Shipping Dahlias

Krista · 2023-04-25T01:23:44+00:00

Cuttings: is there an ideal stage when shipping cuttings is most successful? I have a cutting to share that I took 8 days ago. I just found roots poking out...

Juliarugula

Krista no worries - I laughed when I saw your photo receipt! 🤪

MIDahlias

ShipStation replied and they said one no longer needs to put in an insured amount if under $100 for USPS priority mail.

They are now using Parcel Guard for insurance. Under 100.00 is $1.09 for domestic insurance. I wrote back and stated I never received an email about the change and requested a refund for Parcel Guard Insurance charges. They refunded the charges within 24 hours.

$1.09 x the number of customers that don't know this x the number of packages sent is quite a profit.

bloomhjelm

I'm not aware of a shipping provider which provides an insurance option which covers live material and plants. I would appreciate hearing if anyone has successfully filed a claim for lost or damaged plants. The USPS Priority Mail insurance information online does not mention plants specifically, but states it does not cover: "Perishable contents frozen, melted, spoiled, or deteriorated." My Shippo insurance likewise doesn't cover organic material of any kind.

There was a big discussion today among dahlia friends about cuttings they are receiving from different sellers. We have a consensus that USPS is too laggardly to use for cuttings. Especially as the weather gets warmer in certain states. We also like corrugated paper rolls or cardstock/cardboard boxes and tubes versus plastic clamshells, or even macaron boxes.

Teddahlia

Insurance is a phantom product and an employee who was a friend worked for a large shipper said to me: We never pay the claims. That was over 10 years ago and whether or not it is still true, the goal is getting the live plants delivered. Overnight by Fed Ex may be a good option. Any opinions?

janell

Teddahlia I use FedEx only if in desperate haste. Its commercial rates are typically twice as expensive as UPS unless I am looking at next day shipping. Next day shipping is universally pricy.

For destinations within a long day’s drive of me in Ohio, UPS Ground delivers within two days. USPS Priority was taking 4 days (yet estimating just 3) for the same destinations and was similarly priced this spring. I suspect USPS Priority and Ground Advantage work out to be about the same delivery time. Priority Mail became at least a day slower two years ago when the postal service stopped using contractors for trucking. Instead of packages leaving my local PO each night for sorting in Columbus, they now go out the following day and may lag another day in the Columbus sorting queue.

For cross-country travel, UPS 2nd Day Air is pretty reasonable. River’s sent my cuttings 2nd Day Air and they arrived in perfect condition.

Juliarugula

Teddahlia Insurance is a phantom product and an employee who was a friend worked for a large shipper said to me: We never pay the claims

Do you mean for plants? Or generally? I collect ceramics (and sometimes will resell to thin my collection) and have filed a couple of claims for broken items with USPS that were paid quickly and easily.

I’ve never had a reason to file a claim regarding organic material though - I don’t know how that would go.

Teddahlia

The person did not work at the USPS. The remark was long ago too and I bet the company has improved but in those days they blamed it all on the shipper not doing a secure enough package. Neither the shipping company or the sender wants a failure. I wonder if a really fool proof method of shipping rooted cuttings would be to grow them to have big enough roots(miniature tubers) to be a small pot tuber and have the ability to re-sprout if there is disaster.

bloomhjelm

I feel like diameter of the stem is another pretty good indicator of whether the cutting will survive shipping and transplanting. I see a lot of cuttings going out from sellers this year with height and leaves but no ... girth. They have roots coming through the cube, but they rot if you look at them. The leaves also have not been subjected to any real wind or cool temperatures and are crepe paper, mottled with fungus.

blown_dry

bloomhjelm This is my experience also. I am not the best cutting nurturer and don't keep snails off of them as successfully as could be and resprouting is the norm if the cutting is not spindly.

Teddahlia

The first cuttings we bought were from Corralitos Gardens in California. That was well over 10 years ago and all of them survived without issue. Karen Zydner and Kevin Larkin pioneered the shipping methods and grew disease free stock. They retired long ago now. Disease free stock is one of the keys to success.

MIDahlias

I haven't received my cutting from Heron's nest yet. Im hoping small plants arrive.

I bought two of the same variety cuttings from a seller. She sent one small plant cutting and one rooted small cutting. Ive killed the small cutting and the other developed severe powdery mildew.

It's currently far, far away my my tuber started plants.

I tried rinsing it off, pouring milk on and it still comes back. A friend told me to wash the leaves with soap and water gently, cut off most of the leaves but keep the top so it can continue to grow.

Any other suggestions? Or should I just toss it? I hate to lose both cuttings.

I know I'm repeating, I hope I get cuttings i can't kill from Heron's nest. Im very disappointed i have received them yet.

The second part of my cutting journey I thought it started with me finding Fairway Pilot as a cutting. I don't have an order in my email for Fairway Pilot. Did I forget to add it to my order (I think so)

Please offer your best advice for my powdery mildew plant.

BarryO

MIDahlias
I don't know the unidentified grower who sent you cuttings that were hosts for powdery mildew, but I had the same experience this year and will never re-order cuttings from that seller.

LoriDee

MIDahlias I received cuttings from them maybe 3 wks ago & was surprised how tiny some of them were ☹ They all came down with powdery mildew & none of my other cuttings did. I dipped them all in diluted milk & the new leaves look ok now. They need to harden off now but are just getting to a size where I can plant them out

Teddahlia

On Dahlia Talk last night we discussed powdery mildew on dahlia cuttings for a long time. That was because no one had a good answer. My unproven theory is that it infects the whole plant and the powder is just the spores that are the "end game for the infection" indicating it is time to procreate and infect more plants. Only a systemic fungicide AND new dahlia growth(new leaves) as the old growth is hopelessly infected and damaged. Is the plant big enough to survive all of this? And my theory again is that the version of powdery makes a big difference as some are resistant to many fungicides. Long story short: probably hopeless. Always quarantine new stock as you may have bought a new disease.

MIDahlias

Teddahlia It's still isolated. All new growth seems to have it too. It is more of a plant than a cutting. Everything above the soil has PW. Maybe there is a small tuber in the soil.

MissyWeitzel

I've seen people defend sellers in FB forums against clains of PM arriving on cuttings by saying that PM could happen at any time and if the cuttings looked clean upon arrival, it must have come from the buyer's grow room/greenhouse/plants. Ok, mayyyybe that is true and possible. However, from my own personal experience, I never ever overwintered plant material (other than tubers of course), and for years I never had a single instance of PM on my cuttings indoors. I'm not even all that great about turning fans on. Last spring I received some cuttings from a friend who had overwintered the mother plants and within days powdery mildew showed up. I really think there needs to be more emphasis on education across the board about isolating and treating all incoming plants as the best practice. I don't know how to acheive that, but this is a common issue in the houseplant groups I'm in too. People order new plants and put them right with their prized collection and pretty soon everything has mealybugs.

MIDahlias

You're absolutely right. I assumed since the plant looked good when it arrived everything was good. Not one other plant I have has PM. Isolating plants sounds like good practice to add to a regimen.

Teddahlia

Powdery mildew is systemic disease and the powder that appears on the leaves are the spores that fly into the air and infect other plants. The actual infection is in the plant. Milk washes the spores off but the plant is still infected and more spores will appear. I do not know of organic solutions to the issue but systemic fungicide can cure the infection (some are resistant to these chemicals).
There are numerous versions of powdery mildew and here it was always a seasonal disease that appeared in early Fall when temps and moisture were just right. It progressed to to turning the plants totally white with spores. I used a systemic fungicide (Cleary 3336)to spray the plants and they all recovered. In the last 6 years or so, it has never come back to our garden.
The versions f powdery mildew that are infecting cuttings are a new problem. If you isolate your new plants it may help but the spores are very infectious.

LoriDee

Teddahlia interesting, I always thought it was just on the surface. I have a section in my field (that I don't dig) that has seemed to get PM every year so maybe it is in those plants. I should try a fungicide. I also unfortunately have a bit of bindweed in the field & it seems to hv PM on it's leaves & spreads it to the dahlias it starts creeping up onto.

SteveM

If you spray a fungicide be sure to rotate with a fungicide in a different class (with a different modes of action). To avoid creating a resistant population of the fungus do not spray any fungicide for more than twice in a row. (That is true of most fungicides, miticides, and pesticides).

Teddahlia

Shipping rooted dahlia cuttings was discussed informally by Eugene Kenyon of Rivers Dahlias at our last club meeting. As with all cuttings sellers, it is a difficult subject. He says they are charging $25.00 for second day delivery as other less expensive shipping is not reliable. We talked briefly about packing material and they have abandoned clam shell packaging. Instead, they are using what I call the Meggos method where the roots and the leaves are packed differently. I did not say " in separate packages and you need to re-attach them when you get your shipment"☺.
The theory is that roots need some moisture and leaves do not. Meggos used aluminum foil around the root portion and the leaves were not wrapped at all. Rosie of Rivers Dahlias is using fast food wrappers and wraps the roots and then wraps the entire plant with another wrapper so the the roots say wet and the leaves stay dry. Ooops, time for the meeting and that is the end of our conversion.
One more item was discussed and that was shipping unrooted cuttings. The suggestion went over like the proverbial
" lead balloon". I advocated and he resisted. No resolution.
Picture unrelated to subject.

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