I would suspect that most of us either use pen/notepad, word, excel or memory to track our fig tree collections and up until about a month ago that worked for me.

Now that the fig bug has bitten me I feel like I want to track more information but want it well organized and searchable.

Would anyone like to participate in helping me spec out "fig tree collection tracking" software?

I'd be looking for the different items we/you would like to track like cutting name, collection origion, history if any, size, condition, cost, vendor purchasefrom,  date rooted, medium used, environmental factors etc... all the way to 3 years later and fruit evaluation and pictures.

We do software application development and that it may be neat project but honestly I do not believe I posess enough domain knowledge regarding figs to take it much further than "noob" level. Any thoughts?

I use Word tables for basic inventory and accession history. I would assume that there are programs designed for botanical gardens and other plants collection type situations. You might contact a few of them to see what they use.

A Table keeps track of the basic info, but more details history needs to be on some sort of linked page where you can have more text that a usual cell can display.

Vince,

This subject was brought up almost exactly one year ago. Here is what came of it http://figs4funforum.websitetoolbox.com/post/Keeping-fig-records-what-to-keep-5079168?highlight=track . Good luck

Jon that's exactly the same problem I have, I run out of space for notes and find I want to track mroe information than excell lends itself to easily. I'll Google around for some existing apps for ideas.

Ruben thank you. I'll check that thread out in detail, looks like great stuff at a glance.

Vince,

Are you using the "add comment" feature in Excel's cells? You can add extensive notes that way.

I track them with metal tags,dated pictures and my tummy.
I don't have that many plants and dont need to look at the tags as i know each one by their looks.
Now if i had a whole bunch it may be different.

I don't know if its the best way to do it but my son is working on a web page for me to keep track of my plants.

My goal this year is to take many pictures and lots of notes and this way I can have all info in one organized place.

I just hope I do my part and get him lots of info to upload I wanted to start last year but didn't.

Vince!

Almost forgot. DavesGarden has a pretty good tool for journaling plants. The link in my signature line is an example. An added benefit is the ability to share the info. Have fun!

p.s. There's another web site that allows info sharing called DaleysFruit. It allows one to create a personal page called My Edibles. Sample:  http://www.daleysfruit.com.au/my/7076/

Around the same time Jon went live with the F4F website, I was working on a database as a vehicle to track fig trees.  My idea was to make it much more open to user inputs such as notes, when trees broke dormancy (with a tie in to the area where the user is), first ripe figs, etc.  Also, the database had tree specific data including when it was obtained, in what form, and (what I thought anyway) most importantly, it would assign each tree a unique serial number from which decedents could be tracked.  It also had basic variety information that we usually use to identify varieties, along with Condit's description (if applicable) and the user notes.  One of the goals (and a motivating factor for me) was to find multi-named varieties.

The success of the project was dependent on user input.  At the time, I put the idea on the Gardenweb forum, but did not receive a tremendous response.  Someone suggested to just go ahead and do it, then people would respond, but the software I use has very different pricing for a single user license vs. something I could put on the web and have many users.

I still use the database for my own records.  It is a bit crude, but I never developed it further than my first draft of the initial concept..

~james

My vote is for Excel. Most every one can open it. Plus you can put web links in a cell as well as links to Word documents on your computer. Once your data is inputted you can sort it anyway you want. You can at any time add a new column if you discovery later you wanted a speciic chracteristic noted. Very easy to use!