Several weeks back I had placed another order with our friend from afar. Warren and I split this order and it was a big one!
4 rambutan(2 male, 2 female)
3 mangosteen
1 maprang
2 korlan
3 durian
1 mafai
The following is a replay of my week and the mental state that became my world.
I screwed up by having him ship on May 23...knowing that if anything went wrong, Monday, the 30th, was a big holiday here...and no mail. After the first shipment went so well, it was a no brainer that this much larger shipment would not go so smooth. The shipment did not leave the airport until Tuesday. It's only a guess as to where the package was kept until then...somewhere in the heat maybe??
Now I know just how long it takes to get from point A to point B over here...and it sure as hell does not take 4 days!! But this one did! I'm thinking that maybe this flight circumnavigated the globe or something. If only there was an a$$ somewhere I could kick!! It did not make customs until late Friday. Boy did I think I was going to be screwed. And pi$$ed?? Let's just say the dogs didn't even want to be around me! All I could think of was my plants sitting in a hot truck/warehouse all weekend until freaking Tuesday!
Seeing this was a holiday weekend...and really beating myself up for having it shipped this particular week, I also had to figure that customs would be short staffed making the transition even slower. I was checking the tracking log about ever 20 minutes...and calling USPS...you know, just in case someone was not updating the log quick enough! Just before their closing hours, the package cleared customs...late Friday evening.
It's a 6 hour drive from Chicago to Columbus. Now depending upon whether the package was scooted along rather than sitting somewhere collecting dust, some driver could giddyup my package to Columbus before Saturday morning. It was too much to hope that it went out on a plane.
Tracking showed that it was in Columbus and on a truck around 9:30. Whoo-hoo!! The sun is shining and the dogs and wife can now be within 50 feet of me. I call USPS to confirm. Hmmmm..."WTF do you mean that being on a truck does not mean it will be delivered?!!" Wife and dogs again retreat to outdoors. Back to waiting. Mail on Saturday comes early, before noon. The USPS hub where the packages go closes at noon.
At 10:30, tracking shows that the package arrived at the hub. I call again. It did NOT make the delivery truck...but I can come and pick it up. I picked it up with one hour to spare! Otherwise, I would not have gotten this thing until Tuesday...and we all know what this extended time would do for bare rooted plants. Hell, I was wired because of it being one day later than the first shipment!
Unpacking and separating 14 bare rooted plants was sort of a pain. All my soil mixes were made up well in advance and containers were all picked out. To say I was ready...well... I was ready!
First...the box and packing. Earlier, I was able to convince Permsri to find a much better box for shipping. He found a great one. It had a lid and it was constructed a lot better and stronger. He also put a piece of styrofoam in the center to eliminate any crushing there. One million times better than that first box. This was an excellent job. All plants had their leaves wrapped for protection and were taped to the sides of the box to prevent shifting. The box held up to the rigors of travel and shipping.
The plants. It was apparent from the start that some of the plants suffered some. My first and best guess would be from the delay before the flight Monday to Tuesday. I would bet money that the package was in a truck, in that sun and heat, sitting out there waiting to be loaded. The 3 mangosteens already started to look shriveled and was dropping all of their leaves. If anyone has seen this happening on a mangosteen, you know that once it starts, there is no recovering from this. The maprang looked just as bad. I wasn't too happy with the mangosteens to begin with. They were much smaller than I expected. The grafts were pretty crappy as well. I would NOT have picked these 3 plants up myself.
I had a big, plastic tent put up in the greenhouse for humidity and covered in screening material for shade. The plants were misted often as well. The mangosteens, maprang, one durian, and one korlan were gone in the first few days. These were no surprise. A real shame about the maprang because it was a big plant. The rambutans lost all of their leaves. The rambutans were a very good size and had an awesome root ball. I had confidence in these 4 plants. The other 2 durian looked very good as well. The mafai and remaining korlan looked like they should be fine. The korlans were a little small, much smaller than the rambutan.
All remaining plants are flushing new growth, except for the korlan and mafai. They still look fine but just much slower to get going.
As for the losses? Permsri is replacing the plants at no charge. They get shipped out this coming Monday. I had to delay several weeks due to either being out of town or as again this weekend...a holiday weekend.
What have we learned? #1. I get a weeee bit uptight with these kind of shipments. A prescription of valium should help...with extended bed rest. #2. Nothing ever goes as planned. #3. Even though you are pi$$ed beyond comprehension and could chew thru a cinder block, there is not a freaking soul out there, besides you, who gives a shi% about your package. #4. You can take all of the precautions you can think of. Do everything you believe is correct. You may still easily lose a bare rooted plant. Just make sure your actions, or lack of, is not what killed them. #5. Permsri is a good guy and cares about getting good material to his customers. Some events are out of his hands as well. But if you work with him and keep a good dialogue, then this is a very good source for some cool stuff that is difficult if not impossible to obtain from other sources. The price is good too. Communicate exactly what you want and expect. don't assume what you easily write in an email translates exactly the same with him. #6. Make sure he gets the plants out before noon on Monday there. If not, then the package does not go out until the next day. So we both learned something there. #7. Don't ship out a week when a holiday is coming up.
By the way...the folks in charge over there have put a stop to any more durian being shipped.
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