Garlic markers
- ponyexpress
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- Location: Mass, 6b
Garlic markers
I grow around twelve different varieties of garlic. For those growing multiple varieties, how do you distinguish your plants apart?
I have been using large craft or popsicle sticks for a few years. They are the size of a tongue depressor. The problem is that by harvest time, the wood will have rotted so sometimes you can lose your markers.
A fellow garlic grower in the community garden use cedar shingles ripped into 2” wide stakes. Wow, great idea! He says that he has been using the same markers for 5-6 years now!! So I found someone in Facebook Marketplace selling two unopened boxes of cedar house shingles for $20. What a deal! I might sell one box for $20 so my net cost will be $0.
I ripped a couple of shingles into 1” width. Started using them for some flowers in my perennial bed.
I have been using large craft or popsicle sticks for a few years. They are the size of a tongue depressor. The problem is that by harvest time, the wood will have rotted so sometimes you can lose your markers.
A fellow garlic grower in the community garden use cedar shingles ripped into 2” wide stakes. Wow, great idea! He says that he has been using the same markers for 5-6 years now!! So I found someone in Facebook Marketplace selling two unopened boxes of cedar house shingles for $20. What a deal! I might sell one box for $20 so my net cost will be $0.
I ripped a couple of shingles into 1” width. Started using them for some flowers in my perennial bed.
- Whwoz
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- Location: Trafalgar, Victoria, Australia
Re: Garlic markers
I use a combination of old tomato stakes laid across the bed to divide each variety appart, then label each variety with hard plastic tags, approximately 5 x 1 inches in size.
- Growing Coastal
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- Location: Vancouver Island Canada
Re: Garlic markers
One year Stellars Jays pulled all the labels out of my pots of garlic. I use cut up pop cans and press hard enough with a pen to carve the letters into the tags. Now I bury the tags down the side of the pots so the birds can't see them. It has only happened once with probably just one bird but you ever know!
- bower
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- Location: Newfoundland, Canada
Re: Garlic markers
The tags I made for other things this year (shallots) completely faded, I guess the Sharpies were too old! Those were on plastic spoons, which I've used before (came into a pile of that stuff someone left in a rental) and they didn't fade, I have washed and couldn't remove tomato ID's from them which I still have... (maybe I need to stick the tomato ones outdoors for a season?... in the sun,apparently. They don't fade in a bucket). Anyway my spoons this year are like new again to re-use for a temporary marker.... Bigger problem with spoons is that any 2-7 year old child will pull out a spoon if they see it in the ground.
My thing is to make a map at planting time, and avoid tags on garlic which might not survive the winter. I use card stock instead of paper, which doesn't get lost among a million pieces, and mark out all the different beds and what is planted there for the year. This turned out to be a handy approach as I can pretty easily find the records going back years, which also shows planting density and other variables. As I'm growing a lot of things up from rounds I've kept my map near the back door lately so I can take it with me when I'm checking on progress and conditions.
At the farm, we have often put a peg and leave an empty row between varieties - one year we planted Egyptian Onions in between them. But the farm is down to three varieties that are easy to tell apart now, so no need to separate them. One porcelain one purple stripe one rocambole...
![Laughing :lol:](./images/smilies/icon_lol.gif)
My thing is to make a map at planting time, and avoid tags on garlic which might not survive the winter. I use card stock instead of paper, which doesn't get lost among a million pieces, and mark out all the different beds and what is planted there for the year. This turned out to be a handy approach as I can pretty easily find the records going back years, which also shows planting density and other variables. As I'm growing a lot of things up from rounds I've kept my map near the back door lately so I can take it with me when I'm checking on progress and conditions.
At the farm, we have often put a peg and leave an empty row between varieties - one year we planted Egyptian Onions in between them. But the farm is down to three varieties that are easy to tell apart now, so no need to separate them. One porcelain one purple stripe one rocambole...
AgCan Zone 5a/USDA zone 4
temperate marine climate
yearly precip 61 inches/1550 mm
temperate marine climate
yearly precip 61 inches/1550 mm
- pepperhead212
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- Location: Woodbury, NJ
Re: Garlic markers
I do a double row of garlic every year, about 8" apart, so that I can run a T-tape down the middle, once the garlic starts popping up in the spring, and I have a nylon string I use every year, just for this, pulled taught down the middle of the row. I have a mark at each place to shove the cloves in the ground. I plant half of what I have for each type on each side of the string, and when finished with that type, I take two bamboo sticks, and shove them in the ground, crossed at the top. The bamboo doesn't rot, in my experience, and I write on them, the name of the next double row of garlic I'm planting. I start the double row with the two bamboo sticks, and continue at each type of garlic I plant. I often re-use the sticks the next year, with the same names on them! And I write the names on the tops, and bottoms - if the sun makes the ink dull, that in the ground will still be good! I got the idea for this one time when I turned over the ground and found a very old plastic label (something I grew many years earlier), which looked like I had just written it!
Here's a photo of the row, with those bamboo sticks still in the ground.
Method for separation of garlic varieties. by pepperhead212, on Flickr
Here's a photo of the row, with those bamboo sticks still in the ground.
![Image](https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50083883351_6f346e9b1e_4k.jpg)
Woodbury, NJ zone 7a/7b
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- Location: NE PA zone 6
Re: Garlic markers
I mark all my vegetables with white plastic knives that have smooth tops for writing and use oil based paint pens. Paint does not fade for me. When I harvest I pull the garlic and put them in large tulle wedding gift bags with the knife in them for identification, hang on hooks in my shed to dry and store in the basement after removing those I want to plant in October here. Since there are always duplicates of knives I take out of the bag what I need and place them at the end of the row. Only have about 3 varieties any more including Musik, Large German White plus a third which can change depending what I buy new at our local fall Garlic Festival. For the tomatoes also make a chart in case the knife actually falls off the fencing down behind the bale and cannot be retrieved till fall! Use clothes pins to attach knives to fencing.
- ponyexpress
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Re: Garlic markers
Some good ideas here. Thanks!
I have used plastic knives before but with a sharpie marker instead of oil based paint. The sharpie ink would fade away as the season went on so I switched to using wooden popsicle sticks.
As for having a map, I did create one the last two seasons but misplaced it. Of course, I found the map after I harvested the garlic. I guess I will need to keep it in electronic form for next year.
I have used plastic knives before but with a sharpie marker instead of oil based paint. The sharpie ink would fade away as the season went on so I switched to using wooden popsicle sticks.
As for having a map, I did create one the last two seasons but misplaced it. Of course, I found the map after I harvested the garlic. I guess I will need to keep it in electronic form for next year.
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Re: Garlic markers
I have a clip board I use each year with lists of varieties of everything I am planting with notes on where I planted them. All the notes and maps go into a dated folder at the end of the season so I can determine what worked and decide what to plant the new season. The clipboard keeps papers from flying away when I go out to make notes. Don’t misplace as many papers that way!
- Shule
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- Location: SW Idaho, USA
Re: Garlic markers
[mention]Bower[/mention] Have you tried Industrial Sharpies? They cost about the same as regular Sharpies, but they withstand water and sunlight better. I like them for labels. One writing seems to last all season (regular Sharpies lasted about half a season for me). They work well on plastic cutlery, plastic straws, popsicle sticks, etc.
[mention]Growing Coastal[/mention] I saw a Stellar's Jay in our old peach tree once. I had no idea what it was at the time.
[mention]Growing Coastal[/mention] I saw a Stellar's Jay in our old peach tree once. I had no idea what it was at the time.
Location: SW Idaho, USA
Climate: BSk
USDA hardiness zone: 6
Elevation: 2,260 feet
Climate: BSk
USDA hardiness zone: 6
Elevation: 2,260 feet
- Whwoz
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- Location: Trafalgar, Victoria, Australia
Re: Garlic markers
Forgot to mention that I write on the tags I use with the old chinagraph pencil. This will outlast every other marker pen that I and a lot of friends have tried in our Australian sun
- ponyexpress
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Re: Garlic markers
Have not heard of these before. Will get some to try out.
For my dahlia tubers, I do like using indelible ink pencils. They last a long time and you apply when the tuber is wet.
- Whwoz
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Re: Garlic markers
We can get them through newsagents and office supply places without too much hassle. They are considerably thicker than normal Gray lead pencil. Some may call them grease pencils, not 100% sure. 2B through to 6B pencils work nearly as well.ponyexpress wrote: ↑Wed Jul 29, 2020 4:44 amHave not heard of these before. Will get some to try out.
For my dahlia tubers, I do like using indelible ink pencils. They last a long time and you apply when the tuber is wet.