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how do you ship a plant?

  • Thread starter Chomp
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Chomp

Oops
I know that some of you have already told me how to do this, but I have a terrible memory.

Could someone please explain to me how to pack and ship a Venus Fly Trap?
Thanx!
 
There are several ways.

Is it going to be shipped bare root or potted?
 
Hi chomp. A good way to pack and ship a vft is what I do is Take the potted plant and some ceran wrap, wrap all around and over the pot the hold the soil and plant in place. Then I take a plastic cup and place it over the plant to act as a humidity dome. I wrap a bit of ceran over and around the plastic cup to keep it in place. I use some tape to keep the ceran from un raveling.
Then once I place the potted plant in the flat rate box, I use either news paper, strofoam peanuts, or plastic white grocery bags to act as cushioning.
 
Heh, that's the way I was thinking of. :p
 
Hi chomp. A good way to pack and ship a vft is what I do is Take the potted plant and some ceran wrap, wrap all around and over the pot the hold the soil and plant in place. Then I take a plastic cup and place it over the plant to act as a humidity dome. I wrap a bit of ceran over and around the plastic cup to keep it in place. I use some tape to keep the ceran from un raveling.
Then once I place the potted plant in the flat rate box, I use either news paper, strofoam peanuts, or plastic white grocery bags to act as cushioning.

He certainly posted my plants this way. Nearly strong enough to withstand being run over by a tank. ;) I certainly had trouble unpacking it.
 
Hi chomp. A good way to pack and ship a vft is what I do is Take the potted plant and some ceran wrap, wrap all around and over the pot the hold the soil and plant in place. Then I take a plastic cup and place it over the plant to act as a humidity dome. I wrap a bit of ceran over and around the plastic cup to keep it in place. I use some tape to keep the ceran from un raveling.
Then once I place the potted plant in the flat rate box, I use either news paper, strofoam peanuts, or plastic white grocery bags to act as cushioning.

Wow! All i ever do is just take the vft, wrap its roots in a few strands of Sphagnum moss, then wrap the protected roots in a sheet of absorbent paper towel. Throw the whole thing in a ziplock, and put in a box with cushioning. Into the mailbox it goes after that :)
 
Hi chomp. A good way to pack and ship a vft is what I do is Take the potted plant and some ceran wrap, wrap all around and over the pot the hold the soil and plant in place. Then I take a plastic cup and place it over the plant to act as a humidity dome. I wrap a bit of ceran over and around the plastic cup to keep it in place. I use some tape to keep the ceran from un raveling.
Then once I place the potted plant in the flat rate box, I use either news paper, strofoam peanuts, or plastic white grocery bags to act as cushioning.

i like this method too, though i havnt shipped a lot of potted plants lately...for my barerooted plants i...

dig the plant up
usually wrap its roots in a moist paper towel,
wrap that in a blastic baggy, the ones without the zip locking thing
then put the whole plant into a larger bag lol

seems to work fine, i should be shipping plants soon and if i remember ill try to take pics of my steps if that would be any helpful, im not the best when it comes to shipping bareroot but id say im an average packer when it comes to barerooted plants.

~~and since this is up, id love to know how you all pack your dews, pings and other small cps, barerooted, ive never really had luck with them

~~thanks

hope this helps
dustin
 
Thanx guys! That'll really help!
 
You've already gotten the two best ways to ship plants potted an bare root. If I want to go the really cheap way, I bare root them and package them in a similar way as dustin described (wrap roots in sphagnum and a moist paper towel), but I do use a ziploc bag.

Then I put them in a padded envelope to ship them. A padded envelope costs only $1 to ship USPS versus $5 for the cheapest box.
 
  • #10
I send them bare root wrapped in a paper towel and packed in a ziplock bag with newspaper in the box for cushioning.
 
  • #11
I send them bare root wrapped in a paper towel and packed in a ziplock bag with newspaper in the box for cushioning.

Now that i think of it, i just got some *cough* hostas *cough* wrapped in moist newspaper rather than paper towel, though they are probably not as sensitive as cps. has anyone tried wrapping their cps in moist newspaper when sending them?, sounds like a cheper alternative than papertowel, or napkins, well i can say i usually have newspaper laying around over papertowels, napkins are fairly inexpensive i think lol.

also again, was there any special way that people pack barerooted dews? or smaller plants?, or do you just do the wrap roots, baggie method?, im just never happy when i pack them that way and my dews dont look as happy as say a nep or something lol.

dustin
 
  • #12
i usually send potted, so when i send em potted, i take wet toilet paper or paper towel, tear it into strips and fold them into strips that fit from one side to another on the pot, the same on all 4 sides to hold soil down and moisture, i add more strips to fill the gaps around the plant, and tape those down. the plant is still exposed so what i do after that is, place a cup of some kind over the plant to keep it from getting damaged.
i then wrap the entire pot in plastic wrap to keep from losing moisture, tape the wrap to hold it, and thats it.
people who have received flytraps from me have never complained.
 
  • #13
Cool. that sounds good. Thanx!
 
  • #14
Just don't use tissue or bathroom tissue to wrap the plants. It is too soft and disintegrates too easily. Also, don't fill the baggie with water. I have had plants come to me this way. It was a disintigrated mess.

For smaller things like sundews and pings I usually put them in a snack size ziplock bag with some sphagnum moss.
 
  • #15
ive wrapped the plants with toilet tissue plenty of times with no problem. i get the paper wet then squeeze out the excess and wrap em. never had an issue with it, but of course i wrap the roots in LFS first or something if its bareroot, or just LFS and plastic wrap...
 
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