Kitchen Garden Forum

A big thank you to Kitchen Garden Magazine for the tip on how to remove permanent market from Plastic Plant Labels.

Took just 2 days to clean mine.

I've haven't read my mag yet - saving it for the lock down on late Saturday & all Sunday with the 80mph gales forecast.

I will be bringing the labels I have at lottie home tomorrow to do a clean up, but fortunately no permanent marker used. I have in the past & a total nightmare, OK if just 'Cabbage' is enough detail for you but add variety & other detail on you are left with loads unusable labels if the wonderful varieties turn out to be dud's your area as cleaning it off leaves lots of scratches I find.

I haven't had time to research the info in my magazine yet so can somebody please share on here as yesterday I scoured and scoured some plastic labels to remove some permanent marking and just couldn't get the darned print off.

I always used to clean my white plastic labels but found that after a season out in wind and weather, especially in the sunshine, they became so brittle that they just fell to pieces the second year. The strange thing is that the free more flexible labels which come with the DT Brown seeds last longer than the rigid bought ones.

I gave up on little plastic labels, the birds and animals (or possibly the wind) disturbed them.
I have made some big flat pegs from pallets and put tape on them for use on the allotment. Indoors, things are different.

Dear all,
I use Astonish oven cleaning paste with either a microfibre cloth/green scouring pad to rub it on with. One tub has lasted me for over 5 years so far. Cif will also work but not nearly as well. Put them into a bucket of water as you have done them so the paste does not dry onto the labels. Rinse thoroughly and leave them to dry before packing them away.

I also get the labels that you can write on with a 2B or softer pencil; whatever the plastic they are made of it is a lot tougher than those sold with the marker pens. I probably clean and re-use about 1500 labels per year so I'd like to think that I know what I am talking about. It takes me about 1 to 1, 1/2 working days to clean them. It is by no means cost effective but it is something to do on cold/wet days.

Regards Sally Wright.

I always use a soft leaded pencil to write my labels with too... but I suppose embarrasingly, where my hands are so rough, a quick bit of spit on the label and a few rubs with my thumb, and they are ready for re-use.

I use your method OH, says a lot for the state of my hands, and I wear gloves most of the time!

It does not matter what I am doing, a quick wash and the hands are as smooth and soft as a baby's botty; the only give away about my profession is the muck under the fingernails......
Regards Sally Wright.

I do all the things mentioned. Write labels with a soft pencil. Clean off with a grubby finger. Once a year clean a batch with cream cleaner and a metallised pan scrub (sad bit is I count them, 520 last week).

The article says to soak for a week found over night did the job.