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Messages - Viking Guy

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1
Dhl is the best 60$ 2 days . Usa  ---》 France
What kind of box can guarantee cold or heat protection while ship travel ?

France, as part of the European Union, is now requiring a 90-day prior inspection before accepting any plant material from the USA when obtaining the phytosanitary certificate. Going through this now with a few orders, and also a bit of legwork, as it must be juggled with local state AGI inspectors who must provide the stamp of approval.

They will inspect the host trees for cuttings being taken from it. Only way out of this timeframe is if those specific trees are already being directly inspected on an annual basis (not the general annual nursery inspection). In which case, it will depend how quickly your AGI inspectors apply for and obtain the phytosanitary certificate on your behalf.

Annoying, but it is the legal way.

Otherwise, you're sharpening some pencils.   ::) :blank:

2
I've had no issue rooting Australian Green Mulberry. My large tree got full-on stamped in the ground by a large pine during the hurricane, but the tips still protruding from the ground I cut off and rooted.  All growing in pots now.  Nothing special. Rooted them in cups with 100% take rate under a grow light. Probably could have just set outdoors. Since they're growing in bush mode, I'll make a bunch of extras soon when I cut off the side growths. I think the main key to rooting mulberry varieties which are often difficult to root is using very fresh cuttings. After they've been removed for some days, you'll generally have to graft unless it is one of the easily rooted varieties.  That said, I'll start putting some focus this summer on making new Aust Greens if people are looking for them. Definitely my personal fav mulberry out of the ones I've grown.

3
Holy cow. Hope you can hire some help soon. 12 miles doesn't seem like too much of a commute but I'm from California.

Yeah, it is a 20 minute additional commute for them without the tourist traffic, and since most were already commuting 30-40 minutes from Pensacola, an hour drive was just too much with the rising fuel prices. One was a walker who lived nearby without transportation. Either way, just have to rebuild the team. Already have some filling out apps.

4
Hello everyone.

I am a bit discouraged to see some of the disappointed statements here, but if you have followed us on the Facebook Page, I have been pretty transparent about the issues we had and why communication has been virtually severed this spring. I also spent countless hours responding to thousands of emails (you realize how much time that takes?), which I also posted updates about on our Facebook Page. I see some here complaining they did not receive communication, but I know they in fact did recently, as I even got some responses back.

My communication is slow and almost non-existent right now (for past and present new customers) because we were caught up in the middle of an unexpected relocation at the height of the season.

In fact, we were without internet for over a month, because after we found a new spot, the company could not install it for many weeks.

Essentially, the land and office we were renting in Foley was sold to the neighboring hospital right out of under us. We were given 7 days to vacate before they starting dozing the area for development. At the same time, our private residence lease was expiring and we were already gearing up to move from there due to the rent going up over 80% higher upon renewal.

So we then had to find a location which would accommodate residential and business at the same time, and then move everything, at the same time, and we had a week to figure it out. At the end of the week, we landed the new location in Silverhill and then had to make more than 30 trips in a 26' Uhaul to move everything. Unfortunately, the new location was too far for my staff to drive, and we lost almost all of our workers in the move.

Meanwhile, my wife was nearing delivering a child during this chaos and was not able to physically assist me. I nearly conducted the entire move by myself from the furniture to many thousands of trees.

The new location did not have any irrigation, and though the land is flat, is still has to be bush-hogged to make way for getting all of our trees back into rows. The good news is this spot has 22 acres in the back and 3 up front, and will help us consolidate our nursery and much of our growout stock at the same location--preventing a lot of former back and forth we had.

So, after spending the past couple of months physically working 16-18 hours, 7 days a week, to try and get caught up, I have finally got us back to an operational state. Our office was just installed in the front last week, and this time we don't have to worry about a lease expiring or being nullified.

However, all of that said, it put us far behind during spring, and due to the crazy hours I have been pulling, I have been unable to communicate with anyone the way I normally do because I am out physically working rather than behind a computer or answering phones. I know everyone wants to feel like they're the only customer, but they're not--I'm dealing with a large amount of people regarding custom projects that take a long time to complete. I am the only one able to respond regarding custom trees, and just because I have not individually reached out to everyone during these past few months of absolute chaos, does not mean all of the work I did to the custom trees ceased to exist. Most of the ones complaining have completed trees which are now simply waiting in line to be shipped. I have a massive queue of completed trees, and it takes me awhile to get them shipped once in this state. During all of this, I steadily had scion and plant orders pouring in on the site which I also had to fulfill during the spring rush, and all of them were successfully delivered between the ruckus.

Due to the complexity of packaging these delicate trees (they can't be dunked in a box and shipped like regular trees and plants), each one takes me roughly 2-3 hours to properly box and ship. This is not an easy task, and is very time consuming.

I offered this service to the community since no one else is, and most are waiting very patiently for their trees to arrive. Well over half of what has been ordered from me has already been delivered, and everyone else will also get their trees the same as everyone else. Please be patient while I get this situation, which was well beyond my control, worked out.

I am doing all I physically can, and this whole experience has been gut-wrenching to say the least. I know it may be tough to see from the outside looking in, but I stand confident that I will deliver and give it the best I can given the circumstances.

Everyone who has received their custom orders has shared with me that it was worth the wait, so I am hoping that the rest will keep that same confidence that they'll have a custom they'll be proud of for decades to come once in hand.

Bear in mind, I have had little to no time for anything outside of this. I haven't been fishing this year. I haven't taken a day off except when my newest daughter was born a few weeks ago. I have limited help due to the move. I haven't been able to enjoy my own plant collection or hobbies due to keeping up with these obligations. When I was hospitalized due to an illness a couple months ago, I spent those few days responding to emails (which where many weeks behind).

I understand it is not fun waiting or receiving very limited communication from me directly, but I assure you that hasn't hindered any progress on the custom trees purchased from AKME and they will be shipped out--just know I can't do it all at once. There is a line and a process involved. I offered this service for $15. Considering I have these trees in my care generally 12+ months, and they've been moved, cared for, treated for pests and diseases, fertilized, manipulated with grafts (which sometimes fail and must be replaced), watered twice per day, housed on my property taking up space, up-potted as needed (sometimes two sizes larger by time of delivery), and in some cases even replaced (such as natural disaster/hurricanes), and incur 2x-3x the shipping costs by the time it is ready and deliverable due to increased size and inflation, I honestly do not make any money doing customs once all of this is factored in and have lost money on a number of them.

I offered this for the community who wants an affordable way to create multi-grafted custom trees, rather than throwing premades on eBay and selling them for 10x what they're worth. Yes, you have to wait a while for it, but are getting it at a fraction the cost it would be on an auction site.

I agree, my communication as of late has been terrible. I wish I had the physical strength and time to do something about it. I hope those of you who haven't received a timely response from me will be understanding toward my current dilemma and give me a chance to get caught up. Here I am, once again, up at 3:00am my time because I had a very long day but still needed to print some shipping labels for tomorrow. I haven't checked in on the TFF in a while, so logged in real quick and spotted this thread being bumped by legitimate concerns, so a response from me was certainly required. My wife is complaining because I often don't take time to eat and will generally wake up, hit the grind, and still be grinding after midnight. It is still not enough, and given that emails require around 15 minutes of my attention, each, responding to the extreme volume I am behind on is not exactly my priority because right now it is absolutely impossible--I just do not have the time. Finishing the work I am already committed to is, however, my priority, and I am working as fast and as hard as I possibly can.

If I only had a few dozen orders, that'd be one thing. However, in the past couple of years, over 2500 custom trees have been requested since we initiated this service, which boggles my mind once I think about how many grafts I have completed (some of those having up to 20 grafts on a given tree--which must be done 2-3 at a time on containerized specimens so they don't shock and die on me). We were hit by a hurricane at the end of 2020 and I had to redo and replace over 900 trees which either perished or took significant damages. While repairing those, I was already working on around 550 new orders, and I cannot even explain how challenging that was for me. Before, at least my staff ran the nursery and office while I focused on customs, but now that we've moved, I lost most of my staff until we find and train new ones, and almost everything has fallen on my head in the meantime.

I do not mean for this to come across as an excuse, but it is a reality we are facing and I hope to provide clarity for those who are concerned or annoyed by my recent silence. The lack of communication is temporary, however, and I am getting caught up very quickly due to the amount of work I am putting in. You'll notice, I did not market customs this year, and for good reason. While someone can still order them from the site directly, I have zero intention on pushing any new sales for them while focusing all my energies on shipping the ones already sitting in the queue.

I highly appreciate everyone's support, as 99% of the customer base has been wonderfully understanding and only a select few have caused a ruckus. Some people, unfortunately, either haven't provided emails/phone numbers, or have given us the wrong ones, or have protected emails that reject our server when responding, or fail to check their spam folders, etc. So, I have not been 100% non-communicative in certain circumstances. I have, however, been very, very slow, and trying to respond in the order received is about the most fair way I can figure to follow up to piled up emails and messages.

You guys hired me to graft and ship trees, not sit at the computer sending emails all day. If you saw the number of emails that pour in (especially in spring), you'd understand why I had to prioritize and focus moreso on the physical work. Plus, it is difficult to answer phones and emails when you're working out in the field the entire day with hands covered in mud. It was suggested to me to get a secretary, but when my own wife started reaching out to people, they all had the same response: "I want to talk to Adam, because he's the only one who knows anything about my custom tree."  Well, there you have it.

I will respond when I can. In the meantime, please be patient and know your custom tree will be shipping out as soon as it is physically ready. I don't want your trees on my property any longer than they need to be, and want them in your hands soon as possible.  They only get larger in my care and requires more work out of me, and become more and more expensive to ship. I have no intention holding them any longer than I must. My failure to respond right away doesn't mean they stop existing.

Good news is our new location is amazing. It was difficult, but due to a bad situation, we were made much better off for it. Now that I can consolidate properties, even short-handed, our nursery will operate much more efficiently. Once I am caught up with the back-log, we will be much faster in the near future on all commitments.

I want to continue offering this service, but I can now see why no one else does this. Negative feedback from slow communication due to high volume and local unforeseen challenges has me wanting to reconsider, and then throwing premades on eBay like everyone else does. I am not there, yet, but know I am greatly discouraged by this. Besides, I believe once I finish setting up our new location the way it needs to be, all of this will drift quickly behind as I streamline the learning curve and growing pains I've encountered.

Thanks for understanding and hope this helps to clarify and explain some of the concerns some of you were having.

5
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Best Tasting Loquats For 2022 Season
« on: April 23, 2022, 02:29:55 AM »
Kaz - Is this a good time to graft?  I thought you should not graft when trees are pushing?

Only time you should not graft loquats is when they're holding active flowers or if the average temperature is under 5 C (41 F), or above 40 C (104 F) below 50% humidity / 37 C (98~ F) above 50% humidity. However, in hot temps, protection may be added to prevail successfully. If there are active flowers, refrigerate your cuttings until the fruit sets.

All other times throughout the year, grafting is acceptable.

The best time during the year to graft is immediately following fruit drop.

6
We have a 20% off Special running on the website for 4th of July.  Ends at midnight on the 5th.

Use the code:  AKME4TH20

Also, we now offer FREE Summer shipping on items purchased from the website directly (excludes custom trees).

7
Tropical Fruit Buy, Sell & Trade / Sugarcane - WTB
« on: June 14, 2021, 11:14:59 PM »
Looking for some sugarcane stalks.  Definitely prefer Asian Black, but will be interested in other varieties.

I can buy them or trade if you want something of mine.

Let me know.

Thanks.

8
Our .co Email has been having issues with people sending or receiving it over the past year, so we went ahead and set up an email server on our .com to help resolve the concern.

You may now use the following email address when reaching out to us:


AKME Gardens Email

Sales@akmegardens.com

The previous email is still active, but if you've had issues with sending/receiving emails to the .co address, then this should be the workaround for you.

9
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: T bud rootstock sprout question
« on: June 01, 2021, 12:39:10 PM »
Looks like you have two potential Piva branches growing on there. I wonder how strong the union is with the White Piri, might not be great (which could be why the Piva rootstock is pushing new branches). You could let them develop for awhile on the rootstock and then take them for grafting onto some of this year's seedlings. You might get a Piva tree or two out of it; they would likely take awhile to produce fruit since they came from the rootstock, but Piva sounds like it would do okay in a container for awhile.

They will take energy from the graft...plus, they are extremely low.  They should be removed...

This is excellent advice.  Don't allow epicormic sprouts near or below your grafts.

10


Our website is now set up to accept "interest-free" payment plans for 4 installments--no credit checks.  This applies to orders between $50 - $1000.  Orders over $1000, I will still need to set up manual payment plan options.

This service will charge back to us for about 6%, so if you wish to cover that cost, you may do so in the tips section if preferred.  Don't feel obligated to do that though.

Meanwhile, we've had a crazy busy season.  You'll notice changes being incorporated on the website soon to make the flow better and product availability changing to all merchandise and plant types we keep at the Storefront in Foley, AL.

Soon, you'll be able to put together your custom trees like a pizza.  The amount of work that has gone into the website development on the back end has surprised me, but I think once it launches it will be worth the effort.

Thanks again for everyone's support and business as we make this gigantic transition from our respective fields and move full force into providing this unique agricultural edible art service.

Much love and respect to you all. 

11
I do apologize for the inconvenience, but we have sold out of 300 gallon Loquats at this time.
Those must have been some big tress!  Joking aside, besides Bradenton, which other varieties would be best for South Florida (Zone 10)?

Hey John, most do great in South Florida.  Main thing is to avoid certain ones which don't, such as Oliver and Golden Nugget.  Also, Peluches will also stress there is grafted too low to the ground.

12
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Custom Nursery Boxes
« on: May 11, 2021, 03:37:29 PM »
I'm broke because I bought a trailer and a 6.0 powerstroke... LOL

We all have our vices.   ;D

13
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Custom Nursery Boxes
« on: May 11, 2021, 03:02:02 PM »
Guys everything is going through the roof.  Inflation is everywhere.  Anyone bought a steak in the grocery lately?  Holy cow!

Steak at Costco is somewhat decent in quality and price, but yeah, you're right, things are going up up up. It's wild. I could sell my diesel truck for double what I bought it for tomorrow, cash in hand (I do wish I bought yours sometimes though Brad).

When Dogecoin, a literal meme currency made for the lol, is making people millions of dollars? Yeah, I'd say inflation is here.

We're going to raise our prices steeply at the skate factory soon...
Isn't that the truth. I paid 7k for my 2wd 06 f250 and could turn around and sell it for easily 15-20k in my area. Everyone bought RV's/trailers at the beginning of the pandemic at asking price. (They have 30-40% markup) I was already in the process of getting mine luckily from a friend who owns a dealership and got it just above cost. Could easily sell my 25ft trailer for 10-15k markup.

I paid 8k for my 06 f350 4wd long bed crew cab just 2 years ago. I see them selling for 15-20k right now. There is a work truck dealership here in Goleta that usually has around 40-50 trucks on the lot and there are only 5 left now! It's like a ghost town at that dealership. The Ford dealership here is adding 20-30k markup onto their trucks (we're talking 110k for a f350!). Who can afford this stuff?

It is super weird how there is so much money sloshing around. I mean, the stimulus should've been burnt up by now and even if you maxed that out and were on super unemployment it's probably only a cumulative $20-$30k. I guess all the people not traveling, not eating out, not driving to work and wrecking their cars is going right into recreation. We are up more than 60% at the skate factory yoy.

I think most people are broke because they go out to eat and pretty much directly consume their paychecks.

So now that restaurants were closed for so long, people ended up with more spending money than normal.

That's my theory anyhow.

14
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Custom Nursery Boxes
« on: May 10, 2021, 07:33:17 PM »
Guys everything is going through the roof.  Inflation is everywhere.  Anyone bought a steak in the grocery lately?  Holy cow!

Lol!  Love the pun, Brad.

Yeah, it's about to get crazy for sure.  One of the local nurseries next door is refusing to sell certain plants because they said the value of them is about to double, so they're keeping them tucked away in their hoop houses under lock and key.

15
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Custom Nursery Boxes
« on: May 10, 2021, 07:31:40 PM »
U-Line does custom stuff and is huge.

When I ran my small skateboard truck business in Canada I had a fantastic experience with GLBC.com (Great Little Box Company) and being priced in Canadian dollars is going to save you some money, even if you get some import tax.

Unfortunately, Uline is charging exorbitant prices.  The boxes are almost 50% higher $$ than last month and shipping is 3x what is was.  They are no longer, by any means, a cost effective option.

We have the same issue at Powell-Peralta where I work. Our box costs have gone through the roof. I have been having a lot of luck manufacturing stuff in Canada... GLBC could be it for you. They have an Everett, WA location now:

https://www.glbc.com/contact/everett-wa/

I'll have to check them out.  Thanks for the recommendation.

16
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Custom Nursery Boxes
« on: May 10, 2021, 06:39:42 PM »
U-Line does custom stuff and is huge.

When I ran my small skateboard truck business in Canada I had a fantastic experience with GLBC.com (Great Little Box Company) and being priced in Canadian dollars is going to save you some money, even if you get some import tax.

Unfortunately, Uline is charging exorbitant prices.  The boxes are almost 50% higher $$ than last month and shipping is 3x what is was.  They are no longer, by any means, a cost effective option.

17
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Custom Nursery Boxes
« on: May 10, 2021, 02:21:27 PM »
I am having such a hard time finding proper suppliers for certain things.

One is custom branded nursery boxes.  I see other nurseries shipping their trees in branded boxes without using stickers (pre-printed).

Who and where are they obtaining these from?  Every single one I've reached out to says they can only do small boxes and small quantities.

So hard to find this kind of information.  I feel like it is top secret info searching for certain things related to garden center and nursery needs.

18
I do apologize for the inconvenience, but we have sold out of 300 gallon Loquats at this time.

19
Thank you Tiff.  I appreciate you sending the scions.  Looking forward to putting them to use.

Great seller and quality product.  Recommended.   8)

20
Aluminum tags are what I use they last forever.

Search Amazon for emboss-o-tag

If he is using them for his nursery sales, he will need the vinyl tags.  These can be printed quickly and in volume and work with specific software that can track stock and sales.

You are correct.  Thank you.  I will check them out.  Haven't bought from them yet.

21
Aluminum tags are what I use they last forever.

Search Amazon for emboss-o-tag

These aren't practical for the nursery.

Good for the personal plants though.

22
Soft, weather resistant plastic/vinyl labels.

Anyone know where I can find these reasonably?

I have ordered labels now from 6 different sources, and all of them are those stupid hard plastic labels that break in the wind or dry rot in the sun and crack.

I want the soft material that is easily printed/written on, and capable of withstanding the elements.

The suppliers keep stating they have just that ^^^ , but when I purchase, I receive the same hard plastic crap.

Anyhow, thanks for suggestions.  Going back to my Mon-Wednesday.

23
Tropical Fruit Buy, Sell & Trade / Re: Mexicola avocado cuttings
« on: April 20, 2021, 09:57:41 AM »
I am thinking you may not have had the right scion grafted to your Mexicola.

That is exactly the opposite experience we've had with ours.  Mexicola is one of my favorite avocados by far.

I find it difficult to eat some other varieties due to how good they are.  Mexicola Grande is also quite good--like Spaugh said, though, it is a monster of a tree and needs space to stretch its legs.

24
Citrus Buy, Sell, & Trade / Re: WTB Oroblanco
« on: April 17, 2021, 01:44:47 AM »
I'll probably have to go back to CCPP also.  No one seems to have it.  Was hoping to avoid budwood,  but will have to do.

25
Citrus Buy, Sell, & Trade / Re: WTB Oroblanco
« on: April 16, 2021, 12:40:39 AM »
I think it is a good one, but it's not for me.  Doing a grapefruit conversion for someone who really wants it on their in ground tree.

If any of you have some extra scions, would love to buy/trade.

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