Which Seeds Do You Hate To Plant?

In all honesty first I take 2 ibuprofen for the guaranteed headache that comes with planting lots of lettuce seeds.   Then I dip the pointy end of a moistened toothpick, just touch the seed and it sticks right to it.  Place it on the surface where I want it to grow and slightly twirl the toothpick and it drops off right where I want it.  I used a moistened pencil tip for awhile but some seeds are almost the same color as the lead which brought back my headache so I switched to a light colored toothpick.  It's tedious    but when its finished I feel pretty good.

Can't post any photos while I am out of town.  I cut a straw in half at a slight angle.  This gives me a little pointy tip to capture small and "invisible" seeds.

PS: Home now. I just realized a photo of the straw is above

The only seeds I truely HATE to plant are the ones that will not grow.  It's all fun.

I got round the irritating fiddly task of sowing small seeds in a square foot pattern by making a set of masks in clear plastic .  One of each with  1, 2 ,3 5, 6 8, 9 12 & 16 with three quarters of an inch diameter holes cut in the plastic.  made  holes with a power drill & a hole saw.
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Initially I  used cardboard for the masks , then some spare pond liner , then the plastic ...the clear plastic wins hands down 
 I simply lay the clear mask with the spacing pattern needed over the square then using a tiny small metal mustard spoon  take out a few seeds and sprinkle then on the hid are of plastic . From there it a simple thing to slide a seed down each hole using a single index or middle finger , so long as you stick to a method such as work from the top left to the right then come down a line .

The beauty of this way is that the seeds get sown in the exact pattern required , however occasionally you get seeds two down a hole .  When the seeds germinate the extra unwanted seedlings  anything else growing in the square that is not in the patten or does not look like the intended sown seedlings growing  is considered a weed & gets snipped off. 

It works for every thing I grow save for celery seeds ( aka yellow dust ) and as these are sown on top of lightly pressed soil in a small container under a glass lid & covered with clear paper it is not a problem . 

 I did try making the masks with nonstick  rounded stumps to make indents in the square foot but was still left with the problem of loss of sensation in a diabetic's finders and failing the clear masks solved it at at once . I'll pop up a picture in a while .
 
The nine hole mask

The five hole mask

 I couldn't lay my hands on the mustard spoon /scoop so put a long handled teaspoon in the frame instead .

I don't like planting carrots because my boys want to help being 4 &7 now they haven't been much help in the past. Maybe this year will be better.

I want one of those cool plastic hole doohickeys. Oh honey...

Just make sure that the edges of the holes are filed/sanded smooth so the seed can slide into the holes easily.

 I used 13 " squares of backing wall paper to draw up the correct spacings grids  ( used both sides if I made a mistook ) 
 I drew the one foot square and then penciled in the spacings ,  if it looked right even afte checking I'd done it right I then laid the plastic square over the drawing and used a fine red permanent marker pen to mark the grids and crossing points where I was going to sow through . each point I was to hole saw out was then ringed in red and checked again to make sure in had the right number of rings for that square 
 I then laid the square on about 14 thick sheets of corrugated cardboard and teh using the 3/4 holesaw hole sawed the right places out . I did try doing it on plywood but found that I split some of the holes near edges .
I have also used a soldering iron with the melting hole cutter device on it that is used when you home fill the powders in laser colour printer cartridges. this was the easiest way but did take a lot longer

My goodness what diligence.  We just throw ours in and hope for the best.

I never liked sowing the tiny ones, but I learned that with the wet tip of a lead pencil, I can pick up ONE at a time and plant it.  I start mine in 1/2" seed blocks so putting in one seed at a time is necessary.  It works every time.  Wet the tip of the pencil, touch a seed, and it will stick to the tip so you can put it anywhere you like.

The nice thing about SFG'ing, instead of rows, is my kids can help spread those seeds such as carrots, spinach, lettuce, etc that I don't have the attention span / desire to plant perfectly in each square...give them a envelope of seeds, say, "Here, plant these in this box", and they go to town.  Later I have to thin things out, but they like doing that too!

Right now, I'd give anything to be able to plant seeds of any size.
In reality though, I sit down when seeding, have a tray along side with a plate of seeds,  tweezers, and a glass of beer
Need I say more ?

Jimmy , if you sit there too long does it becomes a case of dip the tweezers in the beer , lick them , then use the damp tweezers to stick on a seed ??

Out in Germany in 1969 I  did a painting by numbers picture in oils with that method . It ws of a male & female flamenco dancer  .
Coming back to England I gave the picture to Mum  & Dad .. T'was only 18 yrs later when I was clearing the house out after Mum & Dad had died did I realise I'd done a free hand painting instead of filling in the numbered squares  because the colours had faded a bit .... It should have been a pair of  sword fencers in Elizabethan times

quiltbea wrote:I never liked sowing the tiny ones, but I learned that with the wet tip of a lead pencil, I can pick up ONE at a time and plant it.  I start mine in 1/2" seed blocks so putting in one seed at a time is necessary.  It works every time.  Wet the tip of the pencil, touch a seed, and it will stick to the tip so you can put it anywhere you like.

I tried using a tooth pick but the pencil worked better because it is easier to hold.  I use the blocks too as it conserves seeds IMHO.

Yeah, Jimmie, the beer is a great accompaniment.  Then after a few  you don't give a darn whether the seeds hit the right place.  Works for me.

It is great to see that there is a kindred spirit here.

The seed that I hate to plant for totally different reasons is okra.  We only plant 1 per foot and they are nice sized so that's not the problem.  It's that they are so verrrry slooooow to sprout.  Last year for our summer crop we planted 40 2 weeks later only half came up so I planted again.  Several weeks later again.  by the fall we had 3 growing in some squares, my impatience was unfounded it seems.  Peggy giggles at me as I [url=#]check[/url] sometimes twice a day counting sprouts till I get impatient and go for the seeds.  The durn things infuriate me.  But they sure make up for lost time when they get to going.