# Making groups of tags efficiently



## chrismende (Mar 3, 2011)

I'm going crazy hand-writing all the tags for seedlings out of flasks. I'm not at the level to buy a thermal printing system. What's in between? Anyone doing anything like labels to put on the tags? Or some other system?


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## Marc (Mar 3, 2011)

I can your talking about thermal printing system that prints complete tags. You can looke for a thermal printing system that prints text on sticky tape and then you can attach those tape labels to your regular plant labels.

We have such a unit at work and I did some googling and there are units available for a price of 50,- euros. Brother is a company that makes these units.


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## paphreek (Mar 3, 2011)

Marc said:


> I can your talking about thermal printing system that prints complete tags. You can looke for a thermal printing system that prints text on sticky tape and then you can attach those tape labels to your regular plant labels.
> 
> We have such a unit at work and I did some googling and there are units available for a price of 50,- euros. Brother is a company that makes these units.



That's what I use. The tags seem to be doing great and have not faded. Another member of the OSM had tested the labels by putting an example on a plant stake and then nailing it to a board, which he left outside in the sun for a year. The label held up fine. I've been using them for more than five years, and they seem to be doing fine, including ones on plants that summer outside. Google "Brother P-Touch" and you should get a list of sellers.


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## etex (Mar 3, 2011)

Thanks Ross and Marc! Sounds like a great idea. Pencil and permanent marker fade faster than I thought they would. And it is time consuming when deflasking to print lots of labels.


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## Clark (Mar 3, 2011)

Too many choices.

http://www.newegg.com/Store/BrandSu...ubCategory=299&name=Printer-Label-CD-Printers


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## Shiva (Mar 3, 2011)

I bought the top of the line Brother label printer PROXL years ago on ebay and I've never had to regret it. The labels lasts far longer than the tags themselves and will even hold them together when they start to crumble. The printing never fades, never gets unstuck and best of all for that model, you can hook it to your computer and get gazillions of type faces.


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## Ernie (Mar 3, 2011)

Yep, the little Brother (etc) labelers work great. But sometimes you'll run out of space if the name is long. 

We use Excel, Word (to mail merge), Avery 5526 weatherproof labels (~$1 per sheet), and a laser printer. Will provide the Excel and Word samples to make labels for a 5/8" x up to ~6" tag if you e-mail me (not pm). Once they're printed up, either use a paper trimmer or hand cut with scissors then apply to your tag. These hold up VERY well for us, look pretty darn good, and are very customizable.


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## Clark (Mar 3, 2011)

Thanks Ernie!

You just described our method.
And kicked it up a notch.

Been using Avery 8160 and they are not waterproof.
Thanks again!


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## Ernie (Mar 3, 2011)

Clark said:


> Thanks Ernie!
> 
> You just described our method.
> And kicked it up a notch.
> ...



Cool. Happy to help. These are half sheet labels, so two 5.5"x8.5" labels per 8.5"x11" page. I have not been able to find full sheet weatherproof labels. Anyway, we print in landscape and get two columns of labels. 

One thing gets my goat though. Once I've merged all the names etc into Word, I go in and add itals, adjust sizing if necessary for LONG names, etc and found that sometimes (maybe depending how long I've had word open) if I switch over to Firefox or OrchidWiz or Powerpoint or whatever then back to Word, it ditches all my itals and reverts to the basic settings of the merge and I have to start over. So, once you get started modifying fonts work until you're done then print to a pdf to save some heartache and time. (or it could be something uniquie to my system)


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## likespaphs (Mar 3, 2011)

we use this {http://griffins.com/search/search_r...&search_value=label&search_flag=prod_name&p=1}, but have it hooked to a computer. 
the tags last for years and years, but either the printer or the software we use {labelview} or some combination of the two is leading to errors with printing


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## Candace (Mar 3, 2011)

I also use one of those cute, little P-touch machines for flasklings. It works great.


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## koshki (Mar 3, 2011)

I, too, use a label maker, but I don't use plant tags at all. I put the name and acquisition date on the label, then I add new labels with repot dates, and put all of that directly on the pot. It works for both plastic and clay pots. Not so good on wood baskets or mounts, but they stick for a while. No lost tags! For cork, I usually attach the label to a plant tag, if I put anything on it at all (I don't have that many).

I've been able to transfer the labels from one pot to another a couple times, but I think they may not stick much after the third pot!

I recently saw a label maker with light and weather resistant tape for garden labels. I probably would have bought that had I seen it first, but now it's a matter of "new label maker or new orchid?" Hmmmm....


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## Justin (Mar 3, 2011)

I think I once saw an offer from Thanh of Springwater Orchids to make labels for people, not sure if he still does it but worth a try...


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## giuliof (Mar 4, 2011)

Even if i'm in Italy, i found some years ago the tags of rippedsheets.com
http://www.rippedsheets.com/laser/100710.html
These tags (i use the 100710-8) works great with an old HP laserjet6. 
Just a little soft, but now are in my greenhous for nearly 6 years and remain perfect. Only disvantage for me is that shipping and imports costs are much more then tags themself.
Anyone know something similar in Europe?


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## JeanLux (Mar 8, 2011)

paphreek said:


> That's what I use. The tags seem to be doing great and have not faded. Another member of the OSM had tested the labels by putting an example on a plant stake and then nailing it to a board, which he left outside in the sun for a year. The label held up fine. I've been using them for more than five years, and they seem to be doing fine, including ones on plants that summer outside. Google* "Brother P-Touch"* and you should get a list of sellers.



do there exist different font sizes (I mean small ones for the larger names: ex. parent species for crosses) ?

Jean


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## jimspaphs (Mar 8, 2011)

My son wrote me a simple 2 line program that works on Dot matrix printers.The tractor feed tags are now not available in Australia but I have 3 x 1000 rolls still to last me.I spray the Tags with a water base clear lacquer and can still read after 10 years..Can adjust the amount of tags wanted.






chrismende said:


> I'm going crazy hand-writing all the tags for seedlings out of flasks. I'm not at the level to buy a thermal printing system. What's in between? Anyone doing anything like labels to put on the tags? Or some other system?


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## W. Beetus (Mar 8, 2011)

etex said:


> Thanks Ross and Marc! Sounds like a great idea. Pencil and permanent marker fade faster than I thought they would. And it is time consuming when deflasking to print lots of labels.


 
I've found that china markers work great on labels. The only problem is getting them to write in thin lines.


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## likespaphs (Mar 9, 2011)

etex said:


> ...Pencil and permanent marker fade faster than I thought they would....





although pen and markers fade in fairly short order for me, pencil will last for years and years and years


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