Re: Florida Hill Nursery?
 

If you've ever smelled "hot machinery," then you knew the smell. You'll smell it with cordless tools, blenders, and lightning strikes.

You know the smell. That is ozone.

Re: Florida Hill Nursery?
 

It really depends on when their supplier, Agristarts, releases more material. It also depends on whether Florida Hill Nursery (FHN) gets to these starts before other buyers.

While there's no way to prove the following hypothesis, it wouldn't be shocking if FHN purchases several flats of a few varieties and then lists them as having many different varieties. When someone orders a TC start, it seems FHN selects material to ship out based on which plants look the best at the time but not necessarily what variety was ordered. This is why FHN have quite a few good reviews: buyers get a good looking plant in the mail, and think they got what they ordered. It takes 2-3 years after the purchase to verify what variety you received, and even that, it requires an expert to properly ID it.

I was happy with my purchases for months afterwards...took a while to find out the truth.....

Benefits of buying a TC start from Florida Hill Nursery:
1) Initially costs less than purchasing a corm or sword sucker (Save approx. $5-$15 per plant)
2) If you are a skilled grower, don't care what variety you get, and don't care how long it takes to produce bananas, this is a good way to acquire a desirable fruiting variety (well, most of the time they'll send you a variety that can fruit). Agristarts has released highly desirable varieties in the past.
3) TC starts typically are virus and disease free
4) they'll send you a healthy start
5) they typically ship pretty quickly.

Downside of Buying TC Starts from Florida Hill Nursery:
1) Very unlikely you'll get the variety you ordered. Even if you did, they sometimes come mutated from the tissue culture process. It usually takes years before you can ID the variety, which requires patience and access to experts. Even if you go through the whole process, you may never find out what you got because banana ID can be challenging.
2) In non-tropical climates, it takes skill and experience to harden off a TC start. Some amateur growers won't keep the start alive for more than a few weeks.
3) In non-tropical climates, expect to add at least an extra year of growing before reaching flowering size compared to starting with corms or sword suckers. You'll save $5-$15 initially, but overall it'll cost more to produce fruit from a start because of the significant extra time investment. note: This may not be true in some sub-tropical zones:it may be warm enough where your TC start will get very big the first grow season.
4) plants have arrived from FHN with spider mites.
5) In most non-tropical climates, it's difficult to get TC starts to a big enough size the first year to tolerate cool winters (keep in mind, all else equal, the larger the pseudostem, the more cold hardy the plant becomes).

Re: Florida Hill Nursery?
 

I don't know but being from the Midwest I have faith of sorts about a place that is in business to sell to the general public. they have to have a reputation to keep. I think I would start with the tc people. when you sell a plant that cheap and in the great numbers that they provide you may get issues with quality control especially using poorly paid help.

Re: Florida Hill Nursery?
 

I am sorry, but... wait, I am not sorry... If you cannot sell me what I ordered, you shouldn't be in business.

Imagine Autozone selling you Ford parts for your Chevy and telling you it's the right part..How is that going to go over?
Imagine going to the grocery store and buying a chuck roast only to find out it's really horse meat... How long do you suppose they will be in business doing that?

It's just not right.

Problem is that the vast majority of people who buy them either never get them to fruit or have no idea it's not what they ordered...It REALLY irritates me. I have bought from FHN and Green earth... Never once did I get what I ordered. Not one time, and I ordered 5 plants and they sent me 2 more to replace the ones I pointed out were wrong, and all of them were the wrong plant... Even the replacements.

Re: Florida Hill Nursery?
 

Yeah, like not being able to read or understand English.

I used to run into that all the time, when I drove a tractor-trailer. Pull up to a new place, trying to find my paperwork.

"Hey, where's your Boss Man at?"
"Si! Hee-hee."
"No, where's your Boss Man at? I need to get my paperwork."
"Si, hee-hee!"
"Look, I need my paperwork, so I can get back on the road. Where's your Boss Man?"
"Si, hee-hee-hee."
"You !&#*)^*$ stupid %(&*#@)%!

Didn't understand a word of English, but they always seemed to get that last part. :2723:
Must have been my charming personality...

Re: Florida Hill Nursery?
 

yeah, that's what I said. didn't want to go that far tho.

Re: Florida Hill Nursery?
 

That's okay; I'm the non-PC politician that actually says what everyone else is thinking. :p

Interestingly enough, your mentioning being from the Midwest; I was just emailing a friend of mine about the wonderful hospitality I have encountered over the years, in the Midwest. I've ended up in a couple of small towns while lecturing in nearby bigger towns, and of course I stick out like a sore thumb. No one recognizes me, so the curiosity begins. I have been invited to Sunday dinner on peoples' farms, I've stopped in at a local bar and had drinks bought, pool played for and had money pressed into my hand for the jukebox.

People speak of Southern Hospitality and it is real, but the hospitality I have encountered in the Midwest doesn't even compare. You guys are still living in an America that vanished everywhere else, almost a century ago.

Re: Florida Hill Nursery?
 

yeah, we get to know em before we pick them apart. not pick them apart before we get to know em. took a friend back home from here in fl. told him not to drive like they do down here. learned a little lesson in the Tetons. about tailgating. never did get if your going to drive the same speed or slower than everybody else, get out of the fast lane.

Re: Florida Hill Nursery?
 

Yep. I thought going up to Chicago was bad until I started driving around here in Palm Bay Florida... Some of the worst driving I have ever seen, but the cops do nothing about it... They all do 80+ on the highway and weave thru traffic, too.

Re: Florida Hill Nursery?
 

yes first time I drove thru Chicago I was driving a 1979 olds 88 pulling a U-Haul. it was 2 in the morning and we were on the skyway on a Saturday night.

Re: Florida Hill Nursery?
 

In Washington state, if there are more than 5 vehicles behind you, you get a ticket for impeding traffic, even if you're doing 90. It was passed to combat those idiots in campers doing 25 MPH on side roads.

Re: Florida Hill Nursery?
 

bought these blue java from wellspring gardens end of September. just got these yesterday 3 zebrine rojo left and 3 sumatrana right. ................................................................ ................................................................ ................................................................ ......................................

Re: Florida Hill Nursery?
 

7 blue Java are you going Blue Java crazy on us:0519:

Re: Florida Hill Nursery?
 

I have a big yard

Re: Florida Hill Nursery?
 

Real big yard i am thinking and Always a nice temp

Re: Florida Hill Nursery?
 

this from the front porch. the house is in the middle of the lot. to the right is our drainfeild. no mound.

Re: Florida Hill Nursery?
 

zebrinas left, sumatrana x right in pots. see the pups. 3 of em. tc.

Re: Florida Hill Nursery?
 

That is real big i no one thing that you need more bananas.:bananarow:

You have a nice property thanks for the pic

I getting idea for your garden:rollerbananadone:

Re: Florida Hill Nursery?
 

I hope, for your sake, those are true Blue Javas... My Namwahs looked just like that when they were that size. Once they were set in the ground and began growing bigger leaves the pink petioles and midribs appeared, but when small they looked bluish tinted with pointy leaves. (I thought I beat the system and got the "real deals.) As a matter of fact, it looks as if your one in the middle is getting some pink already.

Sorry. Please don't kill the messenger as I, too hope I am wrong.

I recommend you contact Nick Naranja here on the board and get a Paggi... great tasting banana nobody seems to know about.

Re: Florida Hill Nursery?
 

if they are namwa I will not be disappointed. when they get big enough I will let you tell me. I will buying more next spring. end of march I plan on walking into florida hill nusery with a couple hundred bucks and buying more. also I will be buying live plants from other places. then when they get big enough I will let youall tell me what I have. wont know until the dirt settles. but you will have to be careful, I will let you critique the five red corms I bought from jp.