What coating to paint sticks, canes, markers, supports with?

[JustPotteringAbout]

What coatings do you use for canes, sticks, supports, stakes, bits of old wood used for row markers, raised bed perimeters, in fact anything timber which penetrates the veg bed soil?

Gloss?
Undercoat?
Shed and fence preserver?
Varnish?

Oil based or water based?

[rustylady]

Nothing for supports, canes or markers, and I don't have any raised beds.

[veggiechicken]

I don't paint anything!! Most of my sticks/supports/markers are bamboo or hazel cut from the garden. My "raised beds" are made from pallets. Its all done on the cheap (free)

[KevinM67]

I don't paint anything!! Most of my sticks/supports/markers are bamboo or hazel cut from the garden. My "raised beds" are made from pallets. Its all done on the cheap (free)

Yep, same here.

[JustPotteringAbout]

Very interesting, but what do people who coat canes, sticks, supports, stakes, bits of old wood, yada yada use to coat them.

[mothhawk]

Sorry, JPA, I'm a bare wood row marker too, life's too short to paint a cane , and when they wear out, they compost better au naturel, IYSWIM. I use sharpies to write on row markers, that lasts well, uncoated.

edit: and at the moment for markers I'm using left over bits of diamond trellis that were cut off to make it fit - they have nice pointy ends

[Two_Sheds]

I don't paint or coat any of the wood that goes into the soil (eg. bamboo canes, row markers). There's no need.

I do paint the tips of my large row markers that I use at school, though just the ends not the bit that goes in the soil.

I use blackboard paint or household emulsion/undercoat, and write on it in pencil or chalk pen

[Stan79]

I'm using the slats of a dismantled Venetian blind as row markers... They came ready painted!