Winter Shipping Concerns - Too Cold To Ship Plants?

[Kevin Jones]

I received an email from someone yesterday wanting me to ship them a few plants through the mail - USPS Priority Mail.
I live in Alabama and they are in California.
I have no idea how the USPS ships packages... should freezing temps be a concern?
Common sense tells me yes.
Usually I only ship during the warmer months of the year.
And because of this I never have any issues with freezing.
Anybody have suggestions?

Thanks.

Kevin

[brian]

In this past week I received a batch of durian seeds from hawaii via USPS that sprouted fine.  Also, I just received some grafted citrus trees from california via UPS 3-day, also fine. 

One thing I noticed with USPS - they do *not* update tracking status when the item is delivered, only at the end of the post office day.  So when I was waiting for the delivery notification my seeds were sitting on my doorstep in the 45F weather for who knows how long. 

For USPS, I suggest having the package held at the post office unless the receiver is sure to receive it as soon as delivered. 

[brian]

USPS asks you when you hand them the package if it is perishable, and if so they mark it to be kept in temperature controlled building.  I don't know about UPS or Fedex.

[Triloba Tracker]

As a general principle - yes - i would be concerned about low temps across the area you are trying to ship, assuming you're shipping Ground.
(Air freight might not be an issue but a cargo hold at high altitude could get really cold too, i guess).

So from AL to CA you're going over some cold areas I would think.

Mail order nurseries time their shipments with the seasons for this reason.

[Daintree]

Loges's puts something similar to hand warmers in their packages in the winter, and ships them overnight.
Haven't had the nerve to ship any of my "leafy children" that way, though. I just wait until spring.

Carolyn

[FV Fruit Freak]

Just from personal experience lately..I think it may depend on where it is in Cali it’s going. I’ve been getting small seedlings from FL and they’ve all arrived healthy, but, we never freeze where I live in Southern California. Here’s the temps where I live (about halfway between Los Angeles and San Diego) this week.

[Kevin Jones]

Our temps are all over the place.
Right now it's 75... with tornados this afternoon and tomorrow night a low of 30.

kj

[brian]

... a cargo hold at high altitude could get really cold too, i guess...

I always wondered about this, but that were true it would be impossible to air-mail live plants anywhere, even in summer, right? 

[Daintree]

I think the cargo holds are heated.  Our dog has flown in them, and she has never had to put on a sweater...

Carolyn

[W.]

I ordered some plants in November. They arrived from Florida in good shape, but I worked out with the sellers the best time to ship them so that they would not experience anything below 50 °F. That is much harder to do when shipping from California to Alabama. For instance, the high was 70 °F at my house today, but tomorrow night's low is forecast to be 28 °F. So think about the variability in weather in Colorado, Kansas, and everywhere else between California and Alabama.

I am just going to try and bide my time, resist the impulse to buy more plants and seeds, and hold off ordering anything until spring.

[Bush2Beach]

X

[brian]

I just got another tropical seedling from a Florida seller... USPS 1st class, not even Priority.  Looks fine to me.

[fruitlovers]

It's a real gamble sending perishable seeds and plants both in winter and high heat of summer. Biggest problem is you don't know how the USPS will route them. They often use various different routes, and some way more extreme in temperatures than others. Personally i would wait till spring time.
i once did an experiment with a friend where we included a temperature recorder inside the package and mailed it cross country. It recorded hourly temperatures on a graph that is downloadable. It went through some real temperature extremes. The worst part i think is during door delivery, a package can be in a unprotected vehicle for many hours. Or they leave package outside, or in a mailbox, and you don't pick it up for many hours.
Also USPS has very many delays. Even express mail is not trust worthy. Holiday season is ofcourse worst time to mail due to large volume of mail.

[brian]

I fedex-overnighted a box of grafted trees from FL to PA when it was well below freezing.  Box was received in person on delivery.  I had to take them out of the containers to fit and remove some of the soil, I'm sure they did not enjoy the root disturbance, and they were poorly packed (by me, in a hotel parking lot).  Lychee became totally dessicated after a day of unboxing and will almost certainly die.  Atemoya mostly defoliated three or four days after unboxing but will probably survive.  Green and white sapote are doing fine.  Kwai muk seedling doing fine.

I also received a USPS box of two tiny seedlings yesterday, a pulasan and a sugar apple.  They sat in my mailbox for probably an hour or two in 42F weather and look fine. 

All in all better than I expected

[Kevin Jones]

It never ceases to amaze me as to the things we do for this plant addiction.
I can just see you in that parking lot boxing up your plants... I would do the same!

Kevin

[brian]

Hah, a couple years ago I was bare-rooting trees in a river under a bridge in San Francisco while the homeless folks living there watched me, looking puzzled. 

[eyeckr]

I've been there too. Bare rooting in a hotel bathtub and in the parking lot lol!