Less Than $2 Seed-Spacing Guide

One of the best parts of SFG is how easy it is the space seeds/plants. For me, I like to be as exact as possible, so I thought I'd share the less than $2 seed-spacing guide I made for my SFG this year. 

Supplies:
1-12" linoleum tile ($.68)
1-3" plastic drawer handle w/ screws ($1.00)

Tools:
Ruler
Pencil
Sharpies or other markers (colored or not)
Drill and drill bits

Procedure
1. Mark the back of the tile with 1" grid.
2. Then mark the placement for the holes using a different color for each spacing layout (1, 4, 9 & 16). 
3. Drill the holes using 3/4" drill bit. 
4. Drill smaller holes and attach handle with provided screws.

Unfortunately, I only got one picture in the middle of the process, but I think it's pretty self-explanatory. 

You could make this without the handle and just drill some larger holes by which to pick up the guide. 

Snowmiser, Welcome to the Forum from California! Thank you for sharing your home made seed-spacer.

Nice! The holes are alot bigger than they look in the photo.

Hi SnowMiser. Welcome from Atlanta, GA! Glad you're here!!

Great guide. Very clever... Hope you don't mind if I steal it from you... :-)

CapeCoddess wrote:Nice!  The holes are alot bigger than they look in the photo.  

Thank you. I'm sorry, that should be a 3/8" drill bit, and the photo is before drilling. My drill is charging, but I will post an "after;" shot when done.

Nice! Welcome, snowmiser! Glad you joined us! Tell us your plans and schemes, OK?

Snowmiser,
What a great idea. easy and cheap. and as for the handle or no handle, you could just cut off the corners. I am thinking i will be making one of these

  Smowmiser

from Kelejan          (Smilies are working again )

Nice idea, Snowmiser.  I might go mad a make four of them, one for each spacing so that I can use my new drill for another project within my limited expertise. It will only cost me $8.00.  I could also visit one of our lino stores and cadge some overstock or leftovers.

I like that Snowmiser,

A couple of years ago I made  several masks like yours out of clear acrylic sheet  for 4 ,  5 , 6 , 9 & 16 sowing positions .
Used a hot mounted on the end of a soldering iron plastic melter to melt 19 mm holes in the right places , They work very well but as they are made of  clear plastic sheet I can't always see where the smaller seeds are .

Doing your idea using the linoleum/ plastic tile  with  a white surface stuck to a rigid back board would be absolutely brilliant as you'll be able to see the seed if you sprinkle a few seed on the mask between holes against the white backgrounds and use your  finger tip to steer the individual seed down the holes.
So long as you always work in  the same pattern from say top left across and down as you would read a book you'll be able to easily sow an individual seed in each hole .
 
TIP
 Before you move the mask , use a pencil point to gently stir the sown seed in to the soil
 at the correct depth  .  Having the mask firmly  in place when you do it means the seed should still be somewhere close to the hole you sowed it through .  Then there is much less chance of the seed sticking to a damp underside of the mask ....... as I found out.