I visited a fig friend in Canada recently and he had copper or some other metal with the names engraved on it. Didn't think anything of it at the time but someone else mention this not too long ago on one of the forums.

I guess there are tags about an inch or so and I think they are made of copper. But you must be willing to take the time engraving the names on them.

Since then I've been thinking of using this method.
No more fading, No more broken tags or what ever the issue may be.

It would be a disaster if you have 10 or 15 new figs with the names missing or faded.

Rafed

I had mentioned i picked up some small copper tags with what looks like very thin copper wire to attach them.They had a few packs only i bought 1 with 20 or 25- tags inside for 2.99 and there thin and soft about the size of service dog tags. You can easliy inscribe what you want useing a finishing nail or ball point pen and would look nice when they get a patina to them.

Martin

dieseler, where did you find those cheap tags? I've been looking online and it would cost around $20 including shipping for me to get 100 tags. I was rolling my eyes, and then, bless the internet, I found that you can make your own tags from aluminum cans that last forever because they are engraved! I'm feeling like drinking a diet pepsi about now...

Here is a link that might be useful: ID Tags from Aluminum Cans - Instructions

I found them with plastic tags and such on rack at a local nursery .
Martin

Armynavy.com has bulk pricing on inscribed dog tags. You download a spreadsheet, fill out the information for each line, upload the spreadsheet... and they're cheap.

If you have 50 trees to tag and you want three lines of information, they're 0.74 USD each.

~james

Here is a link that might be useful: Armynavy

They are called rapiclip ( copper plant tags )
20 per pack.

Just picked up 3 pks @ $4.99 each.

desertdance,

Go on ebay and look up copper plant tags, They have the ones you stick in the ground. Pack of 10 is $5.99 plus $2.07 shipping. I think they discount shipping if you buy more than one pack.
I saw the same ones at the place I just went to and they were $4.99 for a pack of 4.

The sellers name is: debnroo
Item #200349049570

Rafed

Hi Desertdance,
my mistake i payed 3.69 just looked at the package, there are 20. I will need another pack and i will have enough then for my plants. Rafed hit the nail on the head with the name.
Aluminum you mentioned would also work, dont cut yourself as you already know that is some sharp stuff so you might want to dull the edges after you cut them out. If you have good handwriting ( i dont ) you can easily use a ball point pen to inscribe the aluminum or the copper tags. ; )
Here is picture of mine.
{{gwi:767796}}
Martin

Update. I'm too cheap to buy the tags (I need over 100 of them), but I have a refrigerator outside full of canned soda pop and beer, so this week, I'll be enjoying a couple cans a day. I cut open a Pepsi can yesterday, cut it into tags, punched a hole with a hole puncher, and those tags are easy to emboss with a ball point pen. I laid the aluminum on a mouse pad to do the embossing. I'm thrilled. They were FREE!!

I put the year of first leaf on the tags also so I'll know how old the plants are as life goes on.

I will admit, my aluminum can tags look pretty tacky next to your fancy copper tag, though.

I tended to attach that "nice" UCD tag to the (best) mostly
likely to succeed twig (to keep). I also noticed that the
ink used, tends to fade-out pretty fast (almost lost one, as-a-lost-label-fig).
Nowadays, I sharpie-write the name on the other-side
of the UCD tag - plus some other means mentioned above
and/or on other "fig-tagging" threads.

Better be safe than sorry...

I think that the sunlight/UV has a lot to do with (common)
ink fading. Marking BOTH sides, increases the chances that
one side is more protected from the culprit (UV) with
a warning long enough to a necessary re-tag.