john_ny

Richard,
I see you said that you ordered a tray of pineapples. Doesn't it get expensive to ship just one tray? Here's something I posted recently:

I have been dealing with Agri Starts for many years. They started out with one place and, eventually added AS II, III, and IV. There, briefly, was also an Agri Starts V, which dealt in stage 3 plants. (rooted, but still in gel; not transplanted to 72 cell trays). This unit was discontinued after a short time.
I'm not sure if it started out this way but, eventually, each of the 4 units was individually owned. They did, however, work quite closely together. At trade shows, they would have one large area, fronting on two aisles, and each unit would have one corner. They seem to have gone more their separate ways now. AS II was bought out by IV, and they, now, exhibit, together with AS I. #3 has a separate booth, now.
There are some trucking companies that carry plants up this way, from Florida. The one we use will pick up material, from several places in Florida, consolidate it, and bring it to us (along with several other people). They just require that you pay for a minimum of 100 cu. feet. They give you one pick up free and, after that, you are charged. The trucking co. depot is not too far from AS, and I could call someone in the one unit, and give him my orders for all 4 ASs, and he would deliver the material, from all 4, to the trucking co., thus eliminating the pick up charge. We would usually get between 10 and 20 trays from AS, in a shipment. This way, we kept our packing and shipping charges down in the 5¢-10¢ per plant range.
I don't know how far you are from the airport, (We're 20-30 minutes from Newark Airport) so if we are not getting enough material, in a shipment, to make it worth paying for the hundred cubes, then air freight is a good alternative. It's more expensive than the truck, but less than UPS, or FedEx, etc.

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John