DIY Vacuum Seeder
Have you ever tried seeding individual lettuce seeds into cells of a 10 x 20 flat? Those buggers are so tiny. I know you can get pelleted seeds. I use them myself often enough. Sometimes, however, you just can't seem to find them for a particular variety you'd like to grow. This doesn't include just lettuce either. Brassica seeds are tiny. Pac Choy is another tiny seed that comes to mind. Heck, even tomato and pepper seeds can be a pain to handle by hand. My ultimate solution was to create this vacuum seeder.
| To start with, you need to get yourself a 10ml luer lock tip syringe and drill a 1/4" hole near the tip. |  |
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You will also need a 10cc glue dispenser syringe adapter. Amazon.com is a good place to find these. |
| Next you'll have to devise a solution to hook this up to a vacuum cleaner. I used a PVC end cap with a 1/4" hole drilled in the middle. With a little bit of insulation added I was able to connect this to my shop vac. |  |
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Finally, you'll also have to get yourself some dispensing needles. You can get an assortment of different sizes on Amazon.com. |
| When all is said and done, you'll have something that looks like this. Check out the YouTube video below to see this thing in action. |  |
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carrots seeds are the worst seeds. I usually mix with sand then plant them with the sand to help dispurse them little suckers.
You can get pelleted carrot seeds.
http://www.johnnyseeds.com/search/?q=Pelleted+carrot+seeds&lang=en_US
I did try the seed tape and I only got like 9 plants out of 100 that produced.
But seed pellets you say...never heard of it...will investigate. Thanks
I buy pelleted lettuce all the time. It’s basically a single seed encased in a clay ball. Way easier to handle.
I love it. I use tweezers which sometimes damages the seed. That's much better!
I've used tweezers myself. Also tried that little shake seeder, and even spent some money on a vibratory seeder. My first choice is to use pelleted seeds when available. For just about everything else this has become my goto solution.
Hey there @barriault, great article! May I link this article and feature your username in the next issue of the Weekly Homesteading Newsletter? It would be a great addition to the DIY section! Please let me know as soon as possible, thanks!
Sure!
Happy Sunday! This comment is to inform you that your article has been linked and featured in the most recent issue of the Weekly Homesteading Newsletter! Please check it out if you have the time! Thank you!
Thank you!
Great idea!
I can't take complete credit for it. Back in my younger days I worked in the semiconductor industry where we used various different vacuum pickup tools for handling integrated circuit dies. This idea spawned from my experience with them.
Ingenious!