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Ship Bare-Root is more safe?

  • Thread starter Empyrean
  • Start date

Empyrean

Destiny VS Cause And Effect
i been thinking lately, order bare root is better than order potted plant? have anyone have receive any damaged plant? mostly r potted right?
 
Depends. If I were ordering Cephalotus or a very sensitive plant (not like there are that many) I'd request potted if they were small. Otherwise I'd want bare-root on larger sensitive plants as well as everything else of any size. A pot increases the chance that the plant will arrive crushed or otherwise damaged. I always repot into my own media of choice anyway.
 
Bare root is lighter to save money on shipping, and it usually makes the plant cheaper too. Plus with bare root, nothing else is in the box to hurt the plant and soil can't get dumped all over. I got a nepenthes bare root, but I had no idea it was coming bare root so I had to go out and get everything. I don't think it's good to handle the roots of any CP's too much, so if something is bare root just make sure you have everything set up for it when it arrives.
 
well ya i have experienced once. a vft i order was in pot, altho it comes with a clear plastic cup dormed, but the plant was seriously damage by the mediums. most the trap and leaf were crushed by the mediums and really messy when i try to rescure the plant .,, bare-root always arrive with damp paper towel, and scine the bareroot can survive from the shipping with just a damp paper towel i think the bareroot plant should have no problem to survive until i get home from work and get the plant a refreshing potting.
 
i always go bare root mostly because of prasites and cost....plus you can't know if the soil that the plant comes with is any good...might be too old anyway
 
depends on alot of things......

species
size
who is sending it
what method of shipping is being used(fedex, priority, first class)
time of year

lots of variables.....from some ppl i have no problems receiving potted plants, others i insist on bare root......seen more issues caused by someone who doesnt know how to pack a plant sending a potted plant than bare root.....that pot adds alot of wieght that can case issues during shipping if not packed right......
 
No not always it is nice to have the plant established in a pot upon arrival. The plant being crushed by the media/soil can be prevented by taping down the soil with plastic and securing it to the pot firmly with lots of tape. And then put a cup over the pot to protect the plants leaves and prevent it from being crushed by the pot if the box happened to have been tipped upside down.

I think there should be international standards for sending plants potted so that you can buy/trade plants potted and not have to worry about damages to the plant resulting from poor packing quality.
 
Well, in my experiances, it's all in the packaging. When it's done properly, and I do mean properly, plants that don't have their roots disturbed will recover from shipping shock quicker. Check out this thread. I photo documented how I packaged a Sarr with a foot tall pitcher, potted, to another forum member. It arrived in absolutly perfect shape, but it took about an hour to package. I think the same principal of putting a cover around the base of the plant, to insure the soil doesn't move, could be done with most CP's, including VFT's, but it has to be done on a custom, plant by plant, pot by pot basis.
Tom
 
what is its dionaea? bareroot better or potted? not the long leaf dionaea short leaf lie low on the ground
 
  • #10
Do you want to prepare some soil? Do you have a pot available that is the appropriate size for the plant you are recieving? If the answer to one or both of these questions is no then ordering potted. To answer your questions yes shipping bare root is safer than sending plants potted, it lowers the risk of damage to the plant but some plants do not like their roots disturbed and with high quality packaging shipping potted is just as equal if not safer than ordering bare root.
 
  • #11
I order Dionaea potted whenever possible. They do not like having their roots disturbed and, in my opinion, are better off being shipped potted.
I'd rather spend the extra $3 or $4 than have to wait one or two months for it to recover.
 
  • #12
I always went bare root to prevent damage and the fact that a few states have restrictions on soil. Why bother to remember what state when bare root is just safer.


I order Dionaea potted whenever possible. They do not like having their roots disturbed and, in my opinion, are better off being shipped potted.
I'd rather spend the extra $3 or $4 than have to wait one or two months for it to recover.
I don't mean to sound like a jerk but exactly how are you abusing your bare root plants when you receive them that they take that long to recover?
Mine most always resume normal growth after a week or two unless I didn't know they where grown indoors so that I would have to harden them for the outdoors, then they take a month or two to recover. Dionaea is at the top of the best shipper list just below the drosera weeds in my experience.
 
  • #13
don't mean to sound like a jerk but exactly how are you abusing your bare root plants when you receive them that they take that long to recover?
Mine most always resume normal growth after a week or two unless I didn't know they where grown indoors so that I would have to harden them for the outdoors, then they take a month or two to recover. Dionaea is at the top of the best shipper list just below the drosera weeds in my experience.
I had meant to add "if it gets damaged" to the end of the last sentence. I guess I forgot. Whoops.
And all my flytraps grow pretty nicely, IMO, so I'm pretty sure I don't "abuse" them. lol
 
  • #14
i just got 2 dionaeas from Andrew last week and after they lost few leaves they started growing right back...without any problem.....i dont want to talk about the typical ...you can do whatever you want with it and is still not going to affected!
.....and i will say this again: it not only about the shipping cost!!! i had a few plants that died because of parasites beneath the soil surface ....and aged soil too.
 
  • #15
Over the years, I have typically received plants bare-root (wrapped in sphagnum for the most part), especially from overseas. Almost without exception, all arrived and adapted well to repotting -- including Cephalotus and Heliamphora. I sometimes feel that a potted plant has a greater potential to receive damage in shipping . . .

i been thinking lately, order bare root is better than order potted plant? have anyone have receive any damaged plant? mostly r potted right?
 
  • #16
As BigBella said earlier, some small, sensitive plants may be better if shipped potted - however, for the most part, if the plant's roots are in moist LFS - and the packing is reasonable - things go well.

However, one should also consider the type of plant and the season. If the plant has a dormancy - why not ship then? I like to ship during dormancy (toward the end) and when temps are not extreme. I'd much rather receive a Sarr in early March than mid-August. How often will the mailman allow a package to sit all day in the searing sun?? I've received a D. falconeri in early December when the temps were in the teens (*F) and the plant did fine. However, the probability of being able to get these results under less than optimal conditions on an ongoing basis is not great. I like to stack everything I can in my favor whenever possible ...

I didn't participate in the NASC auction recently just because of this issue. I originally had plans to donate a Ceph 'Hummer's Giant', D. schizandra & D. prolifera but the temps at the start of the auction made me reconsider... Would I be willing to ship a 2nd Ceph when the recipient received green mush? How about a 3rd? The probabilities of this occurring were just too high - especially with the types of plants ... Maybe next time ....
 
  • #17
I've ordered about 50 different CPs over the last 3 months from about 8 or so different online nurseries and I've noticed that the potted plants always grow better and bare root ones take at least a month to start hitting a good pace.

It's especially noticeable in Nepenthes where bareroot often means additional pitcher loss. The potted Nepenthes I've gotten through the mail consistently either a)don't lose any pitchers at all or b)lose the pitchers they have more slowly. This is a big deal because the longer they have pitchers the more I can feed them. And I've definitely noticed that more fed pitchers = faster growth. It's particularly sad when I realize that a given Nep can't be fed for awhile and this is being prolonged by slower growth causing new pitchers to form more slowly and ultimately being smaller when developed. This also means less food in the pitchers and slower growth for quite some time.

You know the plants' growth is exponential. If it is slowed down for 3 months and another of the same plant and original size is not it literally does result in a smaller plant 1,2, or 5 years later.

I think a big part of the problem is that the roots we see on a bareroot plant are not extracting nutrients from the soil. It's the smaller root hairs we don't see that branch out into the media that do this. So a bareroot plant is both being nutrient starved through it's roots and has to expend it's stored energy to reestablish those root hairs. A potted plant just keeps growing at it's steady uninterrupted pace.

So it's two fold; less nutrients absorbed through carnivory as well as less nutrients absorbed through roots and then of course the chain reaction in slowed growth these cause.

I'd rather pay a few extra dollars for potted and have a bigger stronger plant.
 
  • #18
Aside from Meadowview, who often ship bareroot plants in moist paper towel, most others have wrapped the items in long-fiber sphagnum -- the media most often associated with growing carnivorous plants in the first place. When I received some Heliamphora from Wistuba in Germany last Fall, I simply unbagged the plant, moss and all and planted it straightaway in the compost I prefer. They are all doing extremely well.

Since many of the suppliers of more exotic genera are overseas, there is little choice in how the plants are shipped, given Customs and the USDA. i know of no country which allows the import or export of soils . . .

I've ordered about 50 different CPs over the last 3 months from about 8 or so different online nurseries and I've noticed that the potted plants always grow better and bare root ones take at least a month to start hitting a good pace.

It's especially noticeable in Nepenthes where bareroot often means additional pitcher loss. The potted Nepenthes I've gotten through the mail consistently either a)don't lose any pitchers at all or b)lose the pitchers they have more slowly. This is a big deal because the longer they have pitchers the more I can feed them. And I've definitely noticed that more fed pitchers = faster growth. It's particularly sad when I realize that a given Nep can't be fed for awhile and this is being prolonged by slower growth causing new pitchers to form more slowly and ultimately being smaller when developed. This also means less food in the pitchers and slower growth for quite some time.

You know the plants' growth is exponential. If it is slowed down for 3 months and another of the same plant and original size is not it literally does result in a smaller plant 1,2, or 5 years later.

I think a big part of the problem is that the roots we see on a bareroot plant are not extracting nutrients from the soil. It's the smaller root hairs we don't see that branch out into the media that do this. So a bareroot plant is both being nutrient starved through it's roots and has to expend it's stored energy to reestablish those root hairs. A potted plant just keeps growing at it's steady uninterrupted pace.

So it's two fold; less nutrients absorbed through carnivory as well as less nutrients absorbed through roots and then of course the chain reaction in slowed growth these cause.

I'd rather pay a few extra dollars for potted and have a bigger stronger plant.
 
  • #19
Personally, if I want some new CPs, I'll check the West Coast nurseries that ship potted first. If they have none I want then I'll check elsewhere. I live in CA like you.
 
  • #20
I prefer potted then unpotted. If you buy them you still get jacked on shipping anyways so why not get them potted? Also I had some plants die just because they were shipped unpotted.
 
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