I used the same labeling system on my seedlings, I called them hybridizer codes. I would use the first letter of each word in the name of the plant then as necessary I would use the second letter of the first name, then when necessary the second letter of the second word, etc. Only the first letters of the words are capitalized, the rest are small letters. Now with more and more plants I am using the third letter of the words for some plants. Even that was getting to be to much to put on the labels of so many seedlings. So this year for the labels I use out in the garden I switched to numbers, started with 1 and going as far as necessary as I plant the crosses. I am up to 192 so far for the year. I record those in my note book
along with the location (example Bed 64-Row 3- Cross 11) of course in the notebook it would appear as 64-03-11. I don't enter the info in Plant Step because originally the seeds are planted within an inch or two of each other, many of those will not sprout, many will be dug out by critters, many will sprout then die: So for me there is not point in entering those numbers. Then after a year or so, the plants will be spread out . I can place flags by the ones that draw some interest. Only after I select a seedling that really seems to have some potential do I add that in the Plant Step program and began to pay more attention. When the seedling is selected to grow on and moved to a selected bed do I actually give it a seedling number, somethin like F24199, my last name initial the year I planted the seed and then the number of the seedling selected that year.
I still use the hybridizer code letters for the occasions other than the actual garden labels, I keep a record just in my computer in documents and I keep them in my blog here on site. I can see using the numbers more and more in the future and just referencing back to the cross when needed. In Plant Step when I enter the crosses that is a space to enter the hybridizer codes so I have backups of all the info.
When the info is added as a document the computer allows you to search and see if the abbreviation has been used already, that really helps to keep from making duplicates of the same "hybridizer code" for more than one plant, because after a few hundred it becomes impossible to remember. I also add an asterisk if the cross was a tetraploid.
