How do you keep track of the orchids in your collection

[KrissieLynn]

Joining in on this thread a little late, but I number my pots with either a sharpie or a paint pen. I created my own sheet in word and printed it out- one page for each pot- I have 22 pots right now, so I have 22 pages, plus extra. Each page has:

1- the pot number
2- plant name/ NOID nickname
3- date purchased
4- price paid
5- seller
6- a description of the plant (I.e. bloom size, shape of leaves, color, mini/small/large plant)
7- additional information (this is where I put anything specific about fertilizers, repotting, when repotted the first time, watering frequency, etc...)
8- a picture of the bloom/plant

I keep all of my pages slipped inside sheet protectors in a three ring binder. I also have extra pictures in each sheet protector and notes about growth, when I repotted it specifically, and other things I feel are important bits of information.

[No-Pro-mwa]

I like this discussion because I really need to do something. My biggest problem is I am not good at all on the computer. I may just have to do it by hand. About the tags I turn them into the plant so they are not facing the sun as much or I put my tag that I have been putting in with the date of re-pot on it in front of the name tag.

[silken]

Originally Posted by IncurablePlantHead

Did not know about orchidwiz. I was wondering if its exclusively for orchids or can any number of plant obcessions be tracked with this tool? Guess I should just go look huh?

It's strictly orchids. I guess you could enter anything as a NOID, but it really is intended for orchids. It's an encyclopaedia basically but with record keeping tools as well.

---------- Post added at 12:14 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:09 PM ----------

Originally Posted by DavidCampen

I installed 10.0 and I see the plant died feature now. I applied this to a couple of plants but I don't see that it does anything but add the cross symbol to the plant listing. I was hoping that a plant marked as dead would no longer be counted as "plants in my journal" and would be moved to another list or at least placed at the bottom of the last. I already could mark a plant as deceased - I usi plant location 99 for deceased plants.

That's why I kept doing it the way I started out. If you list all your plants and then click on the one that died so that it is highlighted. Then while it is highlighted, to the right there is a 'detailed' button you can click and you get all your info in a detailed form for that orchid. On that document go to 'file', then 'export document' and it defaults to PDF. Click OK on the export options and then tell it what file to save it in. I have a plants that died file. Once you confirm your record has been saved (just to make sure first time). you can delete that record from OW.

[Island Girl]

Yea, I started an excel spreadsheet, but I'm not good at keeping up with it I do have all the Baker's culture sheets printed out, and in a three-ring binder. Otherwise, I just write on the label, but that looks messy, so I need to figure something out! I'm glad this question was posted! I like hearing all the different ways y'all do this I'm not a computer person, so I'm thinking that I'll probably have to keep up in a notebook/record keeping book... I have a few of those around.

Matt W. is that an app on your iPad, or was it on there to begin with? That is something I could probably use, seeing as how it's not on my laptop (I hate getting that thing out, and waiting for it to boot up)

[MattWoelfsen]

Originally Posted by Island Girl

....

Matt W. is that an app on your iPad, or was it on there to begin with? That is something I could probably use, seeing as how it's not on my laptop (I hate getting that thing out, and waiting for it to boot up)

Hello Island Girl, it is an app you buy from the AppStore called Numbers. It is very easy to use and since it is on iPad you can take it with you. With its camera you can take pictures of your plant when you bring it home for the first time, and when it blooms for the first time, etc.

[Orchid Whisperer]

Something I have only recently started doing: for plant tags (labels), I punch or drill a hole through them, then use a small cable tie to attach the plant tag to the base of the plant. You can cable tie to the base of a monopodial like a phal & hang the tag down into the pot/medium. You can do the same around the rhizome of a sympodial. Greatly reduces the chances for the tag to be lost.

If you need a secondary tag that you can check from time to time to be sure what plant you are looking at, that can be added as needed, pushed into the pot in the conventional way.

[cbuchman]

Originally Posted by Orchid Whisperer

Something I have only recently started doing: for plant tags (labels), I punch or drill a hole through them, then use a small cable tie to attach the plant tag to the base of the plant. You can cable tie to the base of a monopodial like a phal & hang the tag down into the pot/medium. You can do the same around the rhizome of a sympodial. Greatly reduces the chances for the tag to be lost.

If you need a secondary tag that you can check from time to time to be sure what plant you are looking at, that can be added as needed, pushed into the pot in the conventional way.

If you do shows, just make sure that the label is easily removable. It would be a tragedy to break a spike or growth as you prepare for a show!

I just tuck the label into the pot (though I do wire them onto mounts). I also take a picture of the plant and/or flowers as soon as I get it. So that I can match it up to the name again later if I need too. Those damn squirrels and chipmunks do pull the labels out!

I used to just keep the pics in a folder on my PC, now I load them up into OrchidWiz. I even add the pics for each years blooming.