Seed Packet Coverage Calculator
How many seed packets to buy for a row length, by crop, with cost and seed count.
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Direct Seeding Row Length Calculator
Seeds to sow for your row length by crop, how many feet one packet covers, and the packets and cost to buy.
Direct Seeding Row Length Calculator
Chlorova · updated for 2026
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The per-foot figures are typical clean-seed direct-sowing rates before thinning, not a final stand count, and a low-germination or old seed lot is worth sowing a little heavier than shown. Real seed packets list an approximate count that varies with seed size and fill, so use the number printed on your own packet rather than a generic figure here. Ratios also change if you broadcast instead of sowing a single row, since scattering over a wide bed uses seed quite differently than a line, so treat these as a starting order and thin to the spacing the packet recommends.
Sowing a long row by feel usually means an open packet you half-used and a bare stretch you cannot explain. This direct seeding row length calculator turns the total feet you plan to sow into the seeds it takes, by crop, then shows how many feet one packet covers and how many packets to buy and pay for. Pick carrots, radish, beets, spinach, or peas, enter your row length and packet size, and you know the seed order before the furrow is even opened.
Working Out a Seeding Order
- Choose the crop so the calculator loads its typical sowing rate per foot.
- Enter the total running feet of row that you mean to sow this season.
- Set the actual number of seeds that are inside one of your packets.
- Enter the price you currently pay for a single packet of that seed.
- Read the total number of seeds the whole row length will end up taking.
- Check how many feet of row a single packet of seed can comfortably cover.
- Note the packets and cost so you can place the whole order in one pass.
How the Seed Count Is Worked Out
The seeds you need are simply the total row length multiplied by the crop's sowing rate per foot, since each crop wants a characteristic density down the line. Flipping that same rate the other way shows how far one packet reaches, the packet's seed count divided by the per-foot figure, which tells you the feet of row a single envelope will sow.
Packets and cost then round the seed need up to whole envelopes, because you cannot buy a fraction of a packet, and the price is that rounded packet count times what one costs. The crop picker supplies the only real variable, a mid-range clean-seed sowing rate: ten seeds a foot for fine carrot, eight for spinach, six for radish, and four for chunky beets and peas. Those are pre-thinning figures that match common seed-packet guidance, not final stand counts, so sow to the rate, then thin to the spacing the packet prints for mature plants.
Worked Example: A Twenty-Foot Carrot Row
- You mean to directly sow roughly twenty feet of carrot row this coming spring.
- Carrot seed here carries a dense and deliberate rate of ten seeds per foot.
- So the total seed you need works out to 20 × 10 = 200 seeds in all.
- Your unopened seed packet holds roughly five hundred tiny seeds inside it.
- One full packet therefore sows roughly 500 ÷ 10 = about 50 feet of row.
- The whole twenty-foot row therefore wants just one single seed packet only.
- At three dollars for each packet the total seed cost lands at just three.
- That spare leftover seed banks a second row or a later succession planting.
Sowing Rates and Packet Reach
Typical pre-thinning seeds-per-foot rates and the row feet one five-hundred-seed packet covers for each crop offered here, matching the exact figures the picker applies. Change the crop in the calculator and every result re-solves off that single per-foot sowing rate.
| Crop | Seeds per ft | 500-seed packet sows |
|---|---|---|
| Carrot | 10 | 50 ft |
| Radish | 6 | 83 ft |
| Beet | 4 | 125 ft |
| Spinach | 8 | 62 ft |
| Pea | 4 | 125 ft |
Key Terms
- Direct sowing
- Placing seed straight in the garden row rather than starting it indoors for transplant.
- Thinning
- Pulling excess seedlings so the strongest remain at the spacing mature plants need.
- Seeds per foot
- The density a crop is sown down a row before thinning, the rate this tool multiplies by length.
- Succession sowing
- Sowing short rows at intervals for a steady harvest rather than one glut.
- Germination rate
- The share of seed that sprouts, so low-germination lots need heavier sowing to land the stand.
Sowing Rows Without Wasting Seed
- The seeds-per-foot figures are pre-thinning, so a thick carrot line is correct and planned, because you sow dense and pull back to spacing later.
- Packet counts are approximate, since fill and seed size vary, so trust the number printed on your own envelope over any generic figure here.
- Broad-leaf crops want less seed per foot than fine ones, so a pea row eats far fewer seeds than a carrot line of the same length.
- Sow short successions of radish and salad rather than one huge row, which spreads the harvest and keeps spare seed for a second planting.
- Older or opened seed loses germination, so when in doubt sow a little heavier per foot, since a bare row costs more than the extra seeds.
Common Mistakes & Fixes
- Sowing a thick carrot line then panicking, when dense seeding and thinning is exactly the plan.
- Confusing the pre-thinning seed rate with the final plant spacing, then crowding the row.
- Using a generic packet count that does not match your actual seed, so the row comes up short.
- Sowing big-seeded peas at a fine-seed density and burying far more seed than the row needs.
- Ignoring low germination on old seed, then blaming the rate for a row that simply never came up.
When to Use This (and When Not To)
Use it any time you are sowing seed straight into rows and want the seed order and cost up front, from a single bed to a long trench of peas. It works running feet of row, not plants-per-square-foot blocks, so for wide-bed or intensive planting reach for the plants-per-square-foot calculator, and to plan spacing for transplants use the plant spacing planner. To check how many seedlings your germination will actually yield, the seed-germination calculator estimates the live plants behind these raw seed counts.
Direct Seeding Row Length Calculator: Frequently Asked Questions
How many seeds do I plant per foot of row?
It depends on the crop, which is why the tool asks. As a guide, fine carrot wants about ten seeds a foot while big pea seed wants only about four, so pick the crop and the calculator multiplies its per-foot rate by your total row length.
How many feet of row will one packet sow?
Divide the packet's seed count by the crop's seeds-per-foot rate, which the calculator does for you. A five-hundred-seed carrot packet at ten seeds a foot reaches about fifty feet of row, while the same packet of four-seeds-a-foot peas would run much longer.
Should I count seeds or the thinned final plants?
Count seeds, because these are pre-thinning sowing rates for the seed you actually scatter down the row. The thinned final stand sits at the mature spacing the packet prints, which is a smaller number, and the seed-germination calculator helps estimate the live plants behind the raw seed.
Why does my packet not match this count?
Because packet seed counts are approximate and vary with seed size, purity, and how the envelope is filled. Always use the number printed on the packet you bought as the seeds-per-packet input, and let the calculator re-solve the reach and cost around that real figure.
How do I handle a very wide or banded row?
Treat a broad band as several narrow rows added together, since this tool is built around single running feet of row. Sum the equivalent row feet across the band width and sow at the same per-foot rate, which keeps a wide bed honest where a single line would not.
Does low germination change how much I sow?
Yes, seed that sprouts poorly needs a heavier hand per foot to land the same final stand. The figures here assume fresh, viable seed, so when sowing an old or opened packet, sow a little thicker and let thinning bring the row back to proper spacing.
Sources & Further Reading
- Direct Seeding Rates and Thin Spacing for Vegetables — Cornell Cooperative Extension vegetable program. Basis for the per-crop seeds-per-foot rates used here.
- Reading Seed Packets: Counts, Germination, and Spacing — Penn State Extension. Underpins the packet-count and germination cautions on this page.
- Succession Planting and Row Layout in Home Gardens — University of Massachusetts Extension. Source of the row-length and thinning guidance in this calculator.
Chlorova Gardening Team
Builds, checks and documents every tool we publish
Chlorova editorial review
Checked against extension-service publications
Formula verified against published references · Updated
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