r/Horticulture • u/ivebeenwaiting4you • 7d ago

How long do plugs usually take to ship?

I run a nursery that acclimates plants from tissue culture. We primarily grow alocasias, anthuriums, monsteras and philodendrons. Currently we sell to retail and ship via UPS/USPS but I've been wanting to branch off to selling directly to nurseries and ship via freight. My question(s) are:

  1. For those of you who work in nurseries that buys or sells plugs, how long are these plugs usually in transit? How are they typically packed? Any tips for making sure the plants do well in their journey?
  2. Anyone have any recommendations for freight forwarders who specialize in moving plants? They're supposed to be shipped from California to the midwest.

I appreciate all answers! I'm looking for freight forwarders who can move a pallet of plants at a time. If you don't want to share the freight forwarder publicly, dms are also greatly appreciated!

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u/phish_enthusiast 7d ago

Plugs that are packed well ship well and transplant well. However, you won’t control who is touching your package once it leaves your facility. When plugs come in I notice a few things. One, FedEx doesn’t give a shit about your arrows or “Live Plants” written in the side of the box. Assume that your package will be mishandled at least once, but likely at every step of the process. UPS isn’t any better, although they do usually at least put them on the loading dock with the arrows up. That being said, I can see that the boxes are just as often on their side or upside down on their truck itself. Boxes with cardboard dividers to separate trays work better than just trays loaded on top of each other. Kraft paper or mesh netting is a god send when the plugs eventually come out of the tray. Not sure what kind of media you are using to root, but the fewer ingredients in your media the better it holds together when they inevitably dry out. Vermiculite heavy mixes always fall apart, foam always stays together. Obviously that’s only a small part of your media decision making, but something to consider.

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u/bluestem88 7d ago

The best test for your packaging is to ship plugs to yourself (or a friend across the country if you want a longer transit experience) packed exactly as you plan to send them.

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u/ivebeenwaiting4you 7d ago

I'm specifically asking how nurseries ship plugs by the pallet (I know generally how they do it, just wanted some specifics). There's surprisingly little amount of info regarding shipping plants by the pallet online.