Hello folks,
This is my first post, but I have been reading the forum for a year or two with great enjoyment.
I am in the early stages of planting an orchard and berry rows. What kind of permanent labels do people recommend? In the past I have used the aluminum tags but they do cost a fair amount. Also I always like to reuse/recycle. Is there a homemade version?
Thanks,
Nancy in Corvallis Oregon
I've tried all sorts of labels and the one thing they all end up doing...............falling off, or fading out or becoming nest material for one of the interior decorating species of birds..... "there are a few of those".
Really the best thing to do, is keep an accurate notebook. Write up a graph of your garden and once you've located a plant indicate the location on your notebook.
Number your rows, and keep faithful to the numbering system.
Aluminum tags will fall because the wire rusts out.
Plastic tags get brittle and the ink fades.
I still do use the tags, but consider them very temporal.
My notebook is good even ten years after making an entry.
Even better than storing it online.
Computers do have a habit of crashing and losing documents.
Nancy, I’ve seen ‘metal tags’ made from the bottom of ‘store boughten’ aluminum pie plates. You can cut them any size you like and if you fold the edges they seem a bit more stable. I’ve always used ‘left over’ in home copper wire to attach them to the tree. Solid wire, either 14 or 12 gage, stripped of its insulation, or not… often found around new construction~
Using a ballpoint pen to impress the name & date on the tin will do as the ink soon fades; and attach the wire in a large loop around limbs you can keep an eye on – as they continue to grow… That ‘thick’ of wire can girdle a limb if neglected, but it’s also (fairly) easy to twist off and re-locate as you notice it getting tighter.
I use aluminum cans to make my labels. Using an old pair of scissors I cut the top and bottom off and discard. The sidewalls are cut into 3/4" x 3" strips. One can makes 8 - 10 labels. I trim the corners off so they aren't so pointy. I keep a ballpoint pen and a short piece of pine 1x6 in my grafting toolbox and just emboss the label when I need one. I poke a hole in one end of the label with the tip of my pruner and insert a 10" piece of 24 gage telephone wire, insulation still on. I've been using this method for 5 or 6 years and have only lost a couple tags. I keep a diary too but it's always nice to have the markers on the tree.
I poke a hole in one end of the label with the tip of my pruner and insert a 10" piece of 24 gage telephone wire, insulation still on. I've been using this method for 5 or 6 years and have only lost a couple tags.
You'll be glad to know that a regular paper punch makes a really nice hole. I do hundreds of these per year. You even described my block of wood in my kit to a "T" !
I now use second hand plastic bailer twine. Not sure how many years it will last, but 10 years seems like a good estimate. My oldest labels from beer cans were made in '93, and were attached with iron wire, which over time wears a groove into the aluminum tag. Since then I have moved to plastic twine that does not wear the tag out. But those initial tags made 15 years ago are still in service.
I have heard that plastic coated copper wire works good too, for tying tags to limbs. Just make the loop large so that it does not girdle right away.
Tags low to the ground tend to attract mischievious kitty kats to chew on them. Higher up tags sometimes attract scrub jays. I have often thought how I need to go around to all my tags and spray paint them drab green or brown.
One 12 ounce can usually yields around 20 to 24 adequate tags.
I'm also using the recycled pop / beer can (what flavor and brand you choose to use shows your class, or lack of I think!) and using just a longer plastic twist tie to attach to my smaller grafted trees; they're too small to hang much on yet. Larger trees I use a piece of solid core copper electrical wire with the insulation still on it, it's stiff enough to hold whatever shape you bend it into and strong enough to hold a tag just fine, also easy to work with. And taking a lesson from a few longer time orchardists losing labels on big trees, I'm making much bigger hanging tags for mature trees - I'll still use smaller embossed can labels, but I'm attaching them to a larger piece of scrap white plastic to make them visible / findable on a large tree when it has leaves on it! Also I'm told it pays to be consistent about what limb and what side of the tree you put them on, so you could just walk up to it and look on a lowermost limb on say the North side, and expect to find the tag there!
Think I might end up doing some actual engraved plastic labels onto the larger "findable" white plastic ones, but that's just because I have scraps of the plastic placard / label engraving material available from the trash at work! The plastic stuff that's got one color on the outside, and when you scribe or engrave through it; it shows the inner contrasting color; we have a laser etcher at work which does this but I tried doing it freehand with a small Dremel tool and it worked just fine. I'll still screw it onto the larger white "findable" tag with a couple of screws, just to make sure it stays there; even though it actually has a sticky adhesive backing on it:)
Dave
also in Corvallis area!
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