In article ,
"songbird" wrote:

sometimes in the garden i am working
with different plants and need to keep
track of specific ones, either because
i am cross-breeding (for color or
endurance or some other trait) or i just
want to mark a plant for later moving,
dividing or inspection.

mostly i work with irises, tulips and
cosmos. that's a lot of colors and plant
combinations. having a numbered
tag would not give me an easy means of
identifying color. permanent markers
tend to not be permanent enough (or the
color changes). wooden markers
degrade quickly (even painted, i tried
those) and get lost or moved or stepped
upon if stuck in the ground.

having markers that do not degrade in
the sunlight, don't easily fall off, can be
reused, are not terribly expensive, break
or whatever is very nice. this year i
finally got a better solution and it helped
a great deal come pod harvest time.

what i have found is that a package of
plastic beads and ties (little plastic strips
with a serated edge on one side that locks
if you put it on "right", but if you want
to reuse them put them on backwards
and pull them on and they can be removed
again).

the ties can be bought in packages of
quite a few. i have green ones that are
about 7 inches long and not too wide so
they go through the beads. for indoor
use in keeping track of seed container
contents i use much smaller ones so
they are more flexible and can fit inside
small containers. the beads you can
find at a hobby store in 1 lb packages
of assorted colors.

the coding is the fun part.

when i'm working in the tulip patch i mark
certain plants by primary color and then
secondary color (stripe, flame, edge) and
then if i've crossed it i will put those on
too with a separator bead of some color
i'm not using for anything else at that moment.

i always code the same direction (the
first bead on is the starting point from
left to right with the knobby end being
the left). also if i want to code shape,
season, height, etc. those are all available
to me as the number of colors available
is pretty large.

here is an example if this all seems
abstract. i have a late white tulip
with red flames, so i can put a red
bead on first and then a white bead
and then a clear red (late), use a
black bead as a separator and then
if i've crossed it with a solid purple
early tulip i can put a purple bead and
then a clear green (early) on. so the
final code for this plant is:

red, white, clear red, black, purple, clear green.

if the pod forms and i get seeds then i have
both the pod parent info and the pollen source
info and don't even have to read the notes to
see at a glance what crosses i could be making
with other plants if i've left something out.

after i've harvested seed i mark the
seed catalog spaces with each code so
i know the parents and the cross
involved (i also keep written records
and pictures).

the coding is really only limited by
space on the ties and you can fit
around 20 beads on. you can also
get different color ties or chain
multiple ties together. and then
if you want to get really complicated
you can do a different code for each
type/species/flower bed or whatever
suits your fancy.

i was lucky that Ma had a package
of metallic tinted colors and mixed
in were some clear colors along with
the 1 lb package of multicolor from
the hobby store. i think i have enough
variety for a good long time. if i see
a package of different colors at the
dollar store i can pick them up and
add to the collection... i think there
are some bright sharp color mixes
and some pastels too, but i don't
really need them yet.

*cough* so how's them tomatoes?

as an aside i also use the ties backwards
for holding tender shoots to trellises and
then when they've attached the ties can
come off and be reused. just be gentle
and don't pull them tight and many plants
are fine. they can have sharp edges so you
might have some marks, but i think climbing
plants just work around that sort damage
quite easily.


songbird

I use remay hold down plastic red spikes to mark locations. These
bleach white and break in a few years.
Also use surveying ceramic stakes for identifying other task required
plants. Stakes are 30 inch long and 3/8 inch diameter in bright red and
yellow. Cost more should be 20 years or so.

--
Bill S. Jersey USA zone 5 shade garden
What use one more wake up call?