I’m don’t really know where to start with this. Its just been on my mind as its something I would like to improve for myself. When I’m wanting to label my plants I struggle with the shorthand or abbreviated shorthand form that speeds up the plants breakdown within a garden in my case but a sea of green for others that run on a large scale where time is limited and efficiency is key.
If you have any suggestions, methods, or just something you’ve taught yourself I’d appreciate hearing about it.
Well, nothing really ‘special’, but this is my system…I depend on my tags as I never manage to log all the info in a journal from so many different strains going at once. It’s still a pain in the ass when planting a shitload, but it’s only the first line and germination/tpl. date, the rest is just tpl dates added one at a time.
Generally I write the name, generational note (F1/S1/etc) and then the ‘donor’ name (in parenthesis). The date of hitting ‘soil’, date transplanted to Solo cup, date tp’ed to 1 gal, date tp’ed to larger pot/bag (N.P. in example is New Pot - 3 gallon square pot), & finally the date cut. If I pollinate the plant there’s a separate tag wired to the stem and a purple ribbon! (Helps sort the seeded plants from the others when hanging).
If done in pencil on plastic tags, they can be recycled by soaking in a glass of soapy water overnight and then rubbed with a wet 3M pad. The only problem I have is when I take a picture of a plant and go to caption it in a post, if I haven’t got the tag in the photo I often have to go back down and look!
Good luck bro! Looking forward to others’ inputs!
I use longhand for my notes and shorthand for my tags. They are butchers twine with a sticker on them.
The two ways i like doing it is label it or different colored zip ties. I’ll use x color zip tie to x strain and remember what is what by the assigned color.
Painter’s tape and a Sharpie are economical.
Get yourself 500 different color plant labels on amazon. Use a sharpie. Once you need more, soak em on alcohol and clean the off…
My go to way of labeling, it’s easy to peel off on poly bags. Many ways of doing it, once you get in a routine it will become second nature. I still forgot sometimes to write it down in the notebook, make a cheat sheet for timeframes.
This is a quick hand version but typically, it goes
Variety | Germ & Plant date | Flip date | Est. Finish date.
I generally use painters tape on the pot itself and then keep main notes and info on a spreadsheet and calendar.
If i have multiple of a strain, i usually just mark them starting with a1, a2, for strain 1 and b1, b2 for the next and so on… then keep track of what each letter corresponds to in the spreadsheet
If i clone, ill add a wire with a tag to each clone. I dont like the tags that poke into soil because i always end up knocking them out of the pots on accident.
Yeah man that’s exactly what I do along with using a yearly planner to document as much as possible. Those plant labels also come free with container or soil purchases most of the time
I just use numbers, I number the actual growing container usually 1 to whatever and the long description on paper or phone for each number. Otherwise indont label at all.
And I can reuse the same growing containers many times.
I will re read this tread when fullt awake and look to adapt a better sensable lableikg habit, especially since im a food garder also now. The garden is a nightmare without labels.
two is one. one is none. Tag it twice so when one tag falls off there will still be another.
The pot gets masking tape or painters tape with info on it, and a tag goes in the dirt with the same info on it.
Limited information on the tape and tags. Keep a notebook with the more info.
What I do presently is just label with the line name and p1-p2 etc and from here I keep a daily task and reminder journal for the next day. By starting to read everyones comments I noticing that a common addition is planting dates for each Germ, potting, flip date. These are appreciated suggestions, thank you! Please keep these great insights coming
I usually start out being able to remember every vegetable then about 2 months in after I’ve pulled and replanted several things I end up only being able to remember about half of them. I started making a diagram of the garden beds on a separate piece of paper and writing the pertinent info on that instead of labeling each plant.
I use old mini blinds as tags, but when I started running out of those, I used/using roll of blue painters tape.
I write when I start them, then when I up pot, then my flowering date.
If I need to add more notes, like when I add more fertilizers during their run, I just jot it down on painters tape roll, and stick on the pot.
As I recycle the medium, I pull the tape off , remove the mulch topping, in a separate container to reuse, then the root ball goes into a dedicated never used for trash , Rubbermaid trash can, where I later on dump it out on a tarp, remineralizer, myco’s, and a rest period.
Acquire new genetics, or running clones, and process repeats.
While tlanders system is admirable and probably “the correct” way to do it, I am also too lazy.
My plant tags get 2 max 3 letters and a number haha
The rest of the info goes in the journal.
For my 24 site cloner I plan to hang up a whiteboard with erasable marker. I put a ABCD/1234 matrix on the cloner, copy that on the white board and there I can mark all the info I want (again, for ease of writing 2-3 letters max and a number, if more info required it goes in the corner of the white board).
For the germination trays I usually end up putting tape around the outside edge of the trays and mark on those. Always leaves the middle of the domes empty but I got enough of them and enough space so it doesnt matter.
That’s a lot of different colors!
So holy shit… I knew I did a bad job, but this is really opening my eyes to how bad of a job I do.
I have ZERO notes on anything I have growing, out of six plants five are in poly bags and four are written on, and one is in a fabric pot. I think I have four of the little plastic plant labels in some bags, but they are recycled, so only a couple have what’s actually in there and the others just have the name of something else marked out.
Labeling and notes taking are my kryptonite. Eventually found a way that is not straight torture.
I sow seeds in 9oz cup, thats 28 per tray. At this point i only label the tray with strain name. Thats it.
Those get transplanted at 3 weeks (if they make the cut), during the course of those 3 weeks ill add tags to plants that are superior/above average to their siblings for a given trait. I often write directly on the cup or use 1" round stickers.
Heres some examples of annotations i use.
RM = root mass
SE = smells early, often paired with
SA or S sweet acid or sour
3b/5b = when first leaves have 3 or 5 blades instead of a single
Etc
Come transplant, its easy to see who stays and who goes. Those that stay get a new label on their final pot… strain name and a number.
Then i make a “master list” where ill write down each numbers and their corresponding annotations to know whos who.
Date of flip.
Any new note will be about nutrient profiles.
Final notes about high.
Thats it.
Yep painters tape with sharpie is my go to, sometimes I’ll use plant tags but majority of the time it’s tape and marker. Also if I’m running multiple of one strain I label them with name and #1 thru however many that way any clones will match what’s keepers if I find any.
