Many have read, none have responded
 

Hello -
I had originally posted this in the Dendrobium forum, but have received no replies. Thinking it is a common problem for growers with species that require somewhat specific culture, I link to it here http://www.orchidboard.com/community...light-etc.html
in hopes that somebody has figured out some simple coding system for this. I can make a permanent label, but attaching a 3x14 tag to, f'rinstance, a Den. oligophyllum is just silly, thus the need for a code of some kind.
Obsession can result in a very embarrassing list - and I now have one.
Regards - Nancy

The reason I didn't respond was because most of the Dendrobiums I currently own are deciduous and go dormant during the winter. I don't need to mark them. Just them being there is like being marked already. :)

If the colored paper labels worked, but decomposed, why not use colored plastic labels, or a colored magic marker on the white labels to tell you the same info??

You could always just group all your plants with like requirements in the same part of the greenhouse together and then have color coded sections rather than color coded pots. Might be easier that way. I just gather all my deciduous plants up when the time comes and throw 'em in a corner until each plant starts to wake up in the spring. Then I find them a new branch to grow on the jungle where I grow my guys.

Hey Steve - your idea would work if 1) I had a greenhouse and 2) grew things in pots...what are pots, anyway?
All seriousness aside, I did a rough count, and have more than 20 different species (okay, about 45), and no two have identical winter needs. I will never 'learn' them, I don't think.
I'm kind of mulling over Ray's idea, using weatherproof plastic hang tags of some kind, and maybe grouping and regrouping at the beginning of each month, erase the last month, and add the conditions for the coming one...I protect my plants during real cold, but am kind of at the mercy of the heat; we can and often do have temps in the 80's in winter. Water is one of the few variables that I really can control. Though it seems that more moisture is appropriate with higher heat, there are a few that like their nap to be bone dry.
It all seems like a real pain in the patoot, and then they *bloom* and it all seems worthwhile.
If I come up with something brilliant, it will be shared.
Cheers - Nancy

I use a system much like Ray described. I found markers can fade on labels. I have a Brother P-touch labeller to make name tags and it wastes a clip off the front of each label. I save these and paint a colored dot (I use acrylics since that's what I paint with) on each. One color for watering, one for light, one for fragrance etc. Then I can mark on the dot whether as to whether it gets water, Spr, sum, Fall, winter (quadrants of the dot) or all; full sun, part sun, or shade. Work up your own system. Place the plastic pieces on the back of your label and they should last as long as your label does.

Hey, that is a very good idea...I use one of the P-touch labelers, and it does chap my behind that it wastes a lot of tape with each printing. This is a way I can possibly address two issues.
I use aluminum hang-tags from the farm/garden store, and those Brother printed labels have lasted 10+ years without fading, peeling, etc. I guess I need to work out some kind of personal code, and can put the cultural code, on the wasted tape, on the other side of the labels.
V_coerulea - genius!
Thanks - Nancy

I use small colored tags. regards

Sorry for the "thread necromancy", but perhaps you could try something like stringing coloured beads or bits of plastic onto the hanging wires to signify various things? Glass beads will not really degrade much with light or time (although you may occasionally break them off accidentally by crushing them - unlikely though!). If your hangers are too thick, perhaps you could string onto nylon monofilament (fishing line) and attach that somewhere handy?

The order of the beads as well as the colour could have meanings, somewhat like how they mark resistors in electronics with coloured bands.

Hope this helps.