Question: How did you loose your tree tag(s)?

There are many ways to 'tag' a tree...

Most invariably some tags do get lost.
How did it happen?

What is your most reliably method?

Zombies have stolen most of my tags. Its a problem in NJ.

masking type and sharpie on the container. it rained so much last yr, it more or less erased the name off the masking tape. i need better marker. 

Hi George, Like you, I keep a map. My map is in a PowerPoint presentation. One year some beast ( my guess is the dogs) dug up several of the trees I had planted the day before. Now I write names on all my trees with paint pens. For trees in containers, the name is written on the trees and the container.

1)  small plants in pots, plastic "stick" in pot and plastic tag around plant with sharpie
2)  bigger plants in pots, write on plant, plastic tag around plant all w/ sharpie or paint pen
 and engraved metal tag in pot,
3)  in ground plant, Map, engraved metal tag wired to tree, engraved metal tag in ground.

playful kitties and non-permanent permanent markers. Paint pens from now on.

Not mentioning names,
one (famous) guy once told me that his then very little kids were
helping him dad out with his figs by randomly swapping tags around from
his newly rooted/potted twigs!

Tags were of rigid the plastic kind (Sharpie marked) that one sticks in the soil.

oh.. i forgot. my dog ate it. 

Gorgy
Those were little kids meaning to help dad.
Very soon in spring when the grown up go to buy seedlings of vegetable and looking for specific variety, they pick up the ID tags look at it and then forget which tray they pick it from and to move forward insert it in another pot. That is how we get cherry tomatoes when we think we bought Big Beef.

On fig tags, I use white strip and permanent marker. Well, in the fall when bringing plants inside I can't read the tags even with magnifying class to see if there are traces of ink left. When helps then is the marking on the trunk (if it was fat enough trunk to write on).

In future I intend to write numerical numbers (fat / permanent; on the pot body & duct tape etc) on the pot side and keep record of Pot number vs fig Variety. I expect that will suffice.

like delta force, and grunts did in the vietnam. tape one to the boot, and wear another one around the neck.. in case our fig trees step on the widow maker. 

I use a thermal printer.  Then I use clear box tape to laminate the label directly on the pot.

Sun fade.  Don't trust Sharpie on plastic tags in the sun. Even when laminated with scotch tape.  Fortunately, it only happened to one before the rest were completely blank.

Weed-Eaters from lawn guys have taken a few off.  These were attached to the 5 gal bucket handle hanging down beside the bucket.

Evil Spirits...

Some labels have faded, paint pens pretty much eliminate that risk.

Some PVC labels broke and blew away.

Some aluminum tags tied on with wire were swallowed up by the growing tree.

At least one aluminum tag was cut off (all but a useless 1/2 long piece with a hole in it) while I was pruning, only discovered a year or two later.

I remember I had a very special dark fig for Martin.
I also had another very special light fig next to it as well.

I lost both tags so I said what the heck??? I'll send both to Martin and let him figure it out.

Keep in mind those figs were very young and small and I estimated a couple years at the earliest before the produced. I explained to Martin and he was ok with it.


Ok Ok, I made it all up.
But imagine the look on Martins face if that were to happen?

April 1st is right around the corner!

ok..ok... let's not send martin ton of 1 gal with light figs. x) 

I lost tags due to the sun bleaching of the black sharpies. I now use the metallic Silver Sharpies to label and tag everything. I have had tags exposed to full sun for over four years with no sun fade! And that is the water based Silver Markers that came out when VHS tapes were still in style and you needed a marker to mark up on a black surface. Sharpie also makes a newer oil-based paint marker now, that you can get in silver and gold. They also have a new pack out of them with a white, black, red, blue and yellow. I just started using them so I do not have the years of use behind them yet, but so far, so good. When using the silver marker, if you do not like the light color, I trace over it in pencil and if the pencil fades, you still have the silver underneath it. But I also double label everything. I bought bulk tag markers and write on it double sided, to put on a branch to read at a glance the variety, and I also use a stick label that I stick all the way down into the soil, so nothing can pull it out by accident as if it was stuck up. You can also use the silver marker on the pot itself, but I usually do not do that much since I reuse my 1 gallons when up potting. On some of my more established larger trees, I will go ahead and use the nice metal plant labels that I then use a P-Touch labeler with the water resistant type P-Touch tape. I still make sure I have a second stick label in the ground for these too, because these metal labels, while pretty, do seem to get caught on things and pull up out of the plant pretty easily. May seem a little crazy, but I still have a small collection of figs that I need to guess what they are because their labels got sun bleached with black permanent marker. And then there are the vandals of the world, who have nothing else better to do. I read once, a lady who had all of her tomatoes labelled, only for some jerk kids, not to actually steal the tomato plants, but just removed all of her labels on purpose and mix them up just to be "cool". Another reason why I double label with a label stuck all the way in the ground or soil of the pot.

Hi everyone,

I had a 6 potted figs with plastic marker stakes that I thought my kids were pulling out to play a trick on their daddy. For almost a week straight I'd tear a strip off them every night after work for it and every night they swore up and down it was not them. Finally I caught the culprits, I had some turkeys I was free ranging for Thanksgiving and I caught them picking for bugs around the pots and they were pulling the tags out. I didn't feel bad about them losing their heads.

Mike

The metallic sharpies faded for me. Make sure to get the oil based ones. Made by sharpie. They don't fade.

God George, the way you ask as if you are asking about Virginity... I was stating to think a story to tell...

BTW, I write directly on the branch with Silver Sharpie. it never wares off. and it's always visible.

A few temporarily permanent tags made with masking tape and a sharpie faded a lot faster than I imagined they would. A couple of plastic tags blew away in a storm. A squirrel dug up two store bought tags. 6 trees with no tags that I thought I would remember which is which, turned out to be 6 trees that I couldn't remember which is which. I could blame that one on brain malfunction or it could be that I have too many trees. Nah couldn't be too many, you can never have enough.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/100-METAL-TREE-TAGS-PLANT-LABELS-ID-MARKERS-/270617549007?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3f021018cf


Use two. One attached directly onto the tree branch with the wire it comes with or a zip tie and the 2nd goes onto the pot. Drill or poke a small hole and tie.

No more worries.

I have ordered from this seller three or four times and never disappointed.

That eBay seller is Kern, a friend of mine, who grows some figs.  Jon, Bass, and some others have met him.  Good guy!  I use those also but rely mostly on an electronic map (with backups!) for my in-ground trees.

Kern is really a great guy even though he has only taken me fishing with him once and then teases me with photos dozens of times a year!

I need to buy more trees to figure out what I'll do :)
For now I only have less than 10 strains and 15 trees and I have a plan as a bitmap on the pc for now.

I use aluminum foil tape folded over on itself with a 5 inch long piece of stainless aircraft safetywire in the crease. Hold it over a pad of paper and write in it to emboss the foil then bend the ends into a U and hook them around each other. Doesn't corrode and it is so light that they will blow off with a light breeze unless hooked around two branches. The foil tends to frighten birds away too. Doesn't have to be aircraft wire and the tape is available at lowes and home depot for hvac use.

I have bought several from Kern as well and love them but like Harvey, I have to be very careful they don't get swallowed up by the tree. I also put them into the pot through a hole but found my husband seems to think they're a target for the weed wacker. ARGH!

Tami,

Try using the florescent color (pink or yellow) zip ties instead of the wire they come with. Wrap a long type around the branch but very loose. That way you can spot it all the times with ease and change when ever necessary.

 

That's why I love you Rafed.....you just figured out how to get more pink into my mini orchard!
Thank you.

Love you back Tami,

I am doing something to go along with the name tags and once I have it set up I will post it.
Just a way for me to narrow the sources down when the plants are outside and out of reach.

Those florescent color zip ties are perfect for the project.

ok, new one.. "tree rat ate it". 

Wind, sun and moisture are always working against me as far as tags go. Those cheap little aluminum tags were nice for awhile but the first wind storm usually finds a way of twisting them off pretty easily (good thing I'm in the habit of writing on the tree itself or having an extra label in the pots).

Those Elmer's paint markers have come to be my preferred tool for labeling my trees. I've marked on the bark of the trees on occasion but that usually doesn't last more than a year. As the trees grow the writing begins to stretch and becomes unreadable in a season or two. I've found that white markers stand out the best when writing on the tree itself.

My best answer so far has been using the red paint markers on recycled white plastic window blinds. I break them into whatever length I want and stick 'em in the pots or in the ground next to the tree. Those heavy wide blinds work the best for in-ground stuff. The red paint really shows up well on the white window blinds. It may not be necessary but it's nice when I can see the names of my trees from 10-15' away.

For larger in-ground trees, I'm considering using 2' lengths of PVC water line. Use a heat gun to flatten one end, write the name on the flattened section & poke it in the ground next to the tree. The flattening part may not be necessary but I figure it would give more flat surface to write on. 

The paint seems to last indefinitely on most plastics and doesn't fade in the sun.

I'm pretty set with this method until I hear something I like better ;) .

Silver sharpie on the pot, aluminum can strip with name "engraved" by pen in the soil and aluminum tag and wire around the tree trunk.  Triple redundancy can't fail. Or can it???

If I don't tie it to the tree, the chickens will peck in the dirt, and uproot the tags.

I have to agree with comment on help from young children. I have only been working with figs for less than a year, and I already have a few unknowns due to "help" from my 7 yr old. It's all her fault for every unknown..... that's my story and I am sticking to it.....

Oh, and trying to make stick labels reusable by putting masking tape on them and then writing on the tape. DON'T do this. The writing is gone almost over night. I managed to catch all but one before the writing was un-readable. Now I too use paint pens to write on the tree itself (along with the standard silver metal tags).

CliffH

These are the best I've found. Update: the one I stuck in the dishwasher is still unfaded.

http://figs4funforum.websitetoolbox.com/post/best-labels-8254251?highlight=labels&pid=1293504740

I use aluminum or copper tags wired to tree limbs.
I also have my own orchard map drawn with all trees labeled as a back up.
Keeps confusion out of it.

Doug

I've been writing on my cuttings that weren't already marked with dark sharpie and on the other side with white sharpie because one or the other fades. I also write on the container, baggie or pot depending what stage it's in. I have a map of what is where for the in-ground stuff. My biggest problem is that for half my in-ground trees I am sure the nursery mislabeled them so my map has descriptions and could-be names. I did attempt to keep the original labels on them but they all faded to white. Anyone interested in investing in fig tree microchipping?

Lets see. Writing on plastic white plant tags stuck into pots failed on so many counts: chickens, toddler, UV enbrittlement ...   The black sharpie writing was the last to fail.