When the hips fall off of the bush it appears the tags get caught on a leaf or cane and the hip slips out of the noose of the label. Any suggestions for preventing this from happening?
I don’t just hang the string on the peduncle I loop it with my fingers and form a slip not and then secure that snugley to the penduncle. At first I thought it was just an odd occurence but now it is happening fairly regularly.
thanks,
bill cashin
Scotch tape the label to the hip.
Scotch tape works—until it gets hot and the “sticky stuff” melts, and then they fall anyway. I ran out of tags midsummer and tried the scotch tape. Nice to write on, allowed about 2" for a label and then it got about 90F and almost all of them started to fall off. The tape melted away from the stem, paper, and itself. Then I took the desk stapler and proceeded to staple them all back together- about a quarter inch from the stem, and that worked well. Right now all the staples have rusted but the tags are still in place. And I have new tag replacements for next spring, but the tape did work. It is a real bummer to have a handful of tags and try to match them up with the correct hips.
In one of my less brilliant moments I made tags from pot sticks. Punched a hole and then a slit to slide around the base of the hip. Worked great until the stupid blue jays used them for toys.
I only lost a few tags, but I had to re-tag everything. So far the string tags are doing fine.
I have seen photos of a commercial operation using very long ribbon-like tags, which seem to have a slot one end which accepts the other end inserted into it and pulled throught it (if that makes sense)…I have no idea what these are called, or how readily available they might be, but they sure looked VERY secure to me!
George,
I have tired those long ribbon like tags you refer to and if the hips fall they separate very quickly from the plastic tags you are talking about. If the hips fall off of the bush I would estimate that a very high per centage of my tags are separated from them.
Jeff, are you tying or attaching the tags strings differently than I am? As long as the hips stay on the bush everything works fine which may mean I need to pick the hips as soon as the peduncle starts to turn from green to yellow. ???
I never dreamed I would have this problem to deal with.
I use 2 X 2 zip lock bags, see:
I try not to use seed parents for which this is a problem. Sometimes it can’t be helped.
Once hips start dropping it’s a sign they are ripe. I would harvest all hips close to due date to be on the safe side.
Could you write a code on each hip with a garden marking pen? Just a number with the number refering to a cross kept in a record book?
Hi Bill. Yeah as you say I am sure some of those long tags could slip out if the hips fall first, to be sure! I get the feeling, like Robert, says they avoid this by harvesting seed before hip drop. Good luck.
As I’ve mentioned before, I really favor tagging tape, which I buy from a nursery supply place. You can write on it with permanent markers. Writing will last a season. Tying them snug around the stem below the hip but above the usual abscission point pretty well assures that they stay on, even in our wind and rain storms.
I use them color coded by pollen donor, so I don’t have to do any writing until harvest. But that’s just the minimalist way. I also re-use them year to year several times.
Flower arranger’s stretchy green tape works OK too, but may be higher price.
Ribbon from holiday gifts would likely work and recycle too.
Electrical insulation tape folded around the stem and stuck back to itself is easy to apply, can be written on with a pencil and will stay on if the hip falls
I have never had one come off
Russ
Bill, yes, it is best to pick the hips at the first sign of falling. The sepals and the peduncle also give signals of ripening often before the hips turn color. On many roses, the sepals will dry up and easily fall off, and the peduncles change color to the point where they are attached.
Every year I will have some hips drop that lose their tags or have some tags eaten by snails. Those are labeled “Rose #” x ?. So at least I usually know the seed parent. Since I make many pollinations of the same cross, there are usually some hips of each representative cross that I can document possible pollen parents. If there is a particular special seedling with “?” for the pollen parent, you can often make a good educated guess as to who the pollen parent was. Since in reality most seedlings are discarded, this only happens rarely.
Jim Sproul
I use what Russell uses, white electrical tape and a black Sharpie marker, they last all summer.
Larry Davis’ suggestion re: tagging tape is really great, and as many times as I have used it in the wholesale nurseries, and come across tags that were labeled 1-2 yrs. earlier, faded but very readable, I don’t know why I never thought of it before. I don’t know if it is some quality in the tag tape itself, but pen, pencil and marker retains its’ readability for really some time. Of course the stuff is a b*tch to write on sometimes, but out in the nurseries we are usually writing without the benefit of a nice flat hard surface. And really easy to attach securely at any point.
I am definitely going to convert over to Russell’s and Larry 's idea of adhesive tape…up until now I was using a paper adhesive tape, but I love the sound of these alternative ideas!
This is a wonderful thread, Bill!
Nursery tagging tape has no adhesive. It depends on you tying a knot or such to secure it. It is slightly stretchy so that it can pull tight. Colors range widely, maybe 10 or so plus stripes. Some colors fade a lot but the part under the knot stays pretty much unfaded even in 3 months full sun. Generally writing on it with a nursery pen will last 2-3 yr. those are special indelible ink, not just black sharpies, which may go in a year or so. Tape comes 1/2 ro 1 inch wide or maybe it’s 1.27 to 2.54 cm these days.
ok Larry
I’ve tried sharpies, but they always fade out. What I’ve taken to doing is getting sheets of labels (for the computer), making snips in them on the top and bottom of each so that the middle can be folded over itself and won’t stick to the plant, then writing on the label and wrapping it around the stem. I write on them with pencil, and they stay in place all year. These same labels are then stored with the seeds in the fridge when stratifying.