Plantable Paper Printing Guidelines

Yes. Botanical PaperWorks’ seed paper sheets contain seeds that have been selected because they are easy to grow and smaller in size, making the paper flat and more suitable for printing. However, there are some important things to note, such as avoiding laser printers, as they can kill the seeds.

The sheets are approximately 85 lb cover weight but will vary slightly in thickness. They have smooth, trimmed edges and can be used for a variety of printing methods.

Read the tips below and always be sure to test seed paper with your printer.

When printing on plantable paper, we recommend using one of the following methods:

• Inkjet (preferred for home or office)
• Offset printing press, 1, 2 or 4 color
• Screen printing
• Letterpress

If you’re not a professional printer and plan to print on the seed paper yourself at home or at the office, we recommend using a top-loading inkjet printer for the best results. Below are a few things to keep in mind:

• Use an inkjet printer that has a straight paper path that doesn’t bend the paper over itself when feeding (most HP desktop printers do this).
• Due to the varying thickness of this special paper, you may need to assist your printer in feeding the sheets through when it attempts to grab a sheet by holding the paper straight. Don’t put a pile of paper in the rear tray and walk away. Most desktop printers are designed with plain paper in mind, which slides easily. The seed paper does not slide as easily, so, therefore, you have to watch and occasionally help the printer along.
• Some machines will have a setting for less abrasion, which means thicker paper. This setting will reduce the chance of a head strike, which appears as smudges on the paper.
• Test your print settings to determine what works best for your design. If you have heavy ink coverage, be sure to print on HQ settings and always run a test print.

Most of our double-thick stock’s caliper is around 20-22 pt. Use a micrometer as you would with any stock. Heating the seed-embedded paper can affect seed germination; therefore, we recommend turning off IR lamps. To assist with the drying process, add a dryer to the ink.

• Waterless Offset is preferable to conventional printing.
• To ensure accurate alignment, we recommend printing 4-color jobs on a 4-color press rather than doing two passes on a 2-color press.

You can screen print on seed paper but you’ll see some white around the seeds as the surface is not perfectly flat. The use of a soft squeegee is recommended.

Letterpress may crush some of the seeds, potentially affecting germination, especially when dealing with larger seeds such as those of herbs or vegetables. Try to use ink that has low tack.

Plantable paper is uncoated, so some slight bleeding may occur. Please keep that in mind and avoid printing very small text on dark-colored backgrounds. We recommend using at least 8-9 pt font size. Avoid heavy ink coverage if possible.

If using photos of people, be aware that the seeds may show through on lighter areas, such as the face, eyes, and teeth.

Design your pieces to allow for trimming in case the paper shifts, and make sure to use at least a 1/4-inch margin rather than trying to print too close to the edge.