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| I have an old apple tree on my property, that appears to be a seedling that is interesting enough that my sister in law would like a few scions to graft. Basically, it blooms deep pink but bears edible, early apples, similar to Lodi but redder. My tree is 90% dead so I'd like to preserve it, she is going to graft a few and maybe send me a healthy one back next year. When my S-I-L was visiting from Colorado this summer, she tagged the twigs she wants me to send as scions when they're dormant. Anyway, my main question is - how do I safely send her some scions? I assume I should clip them sometime in winter (I've never grafted!) but are they safe in the mail? I'd guess ziplock bag and a moist paper towel? What about temperature? Would we have to worry about the sticks trying to sprout/bud too early in transit? They'd be going from Ohio to Colorado. |
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| Clip them when thoroughly dormant, wrap at once in a well-wrung out damp paper towel, drop in an old bread bag or a zip lock, expel much of the air, place in a padded (insulating) mailer and drop them in the mail on a Friday or Saturday. At least, that seems to work for me. Probably overkill. Good luck. |
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| Why mail on Friday/Saturday? Wouldn't a Monday be better, as it could potentially reach the destination during the week, as opposed to spending the weekend in transit? My understanding is that most nursery mail plants on Monday for this reason. |
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| Bob, my thinking is that it'll likely take two, maybe three days to reach any destination in the US if mailed first class. Since the PO doesn't deliver on Sundays you don't want it to get delivered then- better to use Sunday as a transit day. That way if there's a delay en route you have an extra day or two for it to get sorted out. So I prefer to mail going into the weekend rather than coming out of it. But in practice I'm not sure it matters too much. Most of the packages are going to be pretty cold over much of the time anyhow that time of the year! I'm guessing that most nursery shipments don't go first class (mostly UPS?), but it doesn't cost more that a buck or so for one of us to mail something that way, and it is pretty fast. |
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| Mark, Thanks for the explanation. I haven't exchanged scionwood with anyone other than locally with family (aside from ARS sending me wood...), but I expect to this year. I checked out the USPS site and sending it (coast to coast) cross country takes about 3 days (mail Tuesday, get there on Friday), using First class parcel ($3.22). It may take an extra day to go to the middle if UPS is any guide. Is this what you use? I also see a 2 day priority mail (including one for a padded envelope), which seems like a decent deal at $5-6. |
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| The mail is not delivered Sunday, but the mail never stops. Drew (former letter carrier at one time) |
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- Posted by Appleseed70 6 MD (My Page) on Wed, Oct 29, 14 at 2:52
| This is an interesting post. Mark I was lost as to why anyone would chose Fri or Sat, but now it makes sense. I was naively thinking the mail didn't move on Sunday, but of course it does. I'm always amazed at how smooth and efficient our mailing system is including USPS, UPS and to a slightly lesser degree FedEx. Even more amazing is that they can make all that happen so accurately at such low cost while providing good paying jobs. A lot of gov't (USPS) entities get a bad rap (and most deservedly so), I don't think that's the case with USPS...they seem to have their stuff together. They've always been solid for me. |
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| I think too that scions are pretty small and even with the weight of the mailer it's still economical to simply mail regular first class letter rate, which is $0.91 for a three ounce package. Even if you had to go to a "retail flat" a quarter pound is only $1.61. That's a lot of scions. Apparently that's going to take two to three days anywhere in the contingent states. Not too bad! |
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| I've been mailing - and receiving - scionwood via USPS for nearly 2 decades. 1st Class has always been adequate to get dormant scions to their destination in a reasonable amount of time, and for nominal cost. Can't recall more than once or maybe twice where a package got lost or delayed excessively. Have received some sent Priority Mail - but really don't think the significantly greater cost got them here any faster than 1st Class would have. Dormant-collected scions, wrapped in barely moist paper towel or newsprint, enclosed in a ziploc bag - mailed in a manila envelope - either padded, or with some additional packing material to cushion them a bit - almost always make the trip and arrive in perfect condition. |
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- Posted by milehighgirl CO USDA 5B/Sunset 2B (My Page) on Wed, Oct 29, 14 at 14:59
| wrapped in barely moist paper towel or newsprint Whenever I've received scion in newsprint they go bad quickly. First they get an off-smell and then they get slimy. Since the receiver will have to refrigerate them for a while also, I always use a paper towel instead. |
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- Posted by ForestAndFarm 7A (My Page) on Wed, Oct 29, 14 at 15:15
| My suggestion is to wait and send them later unless she is ready to graft now. Regardless of shipping technique (lots of good advice above), scions need to be preserved dormant until they are used to graft. There are lots of good techniques for storing scions, but even with best practices, sometimes they will have mold issues and such. There is no better place to store scions than on the tree. So, I would suggest that you collect them a few weeks before they break dormancy unless she plans to graft sooner. |
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| Yes, they'll store better on the tree than they will anywhere else, up until they start to subtly break dormance. In Ohio I'd think that February would be about right, but I've never lived in Ohio! Plus it depends on the year. Seems like things have been unpredictable of late, ay? Someone here (Sorry, don't remember who it was now) has frozen scions in water and I think that worked out. I'm one of the people Lucky, above, has sent scions to, and I can attest to the fact that they arrive in good shape; Nick Botner mailed me scions just as Lucky described. I think he even used newsprint, but maybe paper towels. Some of the scions arrived in re-purposed bread bags. |
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