Allotments 4 All
Allotment Stuff => The Basics => Topic started by: Anisemary on February 23, 2010, 22:52:37
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Hi, has anyone out there discovered a method of removing writing from plant labels? I know, it's SUPPOSED to be permanent ::) but I have hundreds of the good thick ones and I'm a Yorkshire lass, don't like waste! ;)
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Permanent? I write on with a pencil, does not wash off, but when I want to reuse one I just give it a good rub and a rinse and that's it.
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Hi Anisemary I'm a Yorkshire lass sadly living in Somerset :(
I write in pencil and have some of that silicone foam stuff, magic cleaner works with water you can get it everywhere Wilkos, poundshop etc.just wet and rub I keep a bit down the lottie as it's only water needed it's great.
Where are you in Yorkshire ?I was born in Bridlington
ps I'm not sad really 'just miss Yorkshire
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If you've used a standard 'permanent' marker, try meths or white spirit.
I use the purple coloured meths, but thats more because of the taste. 8)
Hic.
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If you've used a standard 'permanent' marker, try meths or white spirit.
I use the purple coloured meths, but thats more because of the taste. 8)
Hic.
;D ;D ;D
I use pencil, a nice heavy HB, and then rub them out ;)
Ninny
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I grow the same things every year and don't even have to rewrite them, apart from a few spares if I grow something different. Sometimes I don't label and get a surprise crop.
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Thanks all, guess it's too late for the pencil advice, I've already used a permanent marker!
Will try the purple stuff Pesky, Hmmm.... sure we had some but hubby says he can't find it!! ;) (think I overdid it allowing him a workshop with a key AND a secret drawer!)
MacMac, I'm in Bradford, although thankfully not in the 'ghost town centre', on the outskirts at the end of a cart track surrounded by fields. Very peaceful, except when the fireworks go off in the distance to announce the arrival of the latest drug delivery! ::)
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If your old labels are nice thick white plastic like mine then I find the quickest way to clean them is to scrape them with a sharp knife held at 90deg to the label. It also leaves a good matt surface for writing on. Sandpaper works but is much more fiddly.
However I now use the bottom half of 2L milk containers as the last pot for my tomatoes and peppers (they fin neatly into a drip tray). The top half I cut up into plant labels. I reuse them, but when they have a useless name on them I dump them into the recycling and make some more. They won't take pencil - you need a CD felt-tip.
Incidentally, if you want a label that will hold a name for decades then you can make dozens from an aluminium beer can - they will take an imprint on the shiny side with a dead biro nearly as well as copper foil, but a lot cheaper.
Be sure to trim the corners off though, they are really sharp.
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Anisemary the stuff I mentioned has worked on permenent marker for me :)
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I put mine in a little jug with some diluted bleach and within a day they come out sparkling.
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And to add to the list I use nail varnish remover ;D . But Shirl's idea using the bleach sounds nice and easy too :)
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You can make posh copper ones from the inside of tomato puree tubes.
I'm with vinlander and make most of mine from milk bottles.
and lurk around tescos at the end of the season when they sell of the labels for 10p a pack!
x sunloving
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I use a bit of fine sandpaper.
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nail varnish remover. :P
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I'm not as tight as a Yorkshire person but its bloody close
I scrub mine with a washing up sponge that has a scourer on one side with washing up liquid
I also cut up the milk bottles
And nice to see Borlotti back, for those who don't know shes been on a trek acrosss the Himalayas.
;D ;D ;D
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what a great idea with the beer cans,usually one or two kicking round our house....
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And to add to the list I use nail varnish remover ;D . But Shirl's idea using the bleach sounds nice and easy too :)
But I don't like the taste of nail varnish remover, and as for bleach.. yuck. :-X
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And to add to the list I use nail varnish remover ;D . But Shirl's idea using the bleach sounds nice and easy too :)
But I don't like the taste of nail varnish remover, and as for bleach.. yuck. :-X
Better stick to the beer cans then Pesky! ;D ;D ;D
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And nice to see Borlotti back, for those who don't know shes been on a trek acrosss the Himalayas.
;D ;D ;D
For real ? Cos if so 8)
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One of those wire scrubbers works well,too.
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Thanks Cornykev, really missed this site as computer out of action. I thought I went walking in the Dolomites, it was very cold. Even walked on a frozen lake. Vote for my picture in the competition. ;D ;D Think most allotment people are mean, or as I say sensible, don't like wasting money. Corny go to the 99p shop in Enfield, slug pellets and other gardening things for guess what - 99p. Oh dear off topic again.
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Two ways of making labels:
1.Dive a skip, and find a set of those posh wooden venetian blinds - cut up into giant luxury labels, big enough to read from yards away. One set has kept me going for years.
2.Thick plastic strapping used to bind pallet loads. Just snip to length. Its smooth one side, and takes marker well. Obviously not the black type!
Only just off topic!
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Try leaving your labels in the sun. because when i write my labels with permanent
marker and shove them in the beds. and someone will come along and say what variety are they ?
ILL go and look and without fail the sun has bleached them. believe it or not....Honest :o :o
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The same happened to me. CD marker pen lasts better.
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That's a point - don't use red ink - the UV bleaches it much faster - even the best ones. Not sure about green but black is best and blue will maybe last a season.
Also I've had bad results using pallet straps for anything - the clear polycarbonate ones are OK but the blue and white fibrous ones can't take the UV.
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Phew!! Well, that's given me plenty to experiment with (lest I should become idle)! Aren't gardeners a resourceful bunch of folk!! :)
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Pens without UV resistant ink to help reduce fading can become unreadable in a couple of months, especially in direct sunlight.
I find the Staedtler good for bright areas, but the pens dry out quite easily. For general use, I use Sharpies.
I'm also a fan of cut up milk bottles - the contents are good for stomach cramps and ulcers :o
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soak in domestoes
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When I was a young thing I worked in a bookies and we used to have to write all of the results up on a board using permanent pens. We used diluted bleach to clean the boards at the end of the day. Thanks to William Hills for the tip ;D
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Blimey Shirl you've got a good memory. :o :-X :P ;D ;D ;D
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A couple of years ago a thrifty chap on our allotment site proudly announced to me that he had spent a rainy day in his shed painting his used labels with white gloss.
He had stacked them and was about to show me how wonderfully they had turned out when he realised that they were all firmly stuck together.
I had to walk away with my belly aching with laughter as he diligently got to work with a hammer and and chisel to separate them all.
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You can make posh copper ones from the inside of tomato puree tubes.
That's a great tip for permanent labels Sunloving.
I pride myself on re-using just about everything but I missed that one!
Much safer than beer can - the high tech alloys in beer cans are quite hard and can make a very sharp edge.
I particularly like writing all over the shiny inside and then folding it inside out to hide the paint and curling the edge, making a double-sided label that will outlast my apple trees (I'm fed up of replacing them too late and having to rack my brains to identify them). It's good to have room for both the name and the pick-before date - I hate over-ripe apples almost as much as over-ripe pears.
The lead-substitute foils on good quality wines are excellent too. Pity I only found out about this now when they are being phased out!
Cheers.
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You can make posh copper ones from the inside of tomato puree tubes.
Could also use the copper to deter slugs, I read somewhere they don't like it.
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You can make posh copper ones from the inside of tomato puree tubes.
What do you use to cut them with? Surly scissors would blunt too quickly.
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You can make posh copper ones from the inside of tomato puree tubes.
What do you use to cut them with? Surly scissors would blunt too quickly.
Nah, they are pretty soft aluminium (sorry slug-haters - they aren't copper - the brassy inner is a coating that scrapes off - probably anodised and varnished).
They aren't hugely harder than lead - they can cut your skin if used roughly but won't scratch a fingernail, which means some of the lignin fibres in cardboard are actually harder.
I wouldn't use your best hairdressing scissors but a kitchen pair will cope easily.
It is a fair point vs. beer cans though - that aluminium alloy they use is hard enough to scratch right through a fingernail.
Cheers.
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Daft as it sounds, often the pen you wrote with will start the written ink to break down, then while it is wet you can wipe it off. I don't know for how long it works but it doesn't have to be new,
Best cheap labels I make and I say this every year. The slats from and old venetian blind, one old blind from the thrift store will give you enough for a liftime. They cut easily. I prefer aluminum as it is super to write on but the plastic is OK too and if it gets bent it bounces back.
XX Jeannine
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soak in meths for 5 mins or scrape with a sharp knife, use a pencil next time lasts longer and easier to remove
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I've started using white plastic disposable knives!! They are long enough to get a good depth in the soil and to be able to leave a long enough space visible to write date/variety on them. Because they are smooth - instead of the slightly rough texture of traditional planting labels - you can write on them with a cd pen and they rub of with an eraser. Also they are cheap. I just bought more from Wilkos, 50 for 97p.
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I've started using white plastic disposable knives
Mega Brilliant. I looked at some pukka labels and they were over £1 for only fifteen,
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Thanks to this thread i've just made some labels out of a plastic milk container and they are wondeful...it will save me buying them again and they only took five mins to make. Thanks again
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I made lots of labels from some plastic blinds that I cut up. I have so many I don't even bother to rub them out, just chuck em.
Hey I'm in Bradford too!
Is it true about the fireworks then??
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I love the blinds idea. Put an add on Freecycle and got offered one within four hours :o