The pros and cons of metal plant tags

[peeweelovesbooks]

Hello all.

Here's Maria's dilemma. I hate plastic tags. Hate them with a passion. Don't like the look of them.

I just bought a labelmaker and replaced all my plastic tags with new ones in February of this year. They are already brittle and misshapened.

So, I've been looking online and found this link:

Alitags | Horticultural Aluminium Labels - Metal Plant Labels, Aluminium Tags & Garden Markers

for their aluminum tags. Or, this one for their copper tags:

Alitags | Horticultural Copper Labels - Metal Plant Labels, Copper Tags & Garden Copper Markers

Now, the cost is not abhorrent to me, so I'm looking for comments besides, "OH my God, I can buy ____ amount of orchids for that kind of money."

I want the professional series, because the whole point for me is for the tags to look professional and well, polished.

In any event, what are the pros and cons (besides the cost) that you would see in purchasing these? I don't know enough about metals in relation to orchid culture/growing to make an informed decision, which is why I've come to you brilliant people for your comments.

thanks!!

[cloudswinger]

I use the Brother p-touch. It prints out laminated labels, which lately I've been attaching directly to the pots. All my plastic labels get rearranged by the animals and kids.

[ToddsterVonCattMan]

Gorgeous plant labels, that's for sure. Copper makes them the ultimate elegant labels too...! These are the kinds of labels Capt. Nemo would have kept on his plants in the Nautilus—Cool...!

But in day to day life with my orchids—mainly lots of complex Catt hybrids—it just would never work! The full names of the cultivators would never fit on the label, let alone when and where I bought the plant! Plus with the Brother P-Touch, I can easily keep nice and neat and small and up to date records of bloom history and repotting all on one label. I used to have computer records of my entire collection, but as I tore down the greenhouse and started to just grow outside (Southern California), the computer records went too—now 3-5 years of history is kept all on the plant's tags...

However they don't look nearly as great as those metals ones you chose...!

I've seen growers with metal tags, so I am assuming they aren't too detrimental to the plants..?

[Baz in Oz]

I went down the aluminium tag track years ago and was never happy with the results because -
(a) you need three men and a barking dog to write on the damn things.
(b) They are hard to read when new and shiny and damn near impossible to read when they start to corrode.
(c) Being very thin aluminium, they develop holes and actually fall off in extreme cases.
Modern ones may be made of resistant alloys so I may be talking garbage but have a look at what the experts are using.
I don't know what sort of plastic tags you are using but I find the long thin ones available now (in different sizes) are the answer to a maiden's prayer and they last for years.

Baz

[camille1585]

Last year I nearly bought a kit of copper tags with letter punches, but gave up the idea when I realized that most orchid names are too large to fit on the tag. I also like to put the date of purchase and date of last repotting on my tags, and there is certainly no room for all of that as well! I was also afraid that the copper would become all grenn after a while, like pennies do. In the end, I stuck to sturdy yellow or white labels, and I write on them in pencil. Pencil is more resistant to water and sun than markers are.

[Ray]

I thought copper was toxic to some, if not all orchids.

[catwalker808]

Use vinyl tags. The ones you used which soon turned brittle were probably styrene.

Vinyl tags come in all kinds of sizes, even some colors. Use a mechanical pencil, .7mm with H lead. The H gives a sharp dark line, not like the kindergarten leads. The .5mm leads break too easily, .7mm is stronger.

Don't use the pens, because the ink will suddenly disappear. Pencil lines may get old and dirty, but they leave a trace which can be copied.

[Virgil]

I have some alum. tags with printed names from my brother printer, I use mostly tags I cut from venetian blinds,I use a # 2 pencil to do the writting and have no problem. they last as long as I need them , when I repot I change my tags, I have a Number for all my orchids and the info logged into a journal book.

[Rivka]

i wanted to chime in even though this thread is a few months old.
i too have been eyeing those nice aluminum labels, did you buy them?

for the matter of not having enough room, i have a label maker that can print onto a aluminum colored metallized polyester tape, so i figure that i would print the names and info and stick it to the nice looking tags.
i also was thinking of hanging them from the plant in some way rather than stick them in the pot, since i have had a few close calls when more than one of my pots tipped over and everything scattered, please no more noids!

i figured to write the name on the front and the purchase and replanting date on the back. i also keep a computer log, so each one could just get a number on the back and that would reference everything else.

[peeweelovesbooks]

Rivka,

HI!! I actually did not buy the tags. However, I went to the Ceramic League of Miami and ordered tags made out of clay. I hope these work.....I intend to use my brother pt labeler--and I sure hope these tags don't snap off.

I ordered 100 originally for my larger plants, but if they work, I intend to order some more for my miniatures.

Yeah, I, like you, keep sort of OCD-ish computer logs of everything.