I have used plastic tags, labels, and metal tags, but I was working on a different style of label. Since I have been cooped up due to these storms, I have put my chemistry background to use. I grab a piece of limestone and chemically etch it with acid. Then I paint the etching. I like it because the rock will not blow away or get lost somewhere. I put them in the pot or on the ground by the tree. It also serves the purpose of buffering any acidic drain water etc as I pour it over the trees during the growing season. I feel like Nicholson in The Shining. All work and no play makes Bill a dull boy...

Let me know where you are, and I can come and rearrange the stones for you. ;-))

I know a fellow who etches them with a laser for his tree collection, in much the same way, but never understood why people can't just pick them up and move them around.

Are there that many label switching vandals where you live?

LOL... sounds like funnnn.. i mean Nightmare...<:x

Sounds like a pretty good idea for backyard Orchardists. Where devious minds might be at a minimum! Now, a more personal rock for each tree might be even better. Once you know the rock shape and size (color) that belongs with each tree - should help in keeping things in order. Especially if you take pics of everything in the right orientation.

Boy. We really are getting board ;-/ .........

  Winter doldrums ?   Cabin fever?

I had several newly planted trees dug up by dogs a few years ago. I paint the variety name and a serial number on every tree

I use copper or aluminum tags, write/emboss the varietal name, and hang them off a branch - (at the point where the branch and trunk meet) - using a brass, ball-chain.  The tags will stay on the tree for years, unless you remove them.

Frank

I had a similar idea, but wasn't sure how to go about etching. That's a neat way to do it, and no doubt more practical than going through a zillion Dremel bits.

I like the etched rock idea but the acid sounds scary.  I could make cement pavers or bricks and write in wet cement.  But the rocks look great.

looks cute, but i can see my sons moving them around just for the heck of it. they tried to threat me with knife on an unripened Black Madeira before.. LOL

The etching is easy and takes very little time.  I just use the paraffin wax that I use for the ends of the cuttings and dip the rock in.  I carve out the letters and let it soak in HCl (or muric acid for you non-chemistry people). You can get it at any hardware store.  After 20 minutes, you have your etching.
In a nerdy way, it is kind of fun to make these things.  I also have tags as a back-up, I should have mentioned, but I just think the rocks are interesting and neat looking.

I'll stick to my aluminum ones.... those rock would get lost in my grass I and I'd hit them with the mower.... I mean if I can avoid the trampoline what chance does a rock have? 

I mainly use them for pots.  Little chance of running pots over with a lawnmower, I hope?

I make mine from strips cut from aluminum coke cans with the name embossed on them, and they worry the birds with their sun-catching flash as well as label the trees.  Those rocks are fine as long as there are no little boys around.  Something about rocks and boys.........

Suzi

Jon might come to your house and scratch out the names and label them all BT.

Wouldn't work here in Florida.....no rocks to be had in my part of the sand bar er state.  

The white paint markers work well for me. They last the whole season. I just rewrite the name on the trunk in the Fall, because it gets a little faded. It's kind of neat to see the letters of the name stretching out over a couple of months, as the tree's girth increases.

Hi,
Having for now less than 20 trees and strains I can keep that information in my head.
I have that information as well on photos ... just in case ...
Of course, for someone having a hundred trees and making cuttings on the run, planting them in ground just like that... Ok I think that that one needs an easy way to help his memory .

Labeling the trees like you do would worry me, because I have a garden from the city - so more gardens around, and people passing by.
I guess that it would be very tempting in the long run for people to jump the fence and get the trees or cuttings - The label would help them choose ... And I don't want that.
If they are unlabelled, I guess they could take cuttings at one tree or take one tree but leave all the others as they all are just fig trees ...
My nearest fig tree to the fence is ... BT !!! - I starting planting them at the opposite of the door just to avoid those problems - BT is one of my last addition to the collection as until 4 years, BT were hard to find here .

For the stones, my daughter would fix that for me - "look dad, I gathered all the stones from your garden - they were so cute ..." and you can tell her a hundred times not to do so ...
Just a kid ... Just too funny . By the way, you don't have a cat or ? Cats probably can fix that as well .
I hope the wind won't take the pots to the ground or the stones would probably roll out of the pots and gather them selves for you :)

DesertDance/Suzi....wrote in posting # 15:


...."Something about rocks and little boys".....

Girls just wanna have fun too.  When they get older, they also love to play with rocks ....called diamonds.  As young women, they all suddenly, turn into geologists.  ; )


Frank