Quote:
Originally Posted by Patty in Wisc
Dumb question: Obviously there are no dormant plants now so I would think it would be a bad thing to take all soil off a live plant & ship it dry - esp with leaves on it. Does this put it immediately dormant?
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Patty:
This is my first time shipping a banana and noone told me what I should do. I just did it by instinct I guess or by common sense. To me it is not practical to leave the soil intact because of its size. Because of its weight adding the soil will cost me too much. I only charge the buyer $11 for postage (I was guessing at that time).And you are right it is a bad thing to remove all the soil.
But it is not alltogether dry. I soaked the roots first for 10 minutes with AZ41 mixture together with the sphagnum moss and then I squeeze all the water out but being a moss alot of water is still clung to the moss. Then I wrapped the roots with it and put 3 bags of clear plastics to make sure the water stay with the roots. Since it is sealed and there is no sunlight I think it will stay moist for the 5 day duration of travel.
Because of the temperature is warm and above 60 degrees in transit, the banana will not be dormant. I think it will continue to grow. And since I soaked the roots with AZ41 which kills those fungus in the roots, the roots will stay viable.
That's my input.
I'll find out when the buyer email me and tell me what happened.