I'm finally getting around to it. I have just about finished entering data of the plants that I repotted this fall into my laptop. It was sooo much fun. I started out writing the info down in just a spiral notebook, the cheap kind. I kept up with these notebooks and wrote everything down as I actually did the repotting. White I was still outside I wrote down all the info on every pot that I repotted including how many pots I used as I did each pot,,the size and number of fans in each new pot. I use a generic form of Microsoft Office, called Open Office. It's free and it's easy to download. It also is very compatable with MS Office. I entered all of my repots into a spreadsheet using the pot numbers then the cross, # of fans, # of pots and quanity and size of each fan in that new pot or pots. I did size of fan and quantity so I'd know how much the fans grew since being repotted. Also I wanted to know the quantity so I'd know if they had multiplied any.
I need a few options for starting a new numbering system. When I originally started I used the row number and the position of the pot in the row: R1P4 would be row # one the fourth pot. This was fine when I had only about 400 pots. Now, each of those 400 pots have grown, thank goodness. So, R1P4 used to be one pot but now, it has been repotted into 5 pots having 4 fans per pot. So I need to take r1p4 and add 4 more too it. Right now, I have all of the repotted daylilies stretched out in neat little groups where I may have 4 pots of r1p4, that's fine. They are grouped by the date that they were redone. So having 4 pots with the same number is ok. It will not be this way when I start organizing them really soon.
So, I'm thinking about for all the older seedling that I now have, keeping the number they are now and just adding a letter of the alphabet to it. It'll work ok until I can get a new system started with all of my new plants that I'll be getting and the seeds I'm about to plant.
One thing I want is to have a name for a group of plants, like a bed name. This is where I thought about grouping my pots by color. This would work great with the hybrids but what about the seedlings? I thought that making crosses might be easier this way. I walk myself to death now with them spread out all over the place.
All ideas are welcome. Especially the ones that seem so simple that you think I already know it. I probably don't, so go ahead and give it a shot.
I'm also going to try some new labels that I read about earlier. They are supposed to be water resistant and will work with any type printer. It's address labels. I thought about putting my name and email on them and sticking them to one side of my mini blind label and having the plant info on the other side. I'll keep my old mini blind pencil written labels as the permanent labels until I see how long these new ones will last. I use the metal ones with the TZ Brother labels on them for the named hybrids. They are really nice for show, but the old mini blinds has so much more info. I've started adding the mini blind labels to all my pots even if I have a metal label in it so I can write any fan info one them and if the metal labels get pulled out, I'll still have the other. I have nightmares about grankids pulling out all those pretty white sticks out of my pots!!!
Blessings to all, Mona
