My permanent pen does not hold up against the sun and rain. It didn't help to cover the ink with scotch tape. I've resorted to making maps to back up the plant markers that already are hard to read.
Do you have a good reliable system for marking your plants ?

Oil based paint markers are the way to go. You’re totally correct in that Sharpie just doesn’t last.


https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B09MK8G8 ... asin_title

I print mine since my handwriting is illegible. I know people use specific garden markers as well as industrial/pro Sharpies (and similar). The labels I did make using pencil are still legible after 3 years as well.

I also tried aluminum tags that you emboss last season. I hated them since I had a hard time reading them. They might work for some people though.

https://www.amazon.com/Coolrunner-Plant ... 07KRS56G4/

I just take the "permanent" Sharpie pen and a paper towel or cloth along to the garden when I do an inspection stroll halfway through the season when the labels are beginning to fade. Wipe off any dirt or moisture, and write on top of the old letters, matching as best I can. Some labels make it through the season, some don't. I mostly plant alphabetically, so that jogs memory too. I have a planting chart made up before they go in the garden. There are a couple of Sharpies always hanging on the garden netting in case I need them quick, but I tend to need an "official label renewal day " in order to make myself methodically go down the row and get them fixed.

Grow only one variety.

You know what they say, anything worth doing is worth doing twice!

I've moved up from the ~ 7"/17.78cm to the 12"/30.48cm wooden shims and am using a ball point pen instead of magic marker/stay tuned. The Gotch

Great answers everyone Thanks, and I will stay tuned.

I got these. I used the marker that came with the order. The labels I wrote on and placed in the garden months ago are still as legible as they were when I wrote them.

I like the labels. I think there was some negative feedback written about the labels for not being as thick of plastic as the reviewer would have liked. They seem plenty thick to me.

Either the plastic stick things as above or paint stirrers that are wood and a paint pen.

Pencil on plastic tags used here, end of season, give tags a wash, rub of pencil and ready to go again next season

LindaJean wrote: ↑Tue May 16, 2023 1:04 pm My permanent pen does not hold up against the sun and rain. It didn't help to cover the ink with scotch tape. I've resorted to making maps to back up the plant markers that already are hard to read.
Do you have a good reliable system for marking your plants ?

black china marker.
The kind with the string you have to unravel as it wears down.
Old vinyl Venetian blind slats.
recycle and save.
With creative carving you can have the slats with the holes near the ends
for hanging on the plants like xmas tree ornaments once the plants get bigger
and hide the usual in ground markers.
Many times I have made a "treasure map" of all the plants in the garden so
you can just stand there and point when giving tours.

We been using this device for home,office,gardn n tool shed.The spools are waterproof and has adhesive backing.We use the plastic plant labels with these.

slugworth wrote: ↑Wed May 17, 2023 4:45 am black china marker.
The kind with the string you have to unravel as it wears down.
Old vinyl Venetian blind slats.
recycle and save.
With creative carving you can have the slats with the holes near the ends
for hanging on the plants like xmas tree ornaments once the plants get bigger
and hide the usual in ground markers.

This is exactly how I've been marking stuff in the garden for ages. Works great, stuck in the ground or hung on cages, etc! They're made from cut up mini-blind slats and you can get a BUNCH of them from one blind.

the toughest part is peeling the string on the china marker.
retro 1960's
Just putting the slats in the ground is fine initially,but once you mulch and the plants get bigger amnesia sets in.
Tears in my eyes when I tried using the "permanent" black magic marker and the names washed off.
Crying and gnashing of teeth.

I mark my tomato cages with a piece of masking tape -- folded over so the sticky sides stick to each other. It's fast and easy. Some years I write a few letters (PruPur for Pruden's Purple, for instance), other years I write the whole name. I put them mostly on the north side. They are useful to ID fruit at the beginning of the tomato season, and within a month I don't need the labels any longer because I've learned where everything is as I've picked them. This has worked for 60+ tomato plants, 30+ pepper plants, and 20+ eggplants, as well as cucurbits and legumes.

Of course, I make a map of the garden when I'm planting so that in case labels become unreadable (or disappear) before the plants fruit, I know where everything is. I create the map before I go to the garden so that I know what to bring with me, I put the plants in place before planting and then check my map twice (because sometimes I move things around once I'm in the garden), and then I make my labels a week or two later when I'm not rushing to get everything in all at once. I don't leave any of my plastic labels at the garden because they would disappear under the mulch anyway, or they'd crumble into little pieces of plastic (and, not having been exposed to the elements, they don't get so brittle and I can reuse them).

So it's not exactly a fadeproof method, but it's a way to know for sure where everything is.

The "garden marker" products have a uv inhibitor that regular sharpies don't.

A plastic solo cup will make a lot of labels. Snip around the edge, peel down like flower petals, and then cut off the bottom.

I've used these and haven't had fading like I do with sharpies.
https://www.amazon.com/Sakura-44181-Ide ... 136&sr=8-3

It was recommended by Marsha on this forum a couple of years ago.

I also use P-Touch label maker and they have not faded or come off the tags.
HTH

Sharpie makes an oil based marker that doesn't fade. Their industrial markers will last one season. I always turn my tags so that they are not facing the sun which reduces fading.

I make a lot of labels with popsicle sticks! No, I don't eat that many, but I bought a thousand of them dirt cheap, and the marking stays on them the entire year, though they do get dirty. The plastic ones on the trellises I have re-used countless times, usually just wiping off old marking with some acetone, (or leaving that on, for things I use every year), and I drilled holes in almost all of them, and use some of that wire tie stuff I got rolls of in dollar stores, to put the labels on the trellis. And I always try to tie the label facing north, so the sun doesn't fade it.