Sowing seeds thinly - how do you do it?

[janey99]

Thinned my carrot seddlings today - it always makes me so sad, wasting all those seedlings!

How do others sow their seeds thinly to cut down on thinning seedlings later? I've read about mixing the seeds with sand, but carrot seeds in particular don't "blend" well with sand.

Thanks,

Jane

[lucy_v]

Jane, I know how you feel, and I also hate pulling seedlings. I sow mine according to the "thin to" spacing. e.g. If it says to thin to 12 inches, I sow the seeds (whether they're giant seeds or teeny tiny pinhead seeds) one every 12 inches. I'm only dealing with a small space though, not a farm field full!

[serenetabbie]

You could try one of those dial seed sowers. However- I got one one year as a gift and found it to be a bit of a pain to use... it's easier for me just to thin them after the fact or take my time and plant them like Lucy suggested. I sow the seeds, then when they sprout I just run a hard rake over the top and the tines thin out the little seedlings. One year I did not thin my carrots... I got a lot of really tiny, thin ones and a bunch of twisted roots. Lesson learned on that one!

[CarrieMF]

carrots are hard because the seeds are so small. I prefer using the seed tape which has them spaced further apart, but they still need thinning.

[enkmom]

I way over-planted both my radishes and my lettuce. The lettuce looks (and tastes) ok, but I don't think I'm going to get many radishes at all. They were so thick that it was hard to tell if I was pulling up one or ten, and I still didn't do a good enough job of thinning. If we get a handful of round radishes we will be lucky - I really need to stick with large seeds like squash and beans so I can see what I'm doing!