Two dumb questions

[sundanz]

I have trouble keeping the writing from fading on my plastic labels. What type of pens do you use on your labels? I use permanent markers but they fade! Very irritating because I have to relabel every few weeks so I won't forget the names of the plants!

My second dumb question is: how do I go about waterproofing my claypots? I like the claypots but they dry out too quickly in this ungodly Texas heat. I like to waterproof them but I want to make sure I use the right stuff so I won't harm my plants.
I know these are dumb questions, and you may laugh at my expense!:-)

Cheers
Karin

[CoronaCactus]

1. All markers will fade, even the ones that say they are for garden labels. Its a very easy fix, use a pencil! Never fades, lasts for years.

2. No idea. Even in the mojave desert heat i use clay pots. I only water once a week or sometimes once every 2 weeks.

[Saxicola]

Agreed about using pencil. The label will become brittle and fall apart before the writing ever fades.

I'm somewhat skeptical that your pots are really drying out too fast. Are you certain they have really dried out? If so, are you positive they were wet in the first place? Many peat and coir based mixes can be hard to wet when they go dry. Even after a real soaking where it looks like the top is wet I've found many times where the center of the pot is bone dry.

[sabotenmen]

These are not dumb questions! 1; Writng with a pencil? Okay, if it works then great but if you have those glossy type labels, then maybe you can't write with a pencil on them. not sure. Maybe you could put some cellotape on the written labels, but I don't know if the writing fades then anyway and if the cellotape gets wet with watering then it would be no good. 2; There's an article about waterproofing terracotta on this very site; go to "cacti articles"- "cultivation and how to"- growing cacti in terracotta". Steve Johnson is the author of this article. He should be able to give you any more info you need. But what do you consider "too quickly"? Even though they do dry out quickly,I like my clay pots! I can see if my cacti need watering by simply looking at the pots!

[sabotenmen]

Agreed about using pencil. The label will become brittle and fall apart before the writing ever fades.

I'm somewhat skeptical that your pots are really drying out too fast. Are you certain they have really dried out? If so, are you positive they were wet in the first place? Many peat and coir based mixes can be hard to wet when they go dry. Even after a real soaking where it looks like the top is wet I've found many times where the center of the pot is bone dry.

At the risk of getting taken to the woodshed by some more experienced members; I water until the water runs out of the bottom of the pot and then I consider it saturated. Maybe the center of the pot is then still "bone dry", but all my plants are growing well.Would cacti grow well with a "bone dry" center?

[majcka]

Ad1: I used to do sudh dumb thing. I bought a permanent marker just to label my plants and guess what, I had so many pencils at home.

Oh yes. Good old pencile is the best.

Ad2: Here I could use a wax. But I don't know how that would work in that heath of yours. But maybe you could buy ornamental clay pots in the future. Ones with 'email? on (I'm sorry, but I have no idea if that word is OK, I mean the ornamental cover that stops ewaporation ).

[DaveW]

Permanent markers are a lie, I have never found one that writes permanently on plastic yet. The old aluminium or zinc labels written on with pencil last far better than plastic, I have some still perfectly legible from the early 1960's, even though they have been in full sun all that time, the plastic ones faded very quickly, permanent marker or not.

Possibly you could try roughening the shiny surface of plastic labels with fine emery paper, as used for cleaning steel tools, to make pencil stick, but I have not tried it.

The best form of plant labelling is the thermo laminated labelling tape you stick onto a label, but it is more expensive since you have to buy the plastic label plus the tape.

I use a Brother P-Topuch 1230 PC that runs off my computer, but you can get cheaper hand held versions. EBAY is often the cheapest source of these. The half inch wide tape fits most vertical plastic labels and of course can be used on horizontal ones too. I friend of mine who was in the oil industry tells me these labels are used on North Sea oil rigs, so obviously stand weather more extreme than our plants are getting. He does not bother with sicking them on a plastic label but straight onto his plastic pots, but I don't know if that would work with damp clay pots. With plants packed on my stagings however labels on pots would be unreadable unless I lifted the pots out, so I stick them onto normal plastic labels that can be read in situ.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rXNvdIwjC0A" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMjwjrNyhhw" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I use the black letters on white tape, but there are many other colour combinations. A tip if you are using one don't cut the labels off individually if you can help, but print them all out for a session in a continuous line and then cut them off individually with scissors since the built in cutter tends to leave quite a bit of blank tape in between each, so printing them in a continuous line and cutting later saves tape!

As to waterproofing clay pots, one or our old members used to paint the inside of his with polyurethane varnish as he said he could not afford to dump them all and switch to plastic pots in the early days.

[sundanz]

Thank you all for this wealth of information! I will try to find a label maker for my plastic labels to see if that works. And will also try the pencil idea!
As for the claypots, I will most likely use Maja's idea about using glazed claypots in the future. I water all my pots til the water runs out at the
Bottom but in 100 degree heat in my GH they dry out quickly. The pots feel light after about 4 days or so.

Thank you again for your help!
Karin

[Steve Johnson]

Hi Karin,

You can find the article Sabotenmen mentioned at http://www.cactiguide.com/article/?arti ... icle28.php" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;. IMO waterproofed terracotta works very well, although the pots need to be clean and empty so the waterproofing is applied inside and out before repotting your plants. Thompson's Water Seal makes a masonry waterproofer, which I would highly recommend if you can find it. Unfortunately, I can't get the Thompson's masonry product in California, so I had to make do with a water-based waterproofer. Theoretically it should last for 10 years before I have to re-treat my pots -- I'll have to wait and see if that's really the case.

[CactusFanDan]

I use a Brother PT1010 handheld label printer for printing labels for my plants. It's very convenient, as I can go into the greenhouse and print the label for the plant there and then. I have a lot of my plants unlabelled, though, as they're often easily distinguished species and I only really see the necessity in labels for names I'm liable to forget or for information like field collection number and what have you.

As for water-proofing clay pots, I'd imagine something like Yacht varnish would work nicely or polyurethane pond paint. Those are both products I've used to waterproof vivariums for reptiles before, as they are safe and non-toxic.

[cactushobbyman]

I use a marker call garden pen marker. http://www.amazon.com/Industries-Clip-S ... marker+pen" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; Not sure how long it will last, but so far its okay. To seal pot on the inside I use clear acrylic spray paint. Seals good.

[Peterthecactusguy]

btw the best system I have seen so far are the dogtag like tags at Desert Botanical Gardens, I wonder how much it costs to do that tho!
I would like to mention that I have none of my plants labeled.

[CoronaCactus]

Here's another alternative, i'd bet for less than the price of a labeler and the expense of the refills going through a collection, you could find an older reliable used ribbon style thermal printer. For less than $150 you be set for life with non-fading waterproof labels!

[promethean_spark]

For my fruit trees I use aluminum plant tags (dog tags). They are soft and when you write on them with a ballpoint pen it leaves a permanent impression. They are about 25c each.

That's way to expensive to label my thousands of C&S. I write the names of the plants on the side of the plastic pot with a silver paint pen (pencil won't work on pot sides). Silver is easily readable on white or black, and the paint does not fade because it contains bits of metal. Additionally the sides of the pots are protected from the sun when they are on the benches so even permanent marker is good for years (I used both side by side for a while to judge the difference). As a bonus, my benches look like forests of cacti, not forests of tags and the tags never get mixed up.
When I re-use a pot, I just cross off the old name and write a new one. The pot will go brittle and get tossed out before I run out of writing space on it.

Paint pens are available in the arts and crafts section of various stores with the other paints - not with the markers. Because they leave a much thicker layer of paint than a marker does of ink, they run out of paint faster, but they're only a couple bucks each.

[sundanz]

Thank you all for excellent advice!!