I'm curious about something...what do you use to do your bonsai
record
keeping? I'm still a relative newbie and I use the paper
journal and pen
method. As I've been attending some classes (Nina - thanks for
sending me to
Jim Doyle at Nature's Way Nursery - I've been making the 2 hour
drive
frequently and I'm having a great time in his classes), my
collection is
starting to grow. I'm branching out (ok - bad pun - sorry).
I've seen some
bonsai software offered on the net. Does anyone have any
experience with the
specialized software (or any other software that could be
used)? I've been
taking photos of my trees as I work with them and I would like
a way to keep
everything organized in one place. But even more important to
me than
that...how do you track your repottings and other details
regarding your
tree care?

Bonsai software is fine, but (usually) limiting. Your records
consist of fields that someone else developed and not
(necessarily) what YOU want.

Others use their own database (excel, approach, etc.), but I find
that limited by field size (even when you give a field a
"sky's-the-limit" size, it can be hard to read "on screen") and
the repot format is iffy.

Some use spreadsheets, but I know so little about them I won't
comment.

I use a word processor.

I have a folder called "Trees" that holds all of my tree records.
The FIRST file in that folder is named "-tree template.lwp" (if,
like most of the world you've chosen to use MS Word, yours would
be "-tree template.doc". I use Lotus Word Pro since there are no
(or very few) virus issues with it.) The hyphen before "tree"
ensures that it is the first file you see.

I use the template for new trees, then "save as" to rename it
(for instance: "Taxodium descriptive phrase.lwp") so the trees
are listed in alphabetical order by genus.

You can put whatever you want into the template in whatever order
(and wherever) you want to put it. And you can change it at will
(usually a bit more difficult in DBs and Spreadsheets).

My template has headings like (each number that follows begins a
new line on my template):

1. Scientific name . . . . . . Common name . . . . . . . . Date
(I created the file).
2. Height: ____, Base: _____
3. In Training since: ______ (This usually is the date I dug it,
got it, or put it into its first training pot and is a soft
number, since my memory for dates is terrible!)
4. Source: ________
5. Work done: ______________ This expands as the years go on
_____________
6. Pot: _____________
7. Discussion: ______ Plans for the tree, problems, notes to
myself about repotting dates, etc. This expands and contracts as
times goes on ______
8. Photos: I keep a progression of photos of the tree (some
files get fairly large!) each photo is numbered and dated. (I
reduce the size of older pics as the years go on.)

There are a gazillion other ways to go.

HTH

Jim Lewis - - Tallahassee, FL - Only where
people have learned to appreciate and cherish the landscape and
its living cover will they treat it with the care and respect it
should have - Paul Bigelow Sears.

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