I have very little space and typically start out with more than one seedling per cross. I plant all the same seedlings from a cross together with one label with the name of the cross. That's for the first year. Since squirrels are known to destroy young seedlings by digging them up I usually end up with 1-3 seedlings/cross. Once they end up blooming I give each seedling it's own label with the seedling number (I have a list of each cross and each seedling with a unique number for all). I made an entire seedling bed last year and hopefully some of those will bloom next year. So right now I only have the one cross label but that should change next year. After blooming I intend to move many (if not all of them out) to make room for more seedlings.
I'll try and take a picture of the seedling bed so that you can see that my space is pretty tight. Luckily this far north I don't get rapid fan increase so typically I only have 1-3 fans when the seedlings start to bloom. This makes it pretty easy to keep track of which fans go with which seedling. If I had the increase some of you further South have I'd have to completely change my system because the seedlings would be too close together. I'd never be able to figure out who is who!
