Cut the top and bottom off a soda(pop) can with a scissors. Cut the cylinder top to bottom and fold in half silver side out. Use the scissors and trim the square up, bend the edges over, in the same direction. On the side opposite of the folds, use a stick ballpoint pen, writing on a few sheets of paper, inscribe your wanted data on the label. Punch a small hole on each end inside the folds and thread stainless picture hanging wire through the holes and use that same wire to mount the label to your deer cages. Eazi-peazy, cheap, permanent, metal tags.
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Do you folks attach a permanent metal tag at the time you make the graft, or do you wait until you know it took, before engraving a metal tag?
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My opinion is that the best practice is to put the permanent marker on as you graft. My actual practice has come up a little short. Sometimes I use a sharpie to temporarily mark on the tape or limb. This is OK as long as you are disciplined enough to replace before the ink fades away. Bill
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I want the variety so I will tag it. Even if it winds up being next year when I make an Ayers, magness, Potomac, etc tag with 100% certainty I’ve committed to the variety. I may regraft a few times but I’ve done the research already at that point.
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I put a plastic tag written in black sharpie on until it takes then replace it with aluminum
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I put masking tape on the newly grafted scion with the variety name written on it.
Only when the graft takes, I put on the metal tag.
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How long will the masking tape last
My tip would be to buy the cheap disposable aluminum pie pans and baking pans from the dollar store and make your tags out of them. They are softer than soda cans and easier to cut and scribe. I like to lay the tag on a piece of leather while scribing. It has enough give to allow the scribe to sink in but it’s stiff enough to keep it from tearing.
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I started out putting metal tags as I grafted but have since started a temporary tag similar to yours except I am using a light color electrical tape to mark on. I’m pretty sure the tape will last longer than the ink.
Todays tip of the day is that 5 minutes of talking or reading can save a lot of time. Work smarter not harder is my philosophy. Resources are always a limiting factor though 1/2 acre orchard is faster to mow with a riding mower than a push mower. Gardens are tilled faster with a tractor than a roto tiller. Time is money so if one weekend a month you spend mowing as opposed to two hours you effectively cheat yourself out of a weekend per month you could use planting pears which 5 years from now will yield 3000 pounds of fruit. Can we harvest what we never planted? Reap what was never sowed? That’s one of many weekends I cheated myself out of years ago. Technically that push mower I used years ago is costing me fruit this year. Sometimes its resources saved as well. A rain collection system saves lots of water and lets face it we all need water. How many times does it rain until it floods one month and the next month we are dry as dust? If we look for ways to balance as highs and lows we wind up with more. I know what your thinking but that costs money but sometimes even that can be avoided. Our current rain collection system is 40 5 gallon buckets to collect rain water we leave them turned up and after the rain poor them into a bucket or barrel and slap a lid on it. Total cost was $0 as they were buckets jalapeños had been in and no one else wanted them. One last thing don’t mow when there is fruit to pick because isn’t that what its all about to get fruit?
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Not sure this is really a tip but one of my favorite sayings is “you’ll never get a green thumb without brown knees”. I tell that to everyone I talk to when they start asking about getting into growing anything. You just have to get out in the garden and orchard and just try.
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I think this is a great tip especially for the back-seat gardener.
Tip. Get your children or in my case grandchildren interested in growing fruit. Almost every time my grands visit I try to do something with them involving my fruit trees. They might not be old enough to do much on their on but you will be surprised at how they will look back at these times with you with fond memories. Bill
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Plant it and grow it now, or you will not have it latter. Just do it!
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Brother makes a label printer (several, actually) that use a tape that is UV and water resistant. I printed out a couple labels for trees last year and stuck them to plastic tree tags. (the self-loop making type where you slide the end of the label through the other end of the tag)
The labels look as good as the day I put them on last spring. I’m more convinced that the tag I applied them to will crack and blow away than the label failing. I’m going to try them on metal tags this spring.
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When the forecast says, “showers”, it’s a euphemism for “downpours and high velocity winds”.
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Unless you desperately want and need rain. Then “showers” really means, hot and sunny.
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SuperG - where did you get those plastic tags?
I haven’t seen them for sale anywhere, but then again, I’ve never looked for them either!
So true. The meaning is inversely proportional to your needs and desires.
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I got them from a grafting friend, but they got them off Amazon. There are all sorts of them. I’d prefer a more flexible poly-type tag as they are less prone to going brittle in sun or cold I think.
Something like this. (click for link)
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