What info in your spreadsheet / database?

[Hedge]

Hi there

I have been contemplating setting up a record book of my orchids as I have 20 now..... I thought it might be a bit geeky (anoraky) but now I've read this thread I'm not nearly so worried

I did a count up of all my house and greenhouse plants and I have around a hundred now, but the orchids are definitely taking up most of my time. And I want to take better care of them, so I think this is a good idea. Great question, theredhead!

Regards

Heather aka

[playtime8978]

What a great idea I am totally new to this and am a devil for forgetting their names and in a year will have no clue when it flowered 0r even after 6 months i will be whinging it hasnt bloomed as i think it will have been a year so when my ordered orchids arrive I will get to making a database, at the moment i just have my sick NOID phal If he survives he will go on too. thank you everyone what a great idea.

[theredhead]

I'm glad I'm not the only newbie who thinks of these things

Right now I'm leaning toward purchasing Cattleya-Log, but would love to hear some opinions about it.

-the redhead-
...still a scientist at heart...

[10010100102]

I personally use a MS Access '03 database I made. I like it because it's fairly easy to set up something that matches your needs, and search functions aren't that hard to make. It's not very complicated; I assign every grex an automatically generated ID number, and with that goes:
-name
-parentage (if it's a hybrid)
-alliance
-Where it comes from (I put provenance for this)
-When I got it
-A picture
-The type (species/hybrid/cross, I know that's in the name, but it just makes it easier)
-The number of individual plants to which this information pertains
-Whether the picture is from a flower from one of my plants (as opposed to from the internet because the plant hasn't flowered yet)
-And a notes section for any cultural information or other important stuff

I designed this so it can apply to any collection, big or small, and still be effective.

If you want, redhead, you can pm me with your e-mail address and I'll send you an empty copy of the DB you can try.

Hope I've been able to help.

[Swamper]

just wanna say welcome to "the MOM"....I should use something other than the tags huh?

[Lilavati]

I was using Excel, and then decided that either because I don't now how to use it or its not particularly suited (pick one) that I would move my data over to a Word table. That seems to work fine.

[theredhead]

10010100102 - thanks so much for your kind offer. I have sent you a PM.

I'm approaching this from 2 motivations - first, I hope that such a tool will give me a bit of framework to learn new things about orchids. Of course, the OB is doing a great job of that. On Sunday I spent a bit (a couple hours) researching clay pots versus clear pots with slits. Those aircone pots look pretty interesting.

Second, I want to avoid making my own tool. This isn't because I can't, but rather to prevent myself from getting too wrapped up in such a project. I know myself too well, and this sort of thing would suck my sciencey side right in

-the redhead-

[Bob2741]

I had great luck with the Aircone pots before I went to s/h they work really great. I have 3 air cones that I put Lecia in and they are doing good too.

I found the the microsoft one note a little intimidating for about 2 hrs then after playing with it (never reading the instructions of course.) I found it very useful I started making other notebooks and now have fun with it. I thought the worst thing that can happen is I don't like it and delete it since the first 30 days were a free trial

[cb977]

Originally Posted by theredhead

I'm glad I'm not the only newbie who thinks of these things

Right now I'm leaning toward purchasing Cattleya-Log, but would love to hear some opinions about it.

-the redhead-
...still a scientist at heart...

Cattleya Log is a nice program. You can check out a demo...it's a full version of the system but is only good for ten plants. Once you go over ten, you'd need to purchase the program.

A word of advice...if you want to have a tracking system, of any kind, for your chids: get it started when your collection is on the small side. It's a daunting task when the collection gets big.

I'm really bad in that I don't keep a log, although I do have Cattleya Log. Last year I had a large portion of my collection entered in the system and my computer crashed (with me not having done a back-up...shame on me )

Right now, I have a notebook on my desk and each plant name is written there when I get them...that's it
I use the Orchids In Bloom forum here to see when something last bloomed

Anybody that has Orchidwiz might be interested to know that Alex is working on a journaling system that should be part of the June update. We'll be able to put our own plant lists in our own copies of Orchidwiz. When I spoke to him about it, I asked if the program would work interactively with our personal lists and he said that it is something he is working on!

[quiltingwacko]

Oh Susanne that sounds great! I have been following this thread with interest. I am up to 37 chids right now and have a rather slapdash affair on the computer. Something better organized would be nice.