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Can plants survive a one week transit?

13 years ago

I am buying 7 pepper plants from a company in Florida. I told them many times to ship USPS Priority, but they ended up shipping them UPS ground. They went out today and will not get to me until next Monday. Do they have a decent chance at survival? They are 6-10"

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beaglestorm
13 years ago
If the company you ordered from starts with a "B" then you may not be very happy when they arrive. I ordered some Datils, Chocolate Naga's, Red CaribbeanÂs, and a Hotazel and the same thing happened to me. They were supposed to ship ground on Monday but they thought it would only take 3 days to get to me so they pushed it to shipping on Tuesday. They did not make it and sat in the UPS station all Memorial Day weekend; I got them on Tuesday a week later. They were like cooked spinach when they arrived due to being packaged in an oversized plastic bag. The hot condensation coming off the moist plants got trapped in the bag and just steamed the poor plants. All I had was soggy asparagus looking stems. (Two of the four have since started growing little leaves but they are only 2" high now instead of the 10" when they shipped. The 2 nagaÂs actually made it pretty good and they survived intact. The bag was open at the top so the moisture was able to escape. They were still stunted for a while. They are just beginning to come back but they did not loose any leaves. The company did make good and re-shipped me 4 more plants. They shipped them on Monday this time and got them on Friday. Unfortunately the same thing happened. They overheated in the bag and I lost all the leaves on all four of the plants. This time however, the steams were ok, I planted them and they are slowly coming back. One thing I want to point out is they were shipping across Texas while we were having 100 degree weather. If they are shipping your the plants to the north where it is cooler they may be OK. Also, even with the bad experience, I would order from them again just not in June, I will order in April or early May.
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