation

Inventory . In order to make planting seeds on the tape as easy as possible, you should stock up on the following equipment:
Ribbons for planting.
Pre-prepared glue.
A glass of water.
You will also need a little salt.
Semyan. To ensure that the seeds germinate, it is important to select viable specimens. For this:
Those that remain on the surface of the water are not suitable for planting. Seeds that have sunk to the bottom are suitable for planting; they must be removed from the saline solution and dried at room temperature.

How to stick seeds?

Dip the end of the stick into glue.
Pick up a seed.
Glue to tape.

You can also first apply droplets of glue to the tape, and then place the seeds on it.

The prepared tapes must be left to dry for a day, and then rolled into a roll.

When gluing seeds, it is recommended to maintain an interval of 4 cm, since the carrots will sprout at the same distance as they were planted on the tape.

Sowing process

How to plant carrots?

Choose a sunny place on the site.
Level the surface of the beds and make grooves at a distance of 20-25 cm from each other and about 3 cm deep.
If the soil is not sufficiently moistened, water the furrows.
If the tapes were purchased in a store, then they need to be laid in grooves on the edge; if the planting material is prepared independently, you can position it horizontally.
Cover the grooves with a damp substrate and lightly compact them.
Place a small layer of fine mulch on top.

All the benefits of this planting method can come to naught if the soil is not prepared correctly. The soil should be loose and nutritious .

Making your own tape

To make strips with seed yourself, you will need seeds, a base for the strip and paste.

Suitable Carrot Seeds

The tape method is suitable for planting early, mid and late ripening carrots. Planting dates depend on the cold resistance of the variety. When planted early, the seeds use spring moisture from the soil and germinate before the carrot fly appears.

Advice. You should not buy ready-made tapes in advance, as there is a risk of purchasing old seeds with poor germination.

A guaranteed way to grow a good harvest is to buy proven seeds and make the tape yourself.

Material for making strips

Napkins, toilet paper or newspaper strips are used as a base.

Toilet paper

The most popular and economical option. However, difficulties often arise when working with this material. The paper is thin and tears when drying and planting. In addition, it is wider than necessary.

To solve the problem, fold the paper in half, glue the seeds and roll it up. It is convenient to use two-layer toilet paper and place seeds between the layers.

Napkins

Paper napkins are also used as a base . Lay out the napkin and stick carrot seeds at a distance of 5 cm in the row and between the rows.

In this case, the furrows are not cut during planting; the napkins are laid out in a continuous layer on the surface of the moist soil and sprinkled with earth.

Newspaper

Another economical base option. Newspaper sheets (not glossy) are cut into strips about 2 cm wide and seeds are glued onto them at the required distance from each other.

Other materials can be used as a base, the main thing is that the base should be well soaked in water so as not to interfere with seed germination.

How to glue

Only dry seeds are glued. Paste is used as an adhesive substance: ordinary glue, when hardened, will interfere with germination.

To prepare the paste you will need flour and water. Gradually pour 2 tbsp into boiling water (1 glass). l. flour. The mixture is boiled, stirring, until thickened and cooled to room temperature.

If you don’t have flour on hand, make a paste from starch. For this, 1 tbsp. l. starch is dissolved in 50 ml of water and the resulting mixture is poured into boiling water (1 cup). The cooked jelly is cooled.

Droplets of the finished paste are applied to the paper with a match, toothpick or syringe. Then the seeds are glued to the base with tweezers. Another option is to dip the grains in glue and glue them onto paper. The distance between seeds is maintained at 4-5 cm.

The finished strips are hung to dry. After complete drying, the tapes are wound into rolls and stored in a dry place until sowing begins.

Errors with the tape method

Purchasing low-quality planting material.
Planting material is too deep.
The seeds were selected without taking into account the climatic conditions in which they were planned to be grown.
If immediately after planting the seeds are not provided with close contact with the soil, seedlings may either be delayed greatly or not sprout at all.
Insufficient watering and allowing the formation of a crust through which moisture cannot penetrate to the seeds.

To find a convenient way to plant carrots, check out our articles on planting in egg cells, planting seedlings or in granules.

Pros and cons of the method

Planting carrots with preliminary gluing on paper is gaining increasing popularity among gardeners, thanks to the advantages of the technique:

Possibility of rejecting low-quality seeds at the pre-germination stage.
Obtaining uniform seedlings without subsequent thinning.
Resistance of crops to being washed out and displaced from the bed during watering or rain.
Placing seeds in the soil at the required depth.
Saving planting material.

Despite the obvious advantages, the technology has some disadvantages:

The labor-intensive process of gluing seeds onto paper.

Increases seed germination time by 1–2 weeks.

Features of planting care

The most important thing in post-planting care for carrots on paper strips is maintaining an optimal level of humidity. Drying out the soil threatens slow germination or complete death of individual sprouts due to drying of the paste, so you will have to regularly water the plantings until the young sprouts appear. Loosening and removing weeds will not be necessary for some time, and in some cases it can even be harmful, since there is always the possibility of mechanical damage to the paper and the seeds glued to it during the procedure.

Planting carrots on paper is a good way to grow a crop in open soil that even a novice gardener can handle.

Despite the laboriousness of the preparatory process, in the future all care activities will be extremely simple, and the harvest of root crops will delight you in large volumes.

Preparing for planting carrots in spring and before winter

There are two ways to minimize losses from such problems:

When choosing and sowing store-bought seeds, follow a number of rules;
Make your own planting carrot ribbons.

What is tape planting?

Tape planting material for carrots is a paper strip (narrow and long) with seeds glued to it with a special composition, which are located at the standard distance necessary for the optimal development of each root crop. These strips are laid out in furrows on the beds and sprinkled with soil. Special paper and special glue soften from soil moisture, and vegetable seedlings develop freely.

Of course, this method is hardly suitable if you plan to plant a very large area of carrots: it’s expensive if you buy ready-made “stickers”, and labor-intensive if you glue it yourself. For some, it is beneficial to occupy a small part of the space in this way - for example, for ultra-early ripening varieties. And convenient in small gardens.

Search for “ribbon” carrots in garden stores

Time

You should not purchase carrots on tape ahead of time, in the fall and winter - this is the time when old stocks are most often sold. It’s better to leave the event for the spring, choosing the expiration date with the maximum possible margin.

Place

We choose only the most reliable companies and stores!!!

Quantity

On packs with vegetable seeds glued on them, manufacturers always indicate the length of the packed tape. Knowing the size of your beds, it is easy to calculate the required number of packages. The width of the row spacing for carrots is usually taken to be 20-25 cm. For example, for one linear meter of a bed (if it is a meter wide and the rows are arranged transversely) you will need approximately 4-5 meters of paper strip.

Range

The quality of store-bought seeds is falling from year to year. In order not to be left completely without carrots, it is recommended to follow the principle of “don’t put your eggs in one basket.” Applied to this situation, this means that it is safer to buy several different varieties and from different

To be on the safe side, following the same “different baskets” principle, it is better to set aside part of the territory for regular sowing.

Where to buy and how much does it cost?

Planting tapes can be purchased in various online stores that deliver orders by mail. And also in agronomist markets:

In Moscow: Seeds, Euro-seeds, Professional Seeds of Vegetables and Flowers, First seeds, Seeds Here, Search-Profi, Aelita Agrofirm LLC, Prestige LLC, Seeds Store, Harvest bed "SeDeK", Gavrish, Sedek-seeds, SAKATA SID CORPORATION, SEEDS - SEMKO brand store, Yasenevo Garden Center - at prices 25-28 rubles. per package, depending on the variety and quantity of seeds; availability must be checked on store websites or with sellers.

In St. Petersburg: Vegetable and flower seeds, Garden World, Rassada.ru, IP Kochegarov A.V., Seeds, Russian vegetable garden - from 22.90 rub. per package, depending on the variety and quantity of seeds; availability must be checked on store websites or with sellers.

How to plant carrot seeds correctly

Carrots are often planted in open ground and face a number of problems. For example, it is initially difficult for small grains to sit at the same distance, so after the first shoots appear, immersion is necessary - not the most useful procedure for seedlings. And during the rainy season, all planting material may be washed out of the soil or moved to another bed, and then go to inappropriate places.

Sprouting seeds on toilet paper can help get rid of these problems and get the planned harvest in the planned place.

Before planting germinated seeds, you need to prepare the soil. It is better to take care of this in the fall, first digging up the ground for looseness and ventilation. In the spring, a couple of weeks before seasonal crops and once again use a rake to dug the beds. Carrot seeds on toilet paper sprouted for about 3 weeks, which must be taken into account when planning the summer season.