probably, does it matter?
I cant remember if that came from Amazon or Alibaba. It was not very expensive. It took me a while to put it together but still works well to this day. As you can see, this Shiro label was printed two years ago and it still looks great. All of these 3d printed labels are holding up well.
I bought a laser cutter a few months back and test cut this label out of 3mm birch ply. It looks great and only took about 10 seconds to cut. However it is ply so likely wont last long. I plan to dip it in polyurethane and see how it holds up. What will likely work better than all of these labels that are cut from 3mm acrylic. The laser cutter cuts acrylic really well. Ill post them here when I get them cut.
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Are you doing anything to seal the cut edge which wouldn’t be galvanized? Seems like would rust otherwise.
Dave,
You have the skills and the tools. You should do custom made tags for us. Keep the price reasonable, olease 
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I would certainly do it with the laser. Its very quick. I dont think 3d printing them would pay for itself. Its a much slower process. Let me get some samples of the acrylic labels and ill post them here.
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I stake my dwarf trees to 3/4" galvanized conduit (10’ with 4’ in the ground and 6’ above). I label the conduit with small swatches of aluminum flashing. I write on the flashing with an electric engraver. I attach the aluminum flashing to the conduit with hose clamps. (If this be overkill, let’s make the most of it.) I have room to record the variety, the size at planting, the date planted, the root stock, and the source of the scion.
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Yep, figure on getting the ole marker out and re-doing every 6 months!
But,. I’ve not gone to aluminum yet
For permanent tags I have been using copper sheet etched and a copper wire to attach. But its a pain to keep all those maintained and they can get knocked off etc. So I am now more relying on my spreadsheet to mark many things, and on the trees I am using UV resistant marker written on the bark itself. If you put the marking on the south side it should last around two years. It takes about five seconds to mark a tree, that’s the big advantage. Get a really fat marker so you can put a lot of ink down. I like the garden marker brand, the fat version.
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I use tin snips to cut old aluminum license plates into 1" x 3" pieces. Each plate makes 24 tags. Then I drill a hole wherever I want and stamp the name and date onto it. Then I hang it with scrap Romex or electric fence wire. This spring has been really stormy with a lot of high winds and we even had a round of quarter size hail. All the tags are still there and best of all they’re free! My kids enjoy stamping the names. Tags are an easy way to get kids interested and involved in what’s happening with the trees.
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I don’t bother with permanent tags on new grafts as they often fail (especially peach/nectarine). Many markets offer bulk food items like nuts and dried fruits where the customer bags and tags them. The tags are twist ties and work well for temporary use. Marked with a Sharpie they are still readable for at least a year. The main advantage is speed; just mark and twist on at time of graft.
I started making some of my tags a couple weeks ago out of the blanks I got from a friend and then came across some aluminum splice plates for cable trays.
I am going to cut the aluminum into tag size blanks and let the trophy shop engrave them for me for a few grafted apple trees…can’t beat that price.
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I like aluminum tags for the longer term too.
But , the other day I made this little jig for writing on flagging tape. For some temporary tags that I could see better from a distance, I use the garden marker brand ,marker ,as it lasts longer than a sharpie.
I hold tension on the tape as I pull it across the board for writing
Also I don’t like tying the ribbon around trees , I have had issues with girdling, so I pull it apart with my fingers , until a little hole appears, and side the seedling through the hole .
Sometimes I make 2 holes so it stays on better.
These are just cheep temporary tags for in the nursery.!
If left hanging outside the pot ,I can easily read these from 10ft away.
Or they can be tucked down in the dirt , to protect from the sun, and keep them from blowing away.
Photo issues
For now I use the scratch-on aluminum tags. Some day I’d like to get pretty 3D plastic tags like these.
… so here I am replying to my own post to show a photo of how I done it. I put up the tag in 2007 (12 years ago) when I planted the whip. It’s permanent enough still to be legible, and, yes, my trees are still in suspended animation at tight cluster.
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punch set and blank aluminum tags from Amazon… impressotags are too thin and wear from wind after a while, these are much thicker…
if you have been doing this very long, you have probably girdled a branch or tree with metal wires… this is my solution, copper wire pulled tight so the tag doesnt flop in the wind, as the branch grows the wire is open ended so it will expand until the tag falls off.
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I do the same as you as far as the punch set but I’ve got some old metal siding or flashing of some sort that I cut to desired size. Might have to try the copper wire trick though. I’m currently using some scrap chain link fencing for my wire cause I’m cheap.
What wire works well to attach the tags? I have the plastic coated garden wire and animals are chewing through it. Some mammal is stealing the shiny aluminum tags too.
this is just standard electrical wire, i use the white and black coated ones also
I’m calling my tag marker experiment. I like the high visibility of these plastic hanging tags. For me they last about 3 years. I have been confounded by the variability in the ink I use and wanted to try a few as a test.
One caveat is that these tags are slick on one side and a tiny bit rougher on the other. I’m guessing the latter is better for marking and that’s usually my go to (like top tag). I wasn’t consistent on this but the results don’t bear out this as the only variable.
My go to has always been a sharpie. I do have one sharpie extreme now and that might last even longer. In this viewing though the best in order were; Rev Mark, Bic marking, Staedtler lumocolor, and sharpie.
The Dura Ink dual tip was far and away the worst and completely disappeared in a couple months. Faber castell was poor also, although I’m not sure that one was intended for outdoor use.
Personal bias I guess but I always leaned to sharpie. I have some 3 year old tags as crisp and clear as the day I wrote on them. I think I’ll use the top 4 and when I write the tag make a little notation which one I used. That should be my final test.
These labels were on the same tree exposed to the same environmental conditions. I honestly don’t mind rewriting tags sometimes. It forces me to visualize the graft and I want to do that. This marking them every couple months though is driving me nuts.
I know the metal tags last longer but I like to see the tag from a distance. I like the bizarre look of multiple tags of different colors. Call me crazy.
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