Log in

View Full Version : Aye, ae, I , love the USPS!


Bob
07-03-2009, 09:23 AM
Ok so I decided to give it another try with an ae ae. I decided the best person to buy from is one of our members who although doesn't post often is generally regarded as having some of the best plants, packages exceptionally well. and is generally highly regarded by all. Previous experience confirmed this opinion. After just a few brief emails , I was offered and eventually able financially to get this at a very good price.
Knowing the package was to arrive last Saturday I waited literally by the window for the mail truck. Where I was handed this package by a postal carrier I didn't know. Good thing it was marked all over "FRAGILE GLASS".
http://www.bananas.org/gallery/watermark.php?file=18942&size=1 (http://www.bananas.org/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=18942&ppuser=4095)

I had recieved one box in this condition before(it was a Cali. Gold ...figures right. They must know !) and the plant was ok so not to worry right?
WRONG!!!:mad:
The p- stem had a bend in it forming a "hinge" . If it were any other banana I wouldn't have worried much even if I had to cut it in half but......

http://www.bananas.org/gallery/watermark.php?file=18943&size=1 (http://www.bananas.org/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=18943&ppuser=4095)

I could have shipped the plant back and the seller was willing do go above and beyond to make it right. In fact it was insured. In the end I decided that to risk a claim and to ship it back with the loving postal care it recieved in the first place was a certain death sentance. After thinking long and hard, as well as changing my mind 3 times, I decided to keep it in a pot for a short time hoping the new leaf would push up through and strengthen it a bit before planting in the ground.
Here's my new "baby".
http://www.bananas.org/gallery/watermark.php?file=18941&size=1 (http://www.bananas.org/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=18941&ppuser=4095)
Wish us luck!:goteam:

Jack Daw
07-03-2009, 09:39 AM
You don't need luck, Bob, you're an excellent grower. And it's indeed a nice pup. Hope to see the pics, when it's over 10 feet. :D

Mark Hall
07-03-2009, 10:04 AM
Looks like being patient paid off for you Bob. I have had a few parcels arrive here looking like Royal Mail had played football with them.

Nice looking plant btw.

Jack Daw
07-03-2009, 10:06 AM
Looks like being patient paid off for you Bob. I have had a few parcels arrive here looking like Royal Mail had played football with them.

Nice looking plant btw.
Knowing how England's fond of football that might as well be possible. :D

Magilla Gorilla
07-03-2009, 11:15 AM
Congratulations on your new addition. I just love AeAe!

kaczercat
07-03-2009, 11:42 AM
nice lookin pup :P , good luck :D

Patty in Wisc
07-03-2009, 12:01 PM
I would be angry too. Apparently, 'FRAGILE' written in red was ignored.
My, what big leaves it has! I'm sure it will get healthy with you :)

Jack Daw
07-03-2009, 12:05 PM
I would be angry too. Apparently, 'FRAGILE' written in red was ignored.
My, what big leaves it has! I'm sure it will get healthy with you :)
Maybe the FRAGILE was written so big, that they thought it's just a decoration of the box. :D
I tend not to count on this, my plants will from now on go in special boxes made of plastic. Nice, efficient, holds microclimate atc...

harveyc
07-03-2009, 12:32 PM
Realistically, with the writing on packages is not viewed at sorting centers where they are moving large volumes of mail of all shapes and sizes. Packages get put into carts that are about 2 feet deep, 4 feet wide, and 6 feet tall (with a shelf splitting it into 2 levels). On a typical Monday during my chestnut shipping season, I will often fill up one of these with 80-100 boxes of chestnuts weighing around 1,000 pounds. If your tube gets in-between my boxes, it's going to be crushed!

The USPS provides Priority Mail boxes for free and I think that's great, but the cardboard quality did seem to go downhill a bit a couple of years ago. I use quite a few of the long tubes for shipping roasting pans, etc. but split them apart and combine two tubes together to make a rectangular box. In doing this, the two opposite corners of the original tube overlap one another and make the box much sturdier than the original tube ever was. I need to make ends up (I fashion these from other free USPS boxes). I make these ends 2" larger than the end of the box and fold them over the ends and this provides additional strength to the box.

I can't tell if your plant was shipped in a triangle tube or not but I can tell it was extended in length and this increases the chance for damage. EDIT: Bob told me the box wasn't extended but had other strips of cardboard added to reinforce the triangle box. I am not an engineer, but don't believe the triangle boxes hold up well in shipping.

Priority Mail is a great deal for the cost, in my opinion, but it takes some work to make sure packages are put together to be up to the abuse they may encounter.

Good luck with your new pup!

Greenie
07-03-2009, 12:50 PM
congrats!

LilRaverBoi
07-03-2009, 01:59 PM
Hmmmm....sorry to hear that your package got bent, but hopefully with a little TLC the plant will be just fine! It looks rather lovely. I've received some mangled packages over the years....I kinda think it's reverse psychology or something. If they see the word 'fragile' they interpret it as 'drop-kick this package.' :ha:

Bob
07-03-2009, 02:03 PM
I'm shipping a few plants out on Moday to members and going to write "kick me" on the box much like the signs we used to slap on peoples back in grammer school.:ha::ha::ha:

Patty in Wisc
07-03-2009, 02:11 PM
:ha::ha::ha::ha::ha:

harveyc
07-03-2009, 02:28 PM
Glad you haven't lost your sense of humor, Bob!

Jack Daw
07-03-2009, 02:41 PM
:ha::ha::ha::ha::ha:

Glad you haven't lost your sense of humor, Bob!
Well, I don't know if he was joking. :D But I sincerely hope so. Today I was giving some package to the DPD service (European mostly) and I just happened to see, how they were trying to get a large box into the truck. One of the man stumbled and the whole box (3x3m) fell down. :D

conejov
07-03-2009, 02:52 PM
Im glad you AE AE survived the Trip.

Bob
07-03-2009, 03:06 PM
Jack Daw, yep I'm always cracking some joke. Beats crying I guess:ha:

Jack Daw
07-03-2009, 03:08 PM
Jack Daw, yep I'm always cracking some joke. Beats crying I guess:ha:
I wonder how postman would react to see the "Kick me!" sign on the box. :D

Bob
07-03-2009, 03:20 PM
I wonder how postman would react to see the "Kick me!" sign on the box. :D

If it was my regular post man we're freindly, it pays when you get all the stuff I do in the mail. He would definitely have a good laugh.

Jack Daw
07-03-2009, 03:22 PM
If it was my regular post man we're freindly, it pays when you get all the stuff I do in the mail. He would definitely have a good laugh.
You see, something we have in common. My post WOman is my friend too. And she's very very very ... beautiful. It pays me off, when I'm the last she comes to give the letters too. You know, cofees, tees.

And I can show her my bananas. :D

Bananaman88
07-03-2009, 03:24 PM
Sorry about the bad luck, Bob. Looks like it will be OK, though.

Bob
07-03-2009, 03:25 PM
A little extra application of "fertilizer" never hurts Jack:ha:

Jack Daw
07-03-2009, 03:28 PM
A little extra application of "fertilizer" never hurts Jack:ha:
We are leaning towards another topic, aren't we. :D
That brings me to question, do you fertlize your nanas? If so, with what? Horse manure? Chemical fertilizers?...

Bob
07-03-2009, 04:20 PM
To get back on track, I fertilize with: this is complicate so...in the fall I have a source of horse stable sweepings I have aged and till in, I also last year amended my garden bed with greensand, lime and rock phoshate betwen 2 and 300 lbs each, these are applied about every 4 years. I also in the fall till in as much sea weed as I can get, usually 10 full large trash bags in the 10x (almost) 40' bed. This is in addition to tilling in the hay or preferably straw mulch I use to keep weeds down. This adds organic matter since I live on what used to be a farm before all the topsoil was scraped off and sold when the houses were built in the 1920's/30's. This was a common practice here then. Scrape it off and sell it back to unsuspecting homeowners. During the growing season this year I've been using so far espoma 5-2-6 citrus/ avocado fertilizer. This can and will change as I go on and learn more. Last on a few of my favorites(potted D. Nam wah, Ca. Gold and Cold Hardy) I use a worm compost based foliar feed. If thats not enough I give up.:waving:
oh and .... none of this applies to the Ae Ae which shouldn't be over fertilized. It is in mostly shaved pine with a little cheap garden soil, not potting mix.

Jack Daw
07-03-2009, 04:23 PM
Just curious, I use horse manure every spring to kick start the plants and then add Vermicompost respectively. So far so good with other plants, dunno why the naners would behave else. We'll see when I start fertilizing them, but they are too small now, so I do not want to kill them.

cowboyup4christ
07-03-2009, 04:42 PM
Use to ship guinea fowl eggs all over the lower 48 and have had people tell me they found their eggs sitting on the hood of a car in 100 degree weather instead of being placed on the porch in the shade, have also had them an made into an omelet when they arrived. so I took to packaging things like a tank :nanertank: was gonna run over them and they would still crack one or two eggs. if it can be broke the USPS can do it.

LilRaverBoi
07-03-2009, 04:54 PM
Really? I used to raise guineas and their eggs are VERY thick-shelled and hard to break. I can't imagine what they did to the package to break them!

cowboyup4christ
07-03-2009, 08:22 PM
yes with the eggs in cartons filled with shredded paper, wraped in bubble wrap and then packed in a box with balled up news paper packed all around the cartons.

john_ny
07-04-2009, 10:55 AM
I've never used one of those triangular bowes. I mostly shipped small plants, and could use the little flat boxes. I remember fabricating some large boxes, by putting two 30 dozen egg cases together, and coming up with something that was just under the maximum allowable. I don't know how it would affect the weight/cost, but maybe, in those tube boxes, you could put a piece of broomstick, or 1X2 furring strip in there.

lorax
07-04-2009, 11:40 AM
Congrats, Bob! Be glad that you're not dealing with Ecuador Post - they do treat almost all packages like futbols. I was allowed into the sorting room once to look for one of my own packages, and they were playing catch with the big reefer boxes of roses.

scottdurand
07-04-2009, 02:36 PM
Newman!

LilRaverBoi
07-04-2009, 02:41 PM
and they were playing catch with the big reefer boxes of roses.
REEFER??? *lights up the herb* :2182: LOL. Sorry...I had to. Not sure what you meant by that (typo?) but that's not cool that they were playing catch with a package...especially something like flowers! That coulda been one of our bananas!!!!

lorax
07-04-2009, 02:50 PM
"reefer" is short for "refrigerated" in the shipping business, lol! Reefer boxes are specially ventilated for cold-shipping.

momoese
07-04-2009, 02:55 PM
Newman! :ha:

harveyc
07-18-2009, 07:56 PM
Al Gore should leave global warming alone for a while and get on the USPS for these stupid triangle tubes. I honestly think the only thing they are good for is combined together in which case they become a very sturdy long rectangular box. I just received some pitaya cuttings and they are in okay shape, but the box is folded almost as bad as Bob's. What else would one expect to happen when you pile other boxes on top of a triangle? I don't recall ever seeing one of these tubes arrive in good shape.

Taylor
07-18-2009, 08:07 PM
Did I ship that California Gold to you in a triangle tube in 2007?

harveyc
07-18-2009, 09:00 PM
Did I ship that California Gold to you in a triangle tube in 2007?

You shipped it to my friend and I didn't hear from him what kind of box it was nor the condition of the box upon arrival.

Taylor
07-18-2009, 09:02 PM
I think it was a triangle tube. Sorry, it's been so long I forgot I shipped it to someone else.

Bananaman88
07-20-2009, 12:37 PM
Npt to be contrary, but I've never had anything arrive in bad shape when these were used. My only issue with them is that they are always too narrow to contain the corms of the plants I'm trying to ship. I guess I need to combine them to make a rectangular box like Harvey suggested.

harveyc
07-20-2009, 03:34 PM
I have thought about why so many triangle tubs to me come folded and believe it's because they get stacked in with a lot of other boxes, laying down, and other boxes on top are always going to be off-balance and try to push the pointed top to one side or the other. All of the weight eventually ends up on just one of the two "sides", causing it to collapse. Once collapsed, it's easy to fold as well. Some I've received are not completely collapsed and only one or two have arrived looking like Bob's. One of these days I'm going to take some photos of how I put my boxes together.