Organizing and classifying a collection.
 

How do people organize duplicate plants in their collection?

I'm trying to keep a log of my plants, including when they bloom or when they start shooting roots. But even the same hybrid and cultivar may act differently.

I have a bunch of Phalaenopsis White Dream 'V3' and started to tag them Phal. White Dream 'V3' - A, Phal. White Dream 'V3' - B, and so on.

If I didn't label them, I wouldn't remember which survived Erwinia, which had a great bloom, or which had a bad reaction to neem oil.

How do people keep their plants organized when they have several duplicates?

-1, -2, -3, etc., starting with the largest plant.

Did you go for numbers because there weren't enough letters in the alphabet? I've heard that's a common experience among orchid growers.

hmmm, perhaps looking into typical inventory schemes would be helpful. there are some varying methods that follow simple patterns. probly tho not super useful unless you have thousands of units from various distributors. for us, we simply add our own short descriptors to the tags, like “dark” or “small”. these labels are added to the inventory notes. how inventory is taken varies by type of business and scale, afaiu.

You can give them your own names if you want to!

As a sidenote I would be a little cautious about trying to define differences between clones and divisions. Personally I would tend to assume that every deviation is a cultural or circumstantial effect.

I give every plant a unique number. Then the database has number, genus, grex or name . To record anything about a particular plant, I just jump to that number in the database (number on tag) and it is very quick to match particular info to particular plant. If I make a division, the new division gets its own number. Your database (using whatever tool you're comfortable with) can of course have other details about each plant. (Where and when you got it, how much you paid, species vs hybrid, when it bloomed, when potted, etc.) But it is that unique number that lets this work for both small collections and large. A lot easier to set up when collection is small, of course.

---------- Post added at 08:06 AM ---------- Previous post was at 07:55 AM ----------

I also use those numbers to keep track of photos, naming the files with the number. Photos have letter after the number. So plant 203 may have photos 203a, 203b, 203c, etc.

I don't have very many duplicates yet, so I just give them nicknames. One of my phals bloomed this year in a shape reminiscent of a sailing ship. It is now the HMS Phalaenopsis.

Paphiopedilums will have "deviation" because they do not grow from clones (meristem clones), which cause all plants to be "the same plant" except for cultural deviations (as you said). Even in "the wild" different populations have a variety of qualities-- some being more (or less) aesthetic to the eye of the collector. This certainly does have much to do with what chemistry is affecting the plants, (what culture), but also the parent populations. Norman Fang tells a good story about why older Ho Chi Minh paphiopedilums are inferior to new ones, and it has to do with the continuous selfing of a limited number of plants (while the populations were more or less off limits because of war in that region), while the "better" are from more recently collected, and hardier plants. Like that cat, the Cheetah, the populations get so small that the limited biodiversity creates mutants which may not be as "strong" as populations with a large diverse gene pool.

So anyway, if they are seed grown, definitely give them numbers, (or letters, which ever).

Optimist, of course I am aware of the existence and importance of genetic diversity but example that Mateo gave was two of his plants which are the same clone, or perhaps a division.

Wow, seems like folks are much more organized than I am! I've never kept track of my plants in any format outside of my head. I guess the closest thing to keeping track of my plants comes in the form of an excel file showing which plants I've tested for virus, which is only a small portion of my collection.

My system is similar to the one Roberta described.
I use a spreadsheet using number and names. If a plant gets divided the new plant gets its own number then I make a 'relationship' note quoting the opposite plants number/s for both/all divisions and a few details about the action taken.
This way when I Iook at any one plant I can see the numbers of all divisions taken.

I saw some pretty awesome tags on photos of your plants featuring photos of the blooms and light information. I believe I saw these on one of your mediterranean terrestrials threads. Do you print them yourself or did they happen to come with those tags?

Also, which software do you use as your database, Excel?

I started a new job and my schedule is crazy, so I started to develop a color code using stickers and I have my watering scheduled by color groups. Trying to reduce the amount of decision making every day. Something I've noticed is that sometimes I completely forget what a given plant needs and there are some basics (light, watering, moisture level) that would be helpful to have on a tag! Especially if I don't have time go over to my computer and look through my notes (which are still unorganized). Considering getting a Dymo or Brother label printer.

Hmmm... if the photos had attractive tags, those likely came from Tarzane Group - their tags show the flower, and basic culture info. My own tags are the plain ones that I write on (and my penmanship is pretty awful)

I use MS Access - I set up a database structure, and wrote a little app lots of years ago, had to revisit the code when Microsoft stopped supporting macros in Access. I have long ago forgotten the programming but it keeps on working. The reason for using Access is that a database lets one set up one-to-many relationships. A given plant will have one name, one date and one cost of purchase. But it has many bloomings, many pottings, and many photos. (I used to work in data management... so retired geeks are still geeks) Excel can certainly be set up to track your collection, but being basically "flat" managing those multiple data points for a given parameter can get messy. If you're not tracking history, less of an issue. Hint... if you want to track photos as part of the system, set up a folder for the actual photos, then put links in your database (whether Access or Excel or Word). If you try to save the photos themselves, jpegs get un-compressed and the file gets huge very fast.

I don't know any hobbyists with more than 26 Phalaenopsis White Dream 'V3'.

Actually, I use numbers because they're unique, and there are lots of them... The number is the "key" that ties the relational database together. (You could use alpha if you want... it's the uniqueness that's important) So if I divide a plant, the division gets a new number - it refers to the specific plant. I may have more than one L. purpurata f. schusteriana, I have divisions, and plants from different sources (mature plants and maybe SBOE $7.50 show-special seedlings). They don't all bloom on the same date (or even same year, or even all survive), could get repotted at different times. As long as the plant is uniquely identified, it's easy to know which is which. (number written on the tag). Photos start with the plant number too. So easy to find.

Basic concept of relational database design... no "smart" keys - key should be completely independent of the information, don't try to use names, etc. for that purpose.

Actually, that comment was meant as a little sarcastic joke. Because, indeed, it's not a common experience to have more than 26 of any given plant :biggrin:

However, I will say that I got into a little bit of hybridizing during this blooming season and seedpods are forming! If I'm successful, I'll definitely be able to have more than 26 of any given cross... as if I had space for that!

---------- Post added at 10:14 AM ---------- Previous post was at 10:09 AM ----------

For divisions, do you keep record of the individual mother plant as well? Say that you type "1234" in the database, and it's a division, would the file include that it's a division of "1233?" I guess I'm asking because this would be helpful if you have some duplicated specimens and one is virused or dies off for whatever reason, could give clues on whether the division could benefit from testing. Or if the division tests negative, it could help identify the time frame in which the plant was infected and maybe do a little forensic tracing into how that happened

If I divide a plant, the individual pieces get their own numbers. I have a "source" field, where I can put a vendor name, or the number of the original plant. Lots of ways that you can handle this. In notes, or a completely different field, whatever works for you. (the advantage of designing your own database, you capture what is important to you) For instance, if I put the source plant number in "source" I could then write a little query looking for the original number in Source, which will return a list of all of the divisions. Could then be enhanced by including date of the division (in case you divide it more than once, which definitely happens with very vigorous plants) You could also include a field for plants removed for any reason (I have "check" field for those removed, and a Comments field for the "why" - died, given away, donated, etc. Early on I deleted the removed plants, but ran into the issue that I had photos, where the info was still useful. So with the "removed" flag I can filter those out, and still have the information when I want it.

If you are hybridizing and have a bunch of newly-deflasked seedlings, you might wait to assign the numbers to individuals, because they won't all survive, no point in creating clutter. It's your system, you can do what makes sense for a particular situation.