Unpacking tips for your live plant after shipping

[Paradoxic]

Here is a list of good practices to ensure your plant survives after undergoing shipping:

• Keep your plant in the container/pot it was shipped in for a few days so it can recover from shipping stress before transplanting it. If your plant looks really bad after shipping you may want to wait longer until it recovers but be sure not to let the perlite dry out.
• Do not expose the plant to any direct sunlight at first. Start with mild light (for example near a window or under a low-wattage compact florescent) and gradually increase exposure to brighter light each day.
• Make sure to keep the plant extra moist after you get it. Mist the entire plant with purified water as much as you can (at least a couple times a day).
• If your plant shows signs of wilting in its new environment you should construct a humidity chamber of some sort to house your plant. Cutting off the bottom of a 2 liter soda bottle (make sure it's clear) and placing it over the plant will work fine. Just be sure to open it up every so often to replenish the air in the chamber.
• It is normal for the plant to wilt or show signs of stress from mailing. These should heal themselves. Even if your plant looks mostly dead you can cut off the dead parts and it can probably still grow (as long as the root system is alive).
• Try to keep your plant away from moving air while it gets used to the new environment (ex: AC, fan, etc)
• It is a good idea to re-pot in a bigger pot after the plant has gotten used to its new environment.

[Arcygenical]

Also, please keep a new plant out of the path of *any* moving air!

[Paradoxic]

Also, please keep a new plant out of the path of *any* moving air!

Wait, what do you mean, like a breeze or something. Why do you do this, does moving air really harm a recently shipped plant?

[Arcygenical]

Yes, moving air severely increases the lapse rate of evaporation... Exactly how moving air can even force the evaporation of frigid lake waters during winter (see: buffalo lake effect snow).

Too much evaporation from the leaves can cause the new plants to wilt and drop their foliage.

So, keep them out of the path of your AC, room fan, heater etc.

[tator547]

But do not just leave them in the same humidity chamber for weeks you need to open it once a day to free air for only a couple seconds to replace CO2 in the chamber if not O2 will collect without any CO2 and plant can die

[zaorr]

Yep, while a softer plant like sally has a temporarily stalled waterpump it is a better idea to limit drying as much as possible.

[Minney]

how much light (at first) should you give a plant that just arrived in the mail?

[Arcygenical]

how much light (at first) should you give a plant that just arrived in the mail?

I give them about 15w of CFL light from 5-10"

[drubue]

   i have som questions on growing .... im thinking about buying some plants off the web site on our fourm but im scared they will die.... so tell me if this will work because i want to have a plan before i buy them you know ... if i got this plant could i stick it in a 10gal. fish tank with dirt not water and have a top that has black light bulbs in it ... if i do that will i need to make it dark on the out side of the tank like black construction paper or a dark room.... and having a lid on the tank should give it a good humidity to get it growing good  right? also i saw people talking about adding more co2 buy adding yeast and sugar ... how do you do that and do you and water to the yeast and sugar and then put it on the plant or what??   i just dont want to mess up and how much light should i give it when i first get the plant if i want to grow it on a black (uv) light and not sun light ?

[JD1stTimer]

Nope, that's terrible. You would need to drill holes in the bottom for the water to run out, and also the sides let light in so the roots wouldn't be happy when they reach the glass.  Go back and read the growing guides here.

[Defenestrate]

I think you should repost your ideas and questions in the cultivation board so we can answer everything and carry on the topic, but in the mean time, drainage is a requirment, daylight cfl bulbs are preferable to blacklights I beleive, and for the co2 supplementation, you mix yeast and sugar with water in a bottle and place it in your grow environment. It will give off co2, and the leaves can breath that in. Don't cover your plant with sugar and yeast, it can clog the stomata(the little pores on the plant that release gases and waste) and cause stunted growth and a sick plant. Repost this, and I'd be glad to help you out, as just about everyone here would. No one wants to know theres a sad sickly salvia out there!

[bazoner456]

yo i just ordered a plant of this site. when it comes it will be packed in perlite. do i leave it in perlite for 7 days?


thanx -Adam

[Hero4Evz]

I would if the packaging is still in good shape. Otherwise at least leave it in for 24 hours before transplanting to help it recover from shock.

[Paradoxic]

yo i just ordered a plant of this site. when it comes it will be packed in perlite. do i leave it in perlite for 7 days?

If your plant looks good,  you only need to wait a day or two before transplanting.

I just changed some of the wording on that for this article btw.

[incensesalvia]

So to make sure, don't take it out of what it's in for at least 7 days?
My plants are in terrible shape without any leaves except for 2 tiny leaves the size of my pinky nail. The rest were completely brown.
It oughta live in it's humidity tent with misting. It gets southern exposure so it has indirect sunlight throughout the entire day.
Just wondering.. if my cutting has been rooted but has absolutely no leaves on it, will it survive just by having the stem using photosynthesis or should I give up?