I'm going to ship some AV leaves, which I've never done before. How shall I do this? I received some leaves once in plastic baggies with some shredded newspaper and they arrived in good condition. Does this sound good? Is it warm enough to mail them yet? I'll certainly cut the leaves the day I send them. Do I need to get a special box from the post office? If so, can I take the box home to pack it? (This sounds like a silly question maybe, but once they made me pack stuff there or they wouldn't sell it to me, and that was just an envelope!) If anyone can share their experiences, I'd really appreciate it! I don't have much experience (or at least, any GOOD experiences) with the post office...
Thanks in advance!
--Dana
Shipping AV Leaves
Dana,
You can cut your leaves, be sure to cut the stem a little long, then just place in a plastic baggie with shredded newspaper and/or blow a little air in the baggie,zip it closed and place in any small box with added newspaper or packing p-nuts and ship.The small priority box should be fine.Be sure to label the baggies.
As far as the weather is concerned,as long as it isn't freezing weather or very hot between you & their destination,they should do fine. Send them Priority .
They travel pretty easily so you shouldn't have any trouble.
Good luck!
MsC
MsC, do you mean put the whole leaf in the baggie, or just the long stem? I was thinking that long-stemmed leaves could be packed like other cuttings, with moist paper towel & baggie around the stems but with the leaves just wrapped in a paper cone.... is it better to keep the top part of the leaf dry, or should it be humid in the baggie?
I'd love to do some leaf trading now that the weather is warmer, but I definitely want to figure out the best way to ship them. I was also thinking they could go by BE if enclosed in a pill container or small cardboard box (like a jewelry box) to give them extra protection against crushing.... what do you think? I recently sent a clump of catnip like this, and it arrived intact.
I haven't done much AV leaf trading, but chirita episcia and strep leaves seem to arrive with a bit of damp paper around the cut (covered with foil), the whole thing in shredded newpaper or packing peanuts (not the cornstarch variety, and the figure-8 ones are better avoided, I hear, due to chemicals) in a puffed up plastic bag. Plop in a box - the small priority mail ones are good, or any other small box. Keeping the leaves slightly humid in a bag helps, especially if the box gets lost for a few days.
Hiya Critterologist,
AV leaves seem to be fairly easy to ship and don't seem to suffer as much as you might think. I've had them shipped a variety of different ways.
The whole leaves go in the baggie. As Keyring stated, you can wrap moist cotton,paper towel etc. around the stem.
I have recieved them both ways and both seem fine.
If you blow the baggie up with your breath and close it ,then the baggie usually has enough moisture to make the 2-3 day trip with nothing else add. You do have to take into account the different climates that they are being shipped to.You all are much higher & drier than I am way down here on the coast of Texas so you may need the extra mositure protection.???
One note of caution for shipping leaves as it heats up, is that the more moisture you put in the baggie and the hotter it gets, it can turn the leaves moldy in a very short time,soooo if you are shipping to a much warmer & humid climate like mine you don't really want to add more mositure.
Also, if you cut the leaf stem as long as possible then the person receiving it can make a fresh cut and soak the stem and leaf in a tempid water & SuperThrive solution to give it a little boost or to revive a leaf that may have been a little too long in the box.
Hope that clears it up some.
MsC
Thanks everyone. I think I'll be ready to ship the leaves soon, and now I feel like I'll go a good job. :) I received leaves once in the mail, and they came the way MsC described. They arrived in excellent condition, so I think I'll just try doing it that way.
Oh, I just realized that I still have a question: I'm also sending some leaves that are already rooted, so do I need to remove all the dirt? Shall I ship them the same way?
it depends on what stage they're in, but I think rooted ones are a little trickier. Sometimes I leave them in the pot and tape down the potting mix and add some packing material (shreded newspaper etc) around the leaf. Other times, I take them out of the pot with the dirt that is attached to the root mass, put that root mass in a bit of plastic (tied closed with yarn or tape), and ship. I don't put rooted things into a puffed up bag.
To reinforce MsC's comment above, too much moisture is not good. If you choose to wrap a bit of damp paper around the bottom, make sure it is only a bit damp, not soggy.
I have shipped leaf pots by shipping the whole pot/cup and adding some shredded spaghnum moss around the top of the plantlet/leaf top. the invert the same size cup/pot over the top of that and tape it down. Wrap that in a bit of newspaper and place in shipping box with shredded newspaper/ packing pnuts,etc. They seem to ship ok and this is just one of many methods.You will find almost everyone has a method or two.
I have also found that by pulling them out of their containers and placing the plant or plantlet in a baggie with some shredded spaghnum moss,then blowing air into the baggie and sealing, that the plant seems to suffer less chance of damage from being beatin up by the weight of the pot and soil. Not everyone wants a plant ship this way but I have had sooo many plants shipped in pots that are totally destroyed that I almost prefer them without the pot. I also think with the less amount of soil shipped the less chance of getting someone elses "bugs" or diseases.:) So there is room for personal preferences, too. I might add that there is less of a chance of ME shipping someone MY bugs...lol
Good luck with the shipping and keep us posted on how it goes.
MsC
Excellent descriptions of packaging methods! robsviolets.com also has a good description of the way they ship their potted plants; as I recall it seemed similar to what Keyring described.
Looking forward to doing some trading! :-)
Thanks CritterO,
There is a lot of info on the web & the Violet Barn as well as many others have great photos and explantions of almost everything we need to grow & share Av's. I have read many older 50-60's books and gleamed tons of great info from them.Back then they shipped leaves in cardboard boxes with little protection other than a paper towel or tissue,apparently with great sucess.lol
here's another site with some pretty good info too.
http://www.rosebudm.com/lavg/Lake_Area_Violet_faq.htm
Enjoy,
MsC
Ok, this is a silly question, but I have no idea what you all mean by "leaf trading"??? And does this mean you can start a new plant, from a leaf and a stem? And if so, how do you do this?
Piggy
Yes! This is why African Violets are so addictive: you CAN start an entire new plant by planting one leaf. It's great fun, and not hard at all. Basically like I just said, plant a leaf. For specifics on how to do it, this site seems to be the authority on AVs: http://www.robsviolet.com/violets_by_leaf.htm. This is the link to propagating by leaf, but there's a lot of other information on the site, too! Have fun, and let us know if you need some leaves to try. :)