Always keep inventory!

[Tamarness]

This past weekend was too beautiful to waste, so after I got off work my husband and I liberated the basement garden. Here's the bulk of what we brought out:



Much to my chagrin, I discovered close to 20 containers that were about to become unknowns due to destroyed or illegible labels! Fortunately I took the time last year to catalog my collection, quite tedious with over 100 varieties, so I've been able to identify all but 3. For those, I suppose I'll have to wait until they leaf out and (hopefully) fruit. Moral of the story: always keep a good inventory of your collection!

Take care,
Tamar

[F. Bennett]

Very true. And good record keeping on your part! Welcome to the forum.

[Gina]

Hi Tamar, welcome to the board.

Glad you were able to identify most of your plants.

I intend to double tag all of mine. Still haven't done it, but that's the plan. In the past couple years, I've (thus far) only lost one label. Guess I've been tempting fate.

[COGardener]

Also a good reason to use sturdy tags that are well anchored.

[KK4DFU]

This happened with my apple trees. I used tape and it fell off. Now I have 6 trees that I know what they are but not which one.

[Bijan]

Along with keeping an electronic record, I use paint pens on the trees and fabric paint on the cloth containers.

[Needaclone]

I also started using a paint pen to put a name on all my cuttings. It has become a part of my standard prep routine, right after I wash them. If you mark them high enough toward the top, that's the section that stays above the soil level. I'll have to start doing that to my trees, too.

[Harborseal]

It is important to have redundant labeling. I have a database and I print 2 reports - name alphabetized and pot #s is one and pot # order with name is the other. Each pot is numbered and each plant has a number and a name. I'm transitioning to metal tags this year. I still expect to mess some up

I also write the name of each cutting on it with a paint pen. They don't get #s until they root. Paint pen on the cutting lasts at least 5 months, even in a spray cloner.

[SmyFigs]

Bob, just cureous...which database do you use?

[Harborseal]

I have MS Access so I use that. Very simple.

[PA Figs]

I agree, use a paint pen! The paint pen will last a full winter and growing season. I usually don't metal tag my cuttings until they are moved out of the humidity bin... I believe it is bad luck

[Rafaelissimmo]

I have nice military dog tags on almost all my varieties. I hope they don't rust. Anyway, I can pretty much recognize all 40 varieties I have by memory, their growth habits are imprinted on my memory banks.

[Rui]

Rafael, don't you worry sometimes that you'll get knocked on the head, and lose the recognition of the plants' shapes? As a new father, like me, you should be constantly worried about the possibilities of disaster

[Rafaelissimmo]

Rui, if I had time to worry about every disaster that could happen I would be pretty depressed. My garage could collapse on my over-wintering figs for one. What if they freeze and die? What if is a pretty long list. Another hurricane Sandy would snap my young trees like the twigs they are. But having raised most of these figs from twigs or young trees, yeah, I recognize them easily. Their differing pots also help the recognition.

[cis4elk]

I write on cups and sometimes cuttings with a plain-ol Sharpie. When they get big enough I also use a paint pen on the trunk and all the trees I keep get a copper tag hung from a branch as well. It's important to write over the trunk in the fall before storing because the paint does fade and wear as the tree grows, also it's very important at multiple points during the season to make sure the tie wires have plenty of slack for growth on the tie wires for the tags.

[Darkman]

The plain Sharpies have ink that is not UV resistant. Use a Garden Pen which have UV inhibitors in their ink.

Today I ordered 1000 9" x 1" yellow wrap around tree tags and 1000 6" x 5/8" yellow (push in dirt) plant labels along with three fine point and three coarse tip garden pens. Total cost with shipping was $115.00. I will also get a paint pen from a hobby store to mark the pots and limbs on larger plants. I don't plan on losing track any more.

[nycfig]

Paint pen on the cuttings and metal tags later on. Works well. Have a hard time seeing the sharpie on a cutting.

[jmaler]

Here is something I saw on fb I thought was a good idea for those who have time.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/grow...1571200250814/

[SmyFigs]

Jerry, this technique is very easy to do. Cans are not hard to cut and, contrary to what it looks like, they are not so sharp or dangerous. This material is pretty flexible and rather nice to use. I have made many similar tomatoe/vegeteable labels like this. They last!

[SmyFigs]

Hi, Tamar. Good thing you only have 3 unidentified. It is nice to have a good record. I try to do that with all of my plantings. HOWEVER, sometimes, things happen and it all goes to pot (pun intended)! One spring my little cheapy greenhouse got blown over and ALL of my 50+ seedlings went to the ground. Some tomatoes survived but i lost the id. Anyway, i give a lot of my plants to friends so that year everyone got a mystery vegetable😬

[Altadena Mara]

It’s also important to keep a planting record of where fig trees are planted in the ground. I suspect that the gardener who mows my lawn knocks my aluminum tags off the trees by accident with his weed eater and puts them back on the wrong trees. Or it could happen on the school holidays when his child comes and "helps". I’ve found some mix ups and am so thankful I have a record of where each fig tree is located. The tags have the name of the fig tree, the source and the year it arrived here. Also the name of the rootstock for grafted trees. Citation rootstock has a hard time here with the late summer drought and needs extra attention.