I use (and have for the last several years) the white plastic slats from mini-blinds cut into pieces. You can usually get these cheaply at garage sales - even if you buy them new you can get the cheapest type for about $5 and they will give you a TON of markers. I write on one side with black Sharpie and on the other side in pencil. I use both because I find the black marker fades over the summer in my garden but the pencil stays readable for a long time. I usually toss them at the end of the summer but I guess you could erase the pencil marks and use them again. I find after one season in the sun they tend to get a bit brittle. They are so darn cheap though and one mini-blind will give you enough markers for several years. Just a thought and I'm sure others have some other great ideas for markers.
Karen

My wife and I grow a couple hundred plants a year. We also recycle quite a bit and never knew what to do with the yogart-sour cream containers that aren't recyclabe until we figured out that each container makes a good bit of plant markers. With a pair of scissors just cut off the bottom and the rim and then cut into strips. We then use a sharpie. Much cheaper than buying and it uses material that would otherwise just go in a landfill.

Here's a link to several previous discussions (the ones with the blue borders) on plant markers and they include many ideas - everything from flat rocks with writing on them to strips of styrofoam coffee cups. I use aluminum pop cans cut into strips with scissors. Write on them hard witha ball point pen and it is permanent just like engraving.

Dave

Here is a link that might be useful: Plant marker discussions

You guys are great. Thanks!

I get mine from mastertag.

Here is a link that might be useful: mastertag website

Timmy1, what's up with Mastertag? Before you can see prices, you have to give them your e-mail, name, address, and phone number. To place an order, you also have to give them your bank checking account number, as well as your bank savings account number. Gee, it does sound a lot like an identity theft scam to me, but hopefully I'm just wrong about that.

My advice to those who are curious about Mastertag's prices, fill out the prompts with bogus e-mail addresses, names, and phone numbers.

I sure hope I'm just misunderstanding, and that this is all above water.....

I use plastic knives.

I've had so many big family gatherings over the past few years that I amassed quite a collection of plasticware. The forks and spoons get used at the parties, but I was left with tons of knives.

I've been using them for two years and still have enough left for several years to come!

Definitely 1" miniblinds and pencil (won't fade). I stack about 4 blind slats and cut all 4 at once with heavy scissors, into pieces about 6" long. Then I slightly round the tops and put points on the other end. I only make about 100 per year so it doesn't take very long.

Sometimes I make real small labels for seed flats, about 3" long and also cut lengthwise so it is 1/2" wide.

If someone knows of a weather-proof pen like a sharpie (but one that won't fade), I'd love to hear about it.

Bob B.

Marquette,

Don't know the deal with the website. I've had an account with them for over 10 years and I just order from there book.

They have about 7 zillion different plant varieties to choose from.

most of the tags I order come in bundles of 100 and they are in the $2.00 range per/100.

You can buy mini blinds for under $4 at Wal-Mart.

wooden popsicle sticks work great too. you can get a whole bag at walmart in the craft department

Forget Sharpies. They fade. Use paint pens sold at craft stores. Same price as a Sharpie but it lasts way longer. I use red. Can't miss it!

Mini blinds work great. Plastic knives are nice too.

I'm liking the surveyor's tape idea. My problem isn't labels when they're young--a paint pen on just about any plastic or metal works fine. But when those tomatoes get to be five feet tall, and everything's a jumble because I've planted closely, that's where it gets difficult for me--especially when I'm trying to ID a tomato for tasting or seed-saving. I end up squirming around on the ground, looking for that tiny marker. I've seen people use paint stirs--I might try that this year.

Anyone got any other ideas for large-scale labels?

After spending years trying this and that I finally settled on the best combo for me and that's the 5 inch white plastic labels from Harris Seeds and the marking pen sold by Johnny's although I still have plenty of the ones I like even better from the John Henry Co.

The John Henry Co is another place where you can get those labels like Timmy shows and they're fine if you're growing mainly hybrids, but when it comes to the OP heirloom types you won't find that many.

Of course you can always custom order. ( wink)

I love the generic ones they list like Red, Yellow, Pink and a few others that say nada as far as I'm concerned.

After I first dealt with them to get their marking pens I was on the LIST and would get a call about 6 AM, that's right, 6 AM, and they explained that it was the best time to call their commercial farmer clients.

Well, OK, but I said I'd order anything directly from that huge catalog and call it in on my time. LOL

Carolyn

Really this thread presents two different venues wrt identifying the tom plant. One is the inside/greenhouse location, the other is out in the "field." I mostly use cut-up plastic milk jugs to ID my small inside growings.

Outside, I use no markers. I ID the plants with a grid that has numbers that reference the cult ID from a master list of what I have.

My brother-in-law has, in the last few seasons, decided to use small sealable plastic (sandwich ?) bags to ID the tomato plants in his plot. He uses large cages and affixes the bag and its enclosed ID to a high rail on the cage with bobby pins or some such thing. Works for him because he grows about 18-24 tomato plants and the cage set-up is labor intensive and his ID method adds not much to that.

Reg

Outside, I use no markers. I ID the plants with a grid that has numbers that reference the cult ID from a master list of what I have.

*****

Reg, I do use markers both inside and outside but when I was through for the day I'd go down thru the rows just planted outside and copy in my data book each and every plant as to variety and leave room for each variety for observations and descriptions.

Once the plants started spreading, for when I was growing so many plants a year I was sprawling them, then I had no access to those labels and critters were wont to remove them and some would subsequently get buried by my farmer friend who had one of his men do the cultivating for me, when and if he had time.

Carolyn

I was sprawling them, then I had no access to those labels and critters were wont to remove them...If ya only do a few cults (and/or in any case do not care), identification presents not much a priority. But I do care because I want to assess what I have so that I can plan for the next season. The method I use requires a bit more rigor, but if employed with attention to detail, provides a more elegant solution to the tom ID issue, esp when many different tom cults are put in a patch.

Reg

I was sprawling them, then I had no access to those labels and critters were wont to remove them...
If ya only do a few cults (and/or in any case do not care), identification presents not much a priority. But I do

*****
Reg, please read what I wrote again. I think you missed the part about my recording, in order, each and every plant in my data book the day those plants are set out.

I care very much about what I grow and being able to ID them, which is why I have always kept data notebooks with plot plans and room for many oberservations for each vaeity I grow.

Carolyn

Anyone got any other ideas for large-scale labels?

I tape the small label to the top ring of the cage for the tom.

Since space is so limited here I quickly have the layout memorized.

The cheapest I found are at the site linked below but you have to buy 1,000 of them:
$22.00 for 4 inch
$26.00 for 5 inch
$30.00 for 6 inch

I've never purchased from them so this is not a recommendation, just a URL!

Terry Light
Oak Hill, Virginia

Here is a link that might be useful: Plastic Plant Labels

I have a carpenter friend who gave me a bunch of left over pieces of wood. So, at first I made a 4" H X 6" W X 1" D with a 18" stake. Screwed the stake to each 'label'. I painted it all white - got a tomato 'stamp' and stamped/stenciled each one - coordinating tomato color yellow, pink, red, purple varieties... then wrote with (essentially) a sharpie the variety over the pretty little stamp/stencil... LOOOOVELY!!! And put them next to each tomato cage... Soo niiiiice... Peerty... could identify each one quickly and easily. *sigh*

Then I got a life... and now use tongue depressors from work. Sometimes I have to search for them, but heck, they function just fine!

I've used mini blinds and they work well but I prefer cutting strips from some kind of plastic poster board I bought at an auction 1/2 a lifetime ago. A goodly remaining supply will be among the goodies willed on to my chillins someday!

But the point of my post really is to recommend that whatever marking method you use, fasten labels prominantly to the top of your stake or cage/ whatever support method you choose for your plants, so you can easily associate your observations on a daily basis with the correct plant name/and variety info as the season goes on. Written recording of observational data is certainly the most reliable way to go; but even casual observation and impressions will build a pretty darn good data bank for us
over years. The key is correct labeling followed by observation and/or data collection and recording.

My buddy Spike, bless his heart, has little appreciation
for precise data collection; to him tomatoes are red, pink, yellow, or whatever. When we transplant I have to watch him like a hawk. Coincidentally, he has demonstrated a knack for getting the little boogers transplanted with a very high survival rate. So I just become the recorder and it works out very well for us.

This is my very first time to post to the Gardenweb. I shop at Trader Joe's and they use paper bags with handles. When I do not have my own bags, I use their paper bags. I had several of them. I removed the carrying handles, punched a hole at one end of the paper bag handle and then used a twisty tie to hook them onto my tomato cages. I used a sharpie to write the name of each tomato on the bag handle. Although they are made of paper, they lasted the entire season.

I have been cutting up every milk jug this family empties lately. Got lots of plastic plant tags now. Thanks for the mini-blind idea, everyone. When the curbs here fill up with bulk waste for the May pickup I will grab a few discarded mini blinds (sure to be available) and make years worth of tags quickly. I just hate to buy stuff when I don't have to buy stuff.

Free is obviously the best but I was in Loew's this morning and out of curiosity walked down the isle with the mini-blinds. They had a special(?) on 39X64 alabaster colored vinyl mini-blinds for $1.76.

I just finished making over 400 6.5 inch plant markers.

Terry Light
Oak Hill, Virginia

Look for aluminum plumber's tape at the hardware store. It is with the duct tape, but it looks like aluminum foil. It has a backing you peel off. Then stick it on a popsicle stick or the side of a container or whatever. When you write on it with a ball point pen, it makes a permanent engraving, and it will stay stuck forever. The adhesive is water proof.

But for seed starting, I plant all my seedlings in styrofoam cups (cut down to about half height and drain holes in the bottom) for the sole reason that I can write directly on the cup. I don't trust myself with label sticks at the seedling stage. Too easy to get knocked out and mixed up. I pot them up into 16 or 20oz styro cups for the same reason.

I use tree tags, similar to this. They stay on the plant and I put them on the lower part of the plant close to the ground so I can always find them
This works great for me, because with critters, and the quantity of plants I grow, plant tags not attached to my plants could be devastating

Here is a link that might be useful: tree tags