Lost my Labels & Misplaced Seeds

I started some seeds inside this year, but ended up with a few plants that had their labels lost. I have 2 of one and one of the other. I also have a couple seedlings started outside that I do not know what they are.

First, what is this?

Here is another, smaller version of the last one, plus a small other, questionable plant. I believe I had an okra and eggplant start, but not having grown them before, can't tell. They really should show the photo of whole plant on seed packet!

Now, here are 2 babies that started next to my butternut seedling. I do not believe it is a butternut, as the striations on the leaves are not the same.

Another shot of the same 2

This one looks like it could be the same thing as the last shot, but it is further away.

Not sure what your plants are but do know that white plastic knives make fantastic markers.

I use them outside to mark the vegetable rows and write on the handles with a black marker. They will winter over in the soil. You can see where your rows are and they don't trip you like a stake does. They work in pots too.

The second one could be either squash or cucumber. Need to see the real leaves to know for sure.

#1 is an eggplant and I think
































#1 is an eggplant and I think that #3 is a cucumber. However, cucumbers, cantalopes and squash look similar when they first come up. When it puts on a few more leaves you should be able to tell for sure.

I think #1 & #2 are eggplant. :)

#3 looks like cucumber, but not sure..

I agree with folks that #1 looks like an eggplant.

#2 too soon to tell....we need to see the first set of true leaves.

#3 I think may be a watermelon. The cantaloupes and cukes I've grown in the past tend to have four outside (and two inside) edges. While watermellon leaves have more edges. But that's just the few varities I've grown.

You'll have to let us know, I hope you plan on letting all of them grow so this mystery can be solved!

Amen to that.

# is an eggplant and are ichiban because of the color. Belle

I was thinking #1, might be eggplant, just because of the purple veining. The seeds I have are "Early Long Purple", so ichiban, probably not. I see my seed packet for okra was kind enough to include a leaf with the okra - OMG, they look like cannabis! Anyway, guess none of that made it. Jim I bought the seeds last year after you waxed poetic of the marvels of fresh okra. I have only seldom tried it and did not care for it. I was going to have one plant. Maybe I'll try some seed in a pot. Yes, that one little, skinny one, in pix 2 does look like a cuke, but much slower growing than the others and now it is in the wrong order! Here are my other 4 cucumber plants (one in pot, 3 in bale):

Yes, plastic utensils make good markers, as do old mini blinds, cut up. The seeds I stated in the Jiffy peat pucks and made labels on cut up post its taped onto toothpicks. When I started taking them out to either transplant or harden off, some labels were lost. Some things like peppers and tomatoes are easily recognized as such, if not for which variety. Others, like you say, like cukes, squash and some melons look a lot alike. The watermelons have a frilly leaf, unlike the cantaloupe.

I took photos of each type of veggie, as I tried to plant like with like in my bales and pots. I have purchased starts, seedlings and seeds planted.

I will keep you posted on what is coming up!

Lynda

Though I don't have answers for your identification problems; I do have sympathy for your plight and suggestions for the future.

I also have had problems identifying plants due to lost or damaged tags and my bad memory and complex layout and lack of expertise in identifying plants.

In the past I've used magic markers just to have the ink run in the rain or fade due to ultraviolet radiation,

This year I got the bright idea of using address labels and toothpicks; regretfully it failed miserably. Inside it worked fairly well, however I had to be careful not to get water on the tags as my printer ink is not waterproof. I put scotch tape over the tags to help keep the tags dry; regrettably the water still got to think anyway. Once I transplanted the plants outside and placed the plants outside the tags started blowing away. At first I used wood toothpicks; but the wood whicked up water from the soil to the labels and it made the ink run and weakened the adhesive so labels fell off. I then switched to plastic toothpicks which worked better.

Thankfully I anticipated that I might have these problems so I had a backup plan. I essentially made a schematic/technical drawing/map/blueprint of my seedling layout and of my garden layout on my computer and I update it every time I make changes.

Since then I met a gardener that uses tongue depressors marked with a number two pencil. I think I will try this next year though my writing is not very legible; at least the graphite should be fade and water resistant. At least it is a cheap and effective alternative that I can use.

I use a garden marker... I've used these for years. The ink WILL last from year to year.

http://www.dpind.com/GARDEN_MARKER_PEN_p/garden%20marker%20pen%203.htm

I use old metal mini blinds and a #2 pencil. I have some in my garden from last year and they're still as easy to read as the day I stuck them in the ground. You can also use plastic mini blinds, but I'm not sure how well they last. We get lots of sun here, too and not much lasts, but those do.

If I was going to mark everything in the garden, I would probably just use sticks marked with crayon or a little paint and color code everything instead of hoping i'll be able to decipher my illegible writing weeks and months down the road (if it doesn't fade away) Even a cheap pack of colored pencils stuck in the ground would work...even if the paint managed to fade the lead would still be yellow or green, etc.

Personally I never mark anything once it's in the garden. This year I didn't even mark seeds started indoors. I'm pretty familiar with the local weeds so it's easy enough to tell if it's something I planted or something I need to pull. I may not be able to tell whether the immature plants are shipkas or jalapenos, but I know they're peppers and will find out eventually once they start blooming and setting fruit. I suppose it's a haphazard method but not knowing because my markers have faded, been lost, etc. leaves me with one less thing to worry about. I don't exactly have a large or elaborate garden setup, so it's pretty easy (even for me) to distinguish a corn stalk from say a cucumber vine.

#3 is watermelon

dlbailey - you may be right about the photo posted at 9:08, as the real leaves are 'frilly' which my watermelon plants have. I planted the watermelon, by seed directly in my bales, 3/18, and this plant sprouted in May near the peppers, which were seedlings planted just before. The only thing I can think of is perhaps it is from my homemade compost pile!

ZZs - that marker looks great.


stephanie- the sun is brutal here also, so the metal mini blinds would last longer. I often times try to keep the little plastic tags that come with the plant in the soil, but after a summer of sun they just shatter.

Ignoramus-I too made a plot plan, but mine is in pencil on paper. I include the name/variety the date planted out, how many days to harvest (from seed packet) and wether it was purchased plant, seed in ground or seedling from seed started myself inside or out.

Belle - I was at HD today and saw they had some Ichiban eggplant plants for sale and they DO have purple veining similar to mine, not the same, but similar. There are some flowers starting, so we will soon see, but I think those that voted for Eggplant for photo one may indeed be correct!

Having had so much trouble with labels (many kinds) over the years, this year I decided to just make diagrams. I was OH so careful as I planted, with my book beside me.
And so proud of myself for surrmounting the issues of unknown plants.
One day last week, while surveying my tomato plants, I wondered what one was, it was so different in growth than the one next to it. No Problem, I grinned. Went and got my Handy Dandy Mater Minder. Counted the plants down the row.
Ugh. 14 plants on the chart.
16 in the row.
Sigh.

One possible happy result of my failure to document properly. I had thought I'd failed to plant one particular kind of tomato, but maybe I planted and didn't list them. I hope.

On a positive note, I DID sepreate them by color. IOW, I planted red, green, yellow and purple in series, so that I could be sure which was which.
It's a start :)

And at least they're growing:)