plant labeling

Fatalii_Llama said:
holy smokes. I cannot believe how many incredibly helpful replies I have received since last night!!!!  Thank you all so much!! There are SO many great tips and things to try in here. I love so many of these ideas. I plan to just try all the methods and see what works best for me. ill have to buy some items I dont have currently, but thats ok (sounds fun)    ;)  so happy I asked this question! You all rock!
Click to expand...
 
If you do try all (or at least some of) the methods listed above, a post season review/comparison would be really appreciated!
 
Window blinds and a #2 pencil or grease pencil. Cut to your desired size and can be used as a stake, or hole punch and use a twist tie or string. I found a set destined for the dumpster, and it has/will provide 100's of labels.
 
I love the window blind idea.  Not a clue where I could get some from but I'll remember it just in case.
 
My method is similar to Paul G above although I use slim plastic labels.  I write on tape with an oil-based marker pen because I have found sharpies to fade; also, writing directly on the plastic fades too.
 
A plot map is a great idea if you are planting in the ground but mine are all in pots which get moved round during the season so that wouldn't work for me.
 
I do silver sharpie on blue painters tape, slap it right on the side of the container. Never have had a problem with fading, the tape peeling or anything else. I've got some labels still stuck on my containers from last year that I haven't removed yet.
 
Most commercial label makers have the option of heat shrink labels. You can get creative on what to put the on but I’ve had decent results with these lasting a good while.


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I wanted to re-spark this thread as i said I would back in February! I have to admit that i didnt try every clever method listed in this wonderful thread. I did however try quite a few and have some documentation to show after a long season here in michigan. We dont have the best of weather so I feel like this is a nice test! I wont be showing every picture of different combinations, but this will still give you a general idea. The tags were created in March, went into the ground outdoors in April and were just pulled out today (almost november). 
 
The clear winner in my opinion was plant tags and grease pencils! I believe catchthebear was the first to mention this in the thread and others backed him up on it. I too have to agree. They weathered so well that I could definitely reuse next year again if i wanted to with zero concern. 
 
Noteworthy mentions: I can see a great benefit with using copper tags as one member mentioned for long term/favorite staple varieties. I can also see using cut pieces of blinds working great but I didn't try that.
 
I saw basically no difference between milwaukee inkzall and a standard sharpie. 
wrap around tags are great if you want to go around a plant, but dont attempt to use them as a standard "stake" style tag lol
Forks work REALLY well for staying in the ground, but arent as easy to write on due to size. 
 
Your results may vary, but again for me the easy winner in my testing was GREASE PENCILS and standard "stake" tags.
 
Some documented Pictures:
 
Winner (grease pencil and standard tag)
winner.jpg

 
Milwaukee Inkzall marker and fork
milwaukee fork.jpg

 
Sharpie and fork
sharpie fork.jpg

 
wrap around tag and grease pencil
wrap tag.jpg

 
 
P_20201102_180715_vHDR_Auto_1.jpg


I found a few of these interesting pens for a dollar on the clearance aisle of a common cgrocery and department chain store.

They are called The Tire Pen and come in a few colors. I have yellow, red and white.

These pens are designed to write on car tires. The paint is UV stable and doesn't fade. They aren't only designed for tires and the package says they work on rubber, plastic, metal and more. More information can be found at tirepen-dot-com for those interested in what is basically a permanent (UV stable) paint marker.


I use a simple 2 character system and mark the containers the plants are in. I keep a notebook with a key to the symbols and I used the notebook to figure out and plan the system as well.

With 26 letters and 10 numbers there are 1296 possible 2 character combinations although so far I just used abbreviated plant names.

Tabasco open pollinated is TX.
Chocolate Bhutlah is CB.
Borg-9 is B9.
Serrano is SR.
Aribibi Gusano is AG.

Etc.

This way I only need to write 2 characters on the containers and I can recognize what the characters stand for at a glance. Adding a hyphen and a number after the 2 character designator allows me to keep track of multiple specimens, clones and different generations as needed.

I've been really frustrated with different types of labels and I don't know if I will stick to the system I mentioned above but it will do for now.
 
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