Another experience with Top Tropicals Nursery

[puglvr1]

Today I received a call from Christy at Top Tropicals.  They are going to replace my 3 gallon Southern Blush with a 7 gallon Southern Blush and my 7 gallon mislabeled Cushman with a 7 gallon Sweet Tart (per my request).  The trees will ship Monday with ground shipping.  I should receive them on Thursday or Friday of next week.  Wish me luck!

They are likely from the same source, so you're probably going to get another tree with malformation.

Also, please destroy the tree that you've confirmed has malformation. It's not worth the risk of it spreading to other trees in your yard or throughout your state.

Great Advise...if it were my tree I would destroy it even if I wasn't going to replace it...its just not worth the risk of infecting all your other mango trees  ...You have a very valuable collection worth protecting 

[Bush2Beach]

I hope it's Florida standard 7 gal and not CA standard where CA sell 15 Gal that is actually smaller than Florida 7 gal. Lol

Behl I know exactly what you mean..... I purchased several mandarins this year....Gold Nugget, Tango, and Kishu..... two of them were 15 g trees while the other was a box tree... Tell me why they were clearly extremely small trees for the container size to begin with....But when I actually went to plant each tree.....The original size down container form popped right out of the pot when I went to plant each one....so my 15g trees, popped a solid 7g pot shell when I lifted the tree....Same thing with the box tree...Literally when I cut the Box straps off of it and exposed the entire box of dirt.....Literally It all collapsed revealing just a small 10-12 gallon shell of dirt containing the tree..


These were purchased at Louies Nursery and Mcabes Nrsery in Riverside County......S beware when buying trees when these are babies being up-potted into something twice there size

That is low down dirty! If they are that scandalous I hope they are the same varieties as labeled.
Finding a good nurseryman who has the plants you want can be harder than finding a good mechanic.

[behlgarden]

talk about down and dirty. I purchased nam doc mai from Home Depot, supposedly it came from La Verne nursery in CA.  I never grafted NDM thinking I already have it, the sucker produced nothing like NDM but small 3" fruits only. and whatever variety it is its extremely show growing. but the mango I ate are like sugar cubes. so I will keep it, but its hardpressed to raise a tree for years only to find out that its not what you wanted.

[BestDay]

An update for you guys.  My replacement trees came in last Friday and they look great.  Very nice 7 gallon trees, 5/8"-3/4" diameter trunks with nice branching about 3 feet up.  The Southern Blush is about 4.5 feet tall and the Sweet Tart has a larger diameter trunk but on 4 feet tall.  They are both definitely very nice trees.  I'm hoping this Southern Blush is disease free.  It looks slightly different with longer inter node spacing.  So it is either a healthy tree or mislabeled!

Now I need to throw out my old Southern Blush and call my credit card company.

Bill

[MangoFang]

Great news, Bill!  Now let's hope there is nothing wrong with them!


Gary

[tqn626]

Wow, i'm really worried now. I just bought a 3 gallon Cac Hoa Loc mangos from Top Tropical at 90 bucks with 30 dollar shipping each. I'm vietnamese and my uncles live in vietnam. They'll know if it a true Cac Hoa Loc or not. Hopefully I don't get screwed 2ish years down the line. Hopefully it a true Cac Hoa Loc so i can spread the budwood around. What are some awesome fruit tree vendors? I had great experience with Wild papaya nursery.

[ClayMango]

Wow, i'm really worried now. I just bought a 3 gallon Cac Hoa Loc mangos from Top Tropical at 90 bucks with 30 dollar shipping each. I'm vietnamese and my uncles live in vietnam. They'll know if it a true Cac Hoa Loc or not. Hopefully I don't get screwed 2ish years down the line. Hopefully it a true Cac Hoa Loc so i can spread the budwood around. What are some awesome fruit tree vendors? I had great experience with Wild papaya nursery.

This is just retarded.... Please do not listen to half of this mess....

When you sell thousands of trees a  year... There will be mislabels and wrong trees issued... I bet my bottom dollar this has happned with POG and Pine Island.

[tqn626]

Wow, i'm really worried now. I just bought a 3 gallon Cac Hoa Loc mangos from Top Tropical at 90 bucks with 30 dollar shipping each. I'm vietnamese and my uncles live in vietnam. They'll know if it a true Cac Hoa Loc or not. Hopefully I don't get screwed 2ish years down the line. Hopefully it a true Cac Hoa Loc so i can spread the budwood around. What are some awesome fruit tree vendors? I had great experience with Wild papaya nursery.

This is just retarded.... Please do not listen to half of this mess....

When you sell thousands of trees a  year... There will be mislabels and wrong trees issued... I bet my bottom dollar this has happned with POG and Pine Island.

You're probably right. Just so paranoid. 

[behlgarden]

I agree. I am yet to find a nursery who has not made a mistake.

[DurianLover]

TT are mostly resellers, perhaps original nursery screwed them with with incorrect tag. I'm going against the tide. To demand free shipping and replacement is excessive after so many years. I would have at least offered them compromise on shipping. At the end, future TT customers will pay more to absorb the loss. I liked bsbullie answer when similar accusations were made against Excalibur.
Also highly contagious tree should have been destroyed immediately. Wait one month for replacement and only then destroy the tree?

[Mark in Texas]

This is just retarded.... Please do not listen to half of this mess....

When you sell thousands of trees a  year... There will be mislabels and wrong trees issued... I bet my bottom dollar this has happned with POG and Pine Island.

TOP buys from PIN and other suppliers.  They relabel their stock which introduces a chance for human error.  A guy making minimum wage while he's shuffling plants and watering is not too inclined to care about what's what.  It's just another tree to him.

[fruitnut]

I've purchased a few tree in the past, and so far, I got what I paid for.  As a matter of fact, I just got a plant fron the last week.  As stated, business will make mistake, it's how they rectify their mistake is the key.

[ClayMango]

I've purchased a few tree in the past, and so far, I got what I paid for.  As a matter of fact, I just got a plant fron the last week.  As stated, business will make mistake, it's how they rectify their mistake is the key.

It seems like they're are on the right track...A few people have had bad customer experiences with them, but they have had a change in staff and it seems customer relations have changed dramatically with T.T. putting the customer first...I mean Behl got a 50 dollar upgrade to a 7g Peach Cobbler because of their website not updating quanities correctly and him being delayed on backorder...

I've ordered over a dozen trees in the past year and I'm very satisfied with my purchase...And the majority seem to agree... The ones unsatified in some cases have had their issues rectified which is how a buisness is suppose to operate. For those of you who live in Florida..it seems PIN is still the go to nursery.....but here on the West Coast it's T.T. due to the price of the trees and the choice of size is much larger.

[behlgarden]

Update on my order with Top Tropicals:

I ordered Sunrise, Peach Cobbler, and Sweet Tart, all in 3 gal. To my Surprise I got all three in 7 Gal, Sunrise is almost 6-1/2 foot tall. I am very impressed. Kristi there is great to deal with. I think every now and then you will have problems with mail order, its just how company deals with it post order is what matters. Top Tropicals is providing excellent customer service to all, they may have changed dramatically. Lets not judge them from past one odd bad experience.

[ClayMango]

Update on my order with Top Tropicals:

I ordered Sunrise, Peach Cobbler, and Sweet Tart, all in 3 gal. To my Surprise I got all three in 7 Gal, Sunrise is almost 6-1/2 foot tall. I am very impressed. Kristi there is great to deal with. I think every now and then you will have problems with mail order, its just how company deals with it post order is what matters. Top Tropicals is providing excellent customer service to all, they may have changed dramatically. Lets not judge them from past one odd bad experience.

wow! somebody hit the jackpot on size upgrades!!!

[MangoFang]

...boy I'll say....sounds like a GREAT time to order from TT while
they are in the midst of upgrading there customer relations!!!!!

Gary

[behlgarden]

...boy I'll say....sounds like a GREAT time to order from TT while
they are in the midst of upgrading there customer relations!!!!!

Gary

Main reason for upgrade was end of season. towards the end either you get left over 3 gal, or too small plants or an upgrade if nursery cares. In this care Top Tropicals did the right thing.

[FrankDrebinOfFruits]

I received an order from Top Tropicals yesterday. S/H was as expensive as the trees (if not slightly more), but I cannot say enough good things about how well the shape was of the trees that arrived and the excellent packaging.

The rootballs were double bagged and then plastic wrapped and tied.  A sock covered the trees, they were placed in a box with peanuts, and 3 trees per large box. A large bamboo stick ensured no damage to the trunk.  Box labelled which end was up. Fedex picked it up on Monday morning and arrived at my house Wednesday afternoon, and that is probably a record for anything I have ordered from the mainland.

My only gripe is styrofoam peanuts, everywhere... and my kids think its snow, so it was a mess. But better to have peanuts and arrive in good shape.

So top tropicals to Hawaii is two thumbs up!

[fruitlovers]

I received an order from Top Tropicals yesterday. S/H was as expensive as the trees (if not slightly more), but I cannot say enough good things about how well the shape was of the trees that arrived and the excellent packaging.

The rootballs were double bagged and then plastic wrapped and tied.  A sock covered the trees, they were placed in a box with peanuts, and 3 trees per large box. A large bamboo stick ensured no damage to the trunk.  Box labelled which end was up. Fedex picked it up on Monday morning and arrived at my house Wednesday afternoon, and that is probably a record for anything I have ordered from the mainland.

My only gripe is styrofoam peanuts, everywhere... and my kids think its snow, so it was a mess. But better to have peanuts and arrive in good shape.

So top tropicals to Hawaii is two thumbs up!

I had same exact experience. Only difference is that they shipped the trees USPS, and i'm guessing was a bit cheaper than FedEx. Arrived in 3 days instead of 2, which really doesn't make any difference.

[ClayMango]

I received an order from Top Tropicals yesterday. S/H was as expensive as the trees (if not slightly more), but I cannot say enough good things about how well the shape was of the trees that arrived and the excellent packaging.

The rootballs were double bagged and then plastic wrapped and tied.  A sock covered the trees, they were placed in a box with peanuts, and 3 trees per large box. A large bamboo stick ensured no damage to the trunk.  Box labelled which end was up. Fedex picked it up on Monday morning and arrived at my house Wednesday afternoon, and that is probably a record for anything I have ordered from the mainland.

My only gripe is styrofoam peanuts, everywhere... and my kids think its snow, so it was a mess. But better to have peanuts and arrive in good shape.

So top tropicals to Hawaii is two thumbs up!

Yeah the shipping is definately a bear in terms of pricing....and they also went up 10 dollars on their trees it looks like, but I must say that they definately know how to pack a perfect Mango tree...I recieved 12 mango trees from them in one year...all of them arrived in great condition minus the Maha Chanok which rebounded with incredible growth.

I Malika was devoured by my Bulldogs and my Carrie bit the dust from Frost and my neglect for not protecting it...I've decided not to purchase the Malika and buy another carrie...I jsut can't afford TT's prices right now...hopefully one has reached Socal by now at a  cheaper price.

[Tropicaliste]

You guys in the aloha state need to order from top? That seems wrong somehow. Lol.

[fruitlovers]

You guys in the aloha state need to order from top? That seems wrong somehow. Lol.

We have cultivars you don't have in Florida and vice versa. None of the nurseries here sell yet the new Florida cultivars.
BTW a lot of the ultra tropicals sold by TT come from here. Is that wrong also? LOL

[Tropicaliste]

I'm surprised that you would need to order from Top. It kind of seems odd, because there are many good sources in Florida? Can't you order from PIN and cut out the middle man, especially because you've a nursery?

[FrankDrebinOfFruits]

I'm surprised that you would need to order from Top. It kind of seems odd, because there are many good sources in Florida? Can't you order from PIN and cut out the middle man, especially because you've a nursery?

I was specifically seeking lemon zest and coconut cream (which aren't listed on PINs site)... that everyone on this website raves about.  It better be good, or I am holding all of you responsible, in 2-5 years. 

I also ordered a few rare trees for a friend.

PIN seems to have fixed pricing, while top tropical has varied pricing. I would guess that the coconut cream price which is substantially higher has to do with royalties...

[CGameProgrammer]

I have ordered MANY trees from TT over the last six months or so; they've always arrived promptly and well-packaged. TT really has the business side of things nailed down; they keep careful inventory and are very quick with processing orders or replying to e-mails and phone calls. They also have the largest selection of any nursery I've found.

Many of the trees that I get from them do undergo defoliation to some extent, though not all, but nearly all recover. I think I've only had one tree (a dwarf red poinciana) die completely.