You’ll care for a fruit tree for years before it gives you anything back: planting, pruning, fertilizing, irrigating and waiting. By the time it finally fruits, the nursery tag has long since faded and crumbled away. And there you stand, in front of a tree you’ve tended for a decade, unable to say what it is.
What variety is this?
The most common post in any fruit forum is a grower asking the internet to name their own tree. A mature apple or pear usually can’t be identified from leaves and fruit alone, so once the label is gone the variety is very often gone for good.
What rootstock is this?
Rootstock sets the tree’s size, how soon it fruits, and how you prune and space it. It’s underground and can’t be read from the fruit, so a lost note is lost for good.
When was it planted?
The planting date is the clock for everything: first fruit, whether growth is normal, when a tree is simply getting old. Left to memory it fades to “around 2021, maybe?”
The label didn’t last
The tree lives for decades; its nursery tag does not. Plastic and paper labels break down under UV within a couple of years, long before the tree matures.
The label had to come off
As the branch thickened, the original tie began girdling the wood and the label had to be removed. Memory was meant to cover the gap, but sooner or later the grower forgets what it said.
It came from a friend
You grew the tree from a cutting a friend passed on, and the scrap of tape with the variety on it didn’t survive the seasons.
Your labeling options
However you do it, label properly once. Here’s the honest landscape.
DIY
Aluminium or plastic strips from household products
Store-bought tags
Custom anodized aluminium
Orchevo Tags
Built to outlast the tree
Every tag is handmade: cutting cans into strips, pressing letters one by one, or writing each label out with a marker. Cheap, but you pay in evenings.
Most anodized aluminium tags are ordered by sending your content over email, and they often carry order minimums for the same text.
Ready-made tag and ball chain to mount it. Just snap it once on your tree and you are done!
Aluminium survives but its shallow pressed letters slowly stop being readable; marker on plastic fades within a season or two, and the sun embrittles the strip until it snaps.
The letters aren’t engraved: the laser only strips the coloured dye, leaving pale text with no depth. The whole tag is just a colour contrast, and colour is exactly what UV destroys. As the dyed background fades, the letters blend into it and the tag becomes impossible to read.
We use marine-grade steel, which will not rust like standard stainless. Marking is done by ablation, engraving the text into the surface so it can’t fade away.
Label the tree once, properly.
Then the question “what was this again?” never comes up.
Design your tags See how it’s made