so I get so many questions on here Mike
how do you package your plans well I'm
gonna show you right now in this video
but I'm gonna do one better for you we
are gonna follow this package all the
way across the country to Connecticut to
the guy I sold the Figtree to and he's
gonna do an unboxing for you let's check
it out
the one thing that you absolutely need
to remember is this if you were wanting
to receive a plant if you went online
and you paid good money for a plant that
you were dying to get and you were ready
to get that plant how would you want it
to arrive alright guys today I'm gonna
show you how to package a plant the
right way alright let's take a look at
it there's a lot of ways to package
plants and I've received a lot of plants
in the mail and they're all packaged
differently so when I started shipping
plants in the mail these figs really I
wanted it to be my goal for these fig
plants to arrive at the location in
pristine condition because people pay a
lot of money for these plants and they
deserve to get a plant arriving at their
facility or their location or wherever
they're at in great shape in the same
shape that they bought it in when they
saw that picture on the internet so I
spent a lot of time thinking about how I
was gonna package my plants and I came
up with what I believe is in ingenious
methods now you know everybody's got
their own method but I'm gonna show you
mine right here and now so I sold this
black madera KK online through eBay to a
guy named Jared over in Connecticut
earlier on in the winter and he asked me
to keep it hang on to a few more months
because it gets pretty cold over there
and it was actually snowing here at the
time and I want to make sure that you
know these plants arrive in great
condition I don't want them to be
frostbitten or frozen solid and dead by
the time it gets there so I held on to
it for a few months it's now spring it's
the time to ship this guy so we're gonna
ship them off look at that black madera
isn't that cool is so it's got more figs
growing on the thing that it does leaves
almost I mean it is just a beautiful
little plant but we're gonna send this
off to Jared now over in Connecticut
should be warm enough now there it's
warm enough here now the biggest concern
with play
is always this how do I protect the top
of the plant the branch is up here from
smacking into the top of the cardboard
box or whatever you're packaging it in
how do you keep it from breaking
branches and leaves off of it now a lot
of people will put stakes in there and
they'll they'll shove something down
into the pot so that if it hits the top
it's not gonna go any further I've seen
some people use like a spray foam
insulation and they spray foam around
the cup and that does a pretty good job
holds it in place really well let me
show you what I use guys recognize this
it's just a big thick piece of cardboard
so my wife works in a feed store they
get shipments in with pallets of feed
like grain and I don't know grass seed
even it's like farm related stuff and on
the bottom of those pallets they will
actually put just a wooden pallet
they'll put these cardboard slips on top
of the wooden pallet so I went down
there and I picked up a whole bunch of
these they usually throw these things
out and they've got tons of these and
you could probably find them at any
local farm pet supply kind of store
let's show you how we're gonna work with
this stuff
and get this plant nice and tight and
solid alright so the first thing I do is
I prepare the plant let's get this guy
inside this bag here alright now all
that does is it just prevents any excess
water and moisture from dripping out
into the cardboard that's really
important you don't want this this
cardboard package we got here to arrive
soggy and wet because it's just gonna
get all tore apart and it just doesn't
look good on you the other thing that
I'll do is just push this little label
right down in there you always want to
label your plants he'll arrive with the
label intact and you'll be able to see
exactly what he has here I think it's
really important you always label what
you're sending people even if they know
what they ordered from you because you
don't want things to get mixed up you
don't want them to get confused down the
road if they mix their own plants up
they got the label right there with it
now the next thing that I'll do is I
want to keep all of this bark from
flying out all over the package so I
take a paper towel and usually moisten
it a little bit after I put it in but I
just kind of I'll fold it so I've got a
nice
rip and then I just pack it down into
the plant let's see if you can I just
kind of pack it down right along the
edges so you can see it's just covering
the bark all the way around the plant
there and keeping it from flying around
and it actually keeps the top of the
soil moist there because I'm gonna put a
few drops of water around there just
lightly moisten this paper towel all
right so the next thing we got to do is
tape over the top of this plastic bag
around this stalk here so that nothing
comes out of the cup all right so now
we've got this guy all packaged up
really nice and tight I've put the
plastic bags around got it all taped it
nice and tight around the stalk now
there's a few little gaps in there is
nothing is gonna be perfect but you're
trying to prevent things from flopping
around that's a nice tight sealed
container nothing's gonna go anywhere
and now for the real excitement guys the
part that I think is just so ingenious
but you know I got a brag about myself
nobody else is gonna do it for me so I
just take whatever box I'm putting it in
and I set it right to the edge one edge
of the paper down here we're gonna just
set it right against that edge right
with the edge of the box it doesn't have
to be perfect it's paper it's gonna flex
it's gonna mold or whatever you put it
into then I come down to this end with a
nice pair of scissors here and I just
cut it I don't need I don't measure it I
don't draw lines it's just packaging and
I just cut it to the same width
sometimes slightly over in case I need
to cut it down but I cut it just the
same width all the way down the length
of the cardboard all right so we got our
plant on its side and then you want to
make sure that this way the plant is
within the edges of this cardboard here
and then on top of that I try to get the
bulk of the weight which is going to be
here it's centered as possible but
giving plenty of room for the leaves
because you don't want to package it's
real lopsided or it can flip around you
know is some of these postal workers
likes to play football now I just take a
piece of tape and I just stick it to the
back side of the pot here I run it down
the back side we take another piece of
tape
and I put it underneath the plant I've
done this with all plants I shipped I've
just gotten a little system down that
seems to work well you put it underneath
this stem here and you tape the bottom
or the top the top of the cup then I
take one more piece of tape gonna be a
big one and we just go right over the
top try to keep it kind of cinched up to
it so there's essentially what we've got
guys we've got the plant laying down on
the cardboard construction paper or
whatever you want to call it it's a
thinner material you can see not really
cardboard but it's taped down really
well I went over the top of this guy
three different times I've got one piece
along the back one piece along the front
here I mean this plant is solid it's
staying with the cardboard so now we
know the plant can't flop up and down in
the box break branches or anything like
that now the final thing we're gonna do
if you haven't guessed by now so we're
going to roll this guy up so I'll just
grab the end of it and I'll roll it
along the edge of the top of the cuff
that's kind of this the toughest most
stiff point in that Cup and once we roll
several rolls of this cardboard it makes
it hard and tight while I'm rolling
initially I ten defend these leaves and
I want to make sure everything is nice
and looks tight in there it is gonna do
really well during shipping and then I
try to just keep the edges of the
cardboard in line and then I've got a
piece of tape ready here that's the
hardest part at the end we got it taped
down and that's it guys that is a
beautifully wrapped little fig plant and
I'll show you inside what it looks like
here see that all tucked away it's nice
and safe and it's little cardboard can
cocoon there and everything saw that
everything's tight here's the bottom end
it's not gonna go anywhere
this guy is it's solid in there this guy
is just gonna be fine during shipping
now because we cut this cardboard to the
same size of the box it's gonna fit
beautifully right in there
now we've got our box with a plant in it
everything's nice and tight
that plants not going anywhere that guy
is strong and tight we're gonna do one
more thing though the guy who bought
this fig is really concerned about
freezing whether he lives in Connecticut
it gets very cold there colder than here
and it stays colder for longer into the
spring now we're in the 60s during the
day and the 40's at night and so I mean
this fig is just gonna be fine shipping
in our area but over there they're still
in the 30s I looked ahead in the
forecast and they're not showing any
twenty degree days at all
or in the 20s and so I think we're
plenty safe to send this it's March no
it's April it's a couple days into April
now and we shouldn't have a problem at
all but the one thing I want to do
because I know he's really concerned
about it is I'm gonna put some bubble
wrap around it just to make sure that
we've got extra frost protection
it'll also fill in the gap in the box
here the box is slightly bigger than
what we've got there and there's our end
result guys I've kind of wrapped in the
bubble wrap here and really that's just
gonna be there to make it tighter in the
box it's gonna add some layer of
protection against frost now all we have
to do is slip into our box package that
guy up with tape real tight and it's
gonna be ready to ship all right guys
well there it is I ended up putting a
little bit of paper bag over it because
the box was kind of ugly taped it up
real good printing my postage off and
I'm ready to ship this guy now a lot of
people may say Mike it's a little bit
excessive man but you got to think of it
as a project it's like when your kid is
in school and they're trying to create
an environment for that egg so that when
the teacher drops it from the 2-story
building it doesn't crack what it lands
on the pavement this is the egg man and
we're gonna make sure it arrives in good
shape you could throw this thing around
like a football now although I wouldn't
recommend that but it's solid in there
it's tight and strong it's not going
anywhere the one thing that you
absolutely need to remember is this if
you were wanting to receive a plant if
you went online and you paid good money
for a plant that you were
Diane to get and you were ready to get
that planned how would you want it to
arrive
you should be packaging your plants in
the same way you would want to receive
them and that's why it takes so much
time and effort to make sure this thing
arrives in great condition so Jared I
hope you enjoy your black Madera kay-kay
it's a beautiful little plant should
grow great through the summer all right
so now you've seen how I've packaged
this thing I hope I did a good job we're
gonna find out let's go over to Jared in
Connecticut just a few days later and
see how this thing arrived okay so Mike
Kiki asked me to do an opening an
unboxing video of and this thing
actually looks we have some wonderfully
and I'm thinking the best way to
okay okay
Wow okay so far so good
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how many things are on there already
that's awesome
cool hey thanks Mike alright take care
man
Jerry great video I really appreciate it
you did an awesome job man so you guys
can see this thing got packaged up well
here it arrived well there that helps me
see exactly how the thing arrived to so
I wasn't is as as as excited to get that
video from him is you guys are to see it
now if you guys liked this video hit the
like button subscribe if you want to
follow along and see all kinds of
awesome gardening videos this spring and
summer I hope you guys have an awesome
week until next time adios
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