How to Make Super Easy Plantable Seed Paper.
4 Materials
$5
30 Minutes
Easy
Plantable seed paper is paper ready-impregnated with seeds. Although expensive in the shops it is super easy and cheap to make at home using simple household items. Using seed paper avoids all the hassle of planting tiny seeds as well as having to thin out seedlings. To make your own seed papers, you can either buy packets of seeds or harvest your own. We used a combination of both using chive seeds from our garden. You can read more about collecting seeds in our 6 reasons to harvest your own seeds post.
To make our seed papers we used 2-ply Kitchen Towel, Bostik White Glue and a selection of herb seeds. Bostik White Glue is perfect for making seed paper as it is both water soluble and non-toxic. It’ll hold the seeds in place until planted, but once watered it will soften and allow the seeds to germinate safely without adding any nasty chemicals to their growing environment. It is also an ideal glue to let kids of any age use without having to worry.
You can make the seed paper any shape you want. We opted to make ours fit some pretty terracotta plant pots that we found at the garden centre. If you decide to make seed paper for vegetables, you might prefer to cute yours into strips ready for planting in perfect rows.
It is easiest to cut the kitchen towel into the required shape before separating the sheets. Once we pull the two layers apart, we find leaving one edge just attached makes it easier to fold back down into place neatly, sandwiching the seeds.
Add little dots of the Bostik White Glue onto the inner surface of the kitchen towel spaced appropriately for the seeds you are using. Then use a moistened cotton bud to pick up the seed and place on the dot of glue. Once all your seeds are in place, run a thin line of glue around the edge of your paper and press the upper layer back into place.
We made our seed papers as an end of year gift for our teachers so also made cards to hold them in. If you’d like to see how we made them you can find the instructions in the How to Make Seed Paper Cards part of the post.
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2 of 37 comments
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Please explain how to plant the papers? I’ve never used this method. Thanks, great idea!
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I don't use glue. I use paper towel or toilet paper if I want to make strips for planting rows. I put the piece of paper towel first, then put seeds on it and cover with 2nd piece of paper towel. Then I sprit water on it until the towel it all wet ( doesn't have to be dripping wet) and let dry. When dry the 2 halves will stay together by themselves. With toilet paper, I roll out about 4-6 feet, fold it in half lengthwise, place the seeds in the fold, spritzing as I go. Once dry they can be rolled up until ready to use.
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How about using coffee filters then glue seeds in then glue 2 filters together
THIS would make a GREAT project for teachers to do with their class!
AND - GREAT gifts!! Thanks for sharing!!
Love this idea going to make it for a gift for my daughter in law! Can I use pre printed paper towels?
Thank you!