Need ideas for labelling+tracking plants

So when planting a food forest, orchard, garden, or whatever, I'm looking for ways of tracking what plant is what.

For instance, "I really like the peaches from this tree... where did I that, again?"
or "I've discovered this tree tends to fruit in mid june so I need to focus more on varieties that fruit in july"
or "This tree was killed by the rare Himilan hoochie-hoo worm, what other ones do I have of the same species so I can keep an eye on them?"

I'm picturing two parts of the picture:
* First, we need a way of permenently labelling plants so we know what's what.
* Second, we need a way of tracking info about that plant and tying it back to the label somehow.

I'm sure people have come up with ways to do this before.  Just wondering what you've heard of and what recommendations you may have?
Any experience you've had with this sort of thing?

Build a sign board you can drop a rectangle from aluminum pop can in and simply put the metal over card board and emboss the lettering into it.  Then put it back in the sign frame.

Why not build a journal with keys to each plant.

I am not quite sure how to go about making a key or code.

From your examples:

"I really like the peaches from this tree... where did I that, again?"
or "I've discovered this tree tends to fruit in mid june so I need to focus more on varieties that fruit in july"
or "This tree was killed by the rare Himilan hoochie-hoo worm, what other ones do I have of the same species so I can keep an eye on them?"

Let us say that all peach trees in your journal would P, then assign a number to each tree in your journal.

"I really like the peaches from this tree.`  So this tree might be P1.  I am I making this clear?

This thread has some great ideas for making label:

https://permies.com/t/40/10241/plant-label-ideas

Computers have their pros and cons, but making a spreadsheet that's searchable has some merit.

I like labels on plants, but I advise you to make them 3 times larger than you think you need them. I find that regardless of the material you use, small print just dissolves into the ether! I use aluminium pie plates or take out bins and only cut 2 out of each so they're really wide and large. Pop cans seem more of a nuisance to disassemble and they're easy to recycle here so the few we get, we tend to take back.

A lot depends on your ecosystem. We're so damp all winter, I save wooden signs for special markers, like "Marguerite's Apple".

C. Letellier wrote:Build a sign board you can drop a rectangle from aluminum pop can in and simply put the metal over card board and emboss the lettering into it.  Then put it back in the sign frame.

Oh! You mean like these things?


Great idea!
After how do you attach them?

I found a video by an organization guru (apparently Japanese manufacturing has something called the 5-s he is obessed with).

It all seems a bit much, but I particularly liked the part at about 16:12 where he puts labels with QR codes on gadgets and things around his operation, then people can just scan it *boop* and get more information.  That would be cool!


(Though for outdoors, just labels with a name on them seem tricky, so not sure how a QR code would work.  Would probably want a fall-back plan in case it gets faded or damaged.)

Anne Miller wrote:
Let us say that all peach trees in your journal would P, then assign a number to each tree in your journal.

"I really like the peaches from this tree.`  So this tree might be P1.  I am I making this clear?

Yeah, that's a great idea having a code!

But instead of P being "peach" maybe it could mean a "P" in Sobkowiak's "NAP" method.

Or, maybe the code is what forest layer the plant is, so if it falls off and you see "S-24" lying on the ground then you know it's referring to the Shrub layer.

Now you've got me thinking... :)

Something that I forgot to mention is to put the code on the labels.

Somehow experimental farms or orchards must use a system something like this to keep track of all the different plants.