# Treating Plants Stressed from Shipping



## thane (Sep 11, 2014)

Hello,

I've been searching for info online on what's the best way to treat or process plants that are stressed from shipping but not having much luck. I've searched on the forum here and googled also.

This is the best (and pretty much only) thorough article I've found (if you scroll down to the section "When your plants arrive from a mail-order source." Troubleshooting: Problem solving with potted plants - TopTropicals.com

These look like some very interesting tips, but I'm wondering how much of this would translate over to terrarium/vivarium. Specifically, she says to leave them in a dark or shady space for a while before gradually moving them to full sun. But I know that even bright LED lights are not equivalent to full sunlight. Another interesting tip she shares is putting a bag over the crown of plants that are dropping leaves, but again, not sure if this would be necessary in vivarium conditions.



Background: I ordered some a shipment from Ecuador - mostly ferns, some gesneriads and epiphytes, a couple orchids. Due to circumstances beyond the seller's control, the plants have been delayed in shipping and customs a couple times, so it's going to end up being about 12 days total. The plants should hopefully be arriving tomorrow so I'm trying to prepare for their arrival and hopefully resuscitate as many as possible.

My initial plan was to let them soak in RO water for a while to, maybe 15-30 min, then trim any damaged leaves, then put them in ABG mix in some small pots inside a temporary tank, planting some in sphagnum that need more moisture. I've got a spare 40 breeder sitting on it's side with these bright LEDs on top. Tank is 17-18 in. tall when laid on its side. Then I was going to drape some plastic in front, leaving a gap for air movement, with some trays of water inside to raise the humidity, then just treat the plants as I would in a tank, hand misting between 2X/day to every couple days, depending on the plant, and hope they survive. I didn't have any intention of fertilizing, at least for a while. This generally agrees with what the lady in the article recommends, but still not sure how much light to put on them.



I thought I'd ask here as I'm sure other people have experienced the same thing. I thought it would be better asking in advance then struggling and asking about a bunch of different plants individually after the fact. I'd appreciate any guidance or tips anyone can provide.

Thanks,
Thane


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## chillplants (Jul 14, 2008)

Rehydrating is key after long shipping times. Once plants have been situated in whatever soil medium, I usually put them in a low light area of the house. I have a shelf by a north window that doesn't get direct sunlight. They stay here for about a week before I move them into a "QT" tank with lights. Depending on their purpose, the plants may only hang out under lights for a couple days (or usually until the weekend) before I sanitize and prepare them for their final tank.
I make no claims about this being foolproof. I have lost several plants for one reason or another even after carefully handling them after shipping. Mostly begonias and a few ferns here and there.


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## thane (Sep 11, 2014)

Thanks for your response. I had not heard of this keeping them in the shade strategy, so glad to hear someone else is doing that. These are actually going into a plants-only tank (I'm still about a week out from completing it though, so going into a temporary tank tomorrow). I didn't want to put any frogs in with the imported plants due to the chemicals used in the import process, and I didn't want to risk killing the plants by trying to sanitize them before putting into a frog tank. My hope is to get them established in the plant tank and take cuttings of new growth for frog tanks.

One problem with my house is I only really have a few windows that get much light (east facing). I've got a basement window that actually gets decent light that's west facing, so I've got that option too. But do you think I could just put the LEDs on them but do it for a limited number of hours a day? The lights are pretty bright, so another thing I could try is raising the LED bar up, or maybe just using the ambient light in the room (CFL lights). The LED bar is on a timer so I can set it to however many hours a day is optimal.

Thanks again,
Thane


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## cam1941 (Jan 16, 2014)

I had a begonia amphioxus come in the mail looking pretty distressed. As I already knew this plant was sensitive I just gave it some water and put it in a holding tank (in its original soil, no processing) with diffused light. 

Its now doing so well that I'm going to go ahead a let it grow for about 2 months before transplanting it into ABG and putting it in my display.

Its a small plant so I figured I'd let it grow out before risking a transplant.
Hope that helps...


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## thane (Sep 11, 2014)

Thanks - that's a good point too. I'm not sure if these were shipped bare root or potted, so not sure what I'm going to get. I've got some other plants too that are going in the plant tank, in different types of substrate, so when I stuck them all in together I wasn't going to bare root them, just keep them in whatever dirt they came with. So I guess if they come potted I'll just leave them in there - probably less stressful to the roots that way.

I also like your idea about diffusing the light. I do have some lower light plants I'm getting, and that finnex light is BRIGHT so my plant for the plant tank was to put a little window screen over part of the tank to create a more shady zone. Maybe I can do that in the temporary tank tomorrow rather than stick it next to one of my windows. I'd be able to control the temp and humidity better that way anyways.

Thanks again - these are great tips. I'm willing to try anything I can do to save these.


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## chillplants (Jul 14, 2008)

Try putting a 2-3 layers of window screen under the lights. It's easier on the plants to start shaded and adjust to brighter light. Each week you can remove a layer of screen.


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## thane (Sep 11, 2014)

Well I got the shipment this afternoon. Things were in pretty good shape considering how long they were in the mail (12 days total). There were just a couple small ferns were were almost all dead, and the selaginella had dried out somehow. The more delicate foliage plants were a little droopy, like they needed some water to perk up the leaves, and some had some blackened edges around the leaves too. Everything was shipped bare root with wet moss around the roots then foil wrapped around that, then placed in plastic bags. I took everything out. Didn't end up soaking anything in water because what I read didn't seem to indicate that was necessary.

Things are all in plastic cups - larger cups for the ones with larger root systems. Everything's in ABG mix with varying amounts of sphagnum. I wasn't able to find care instructions, so I was just kind of guessing. Stuff that looked like it wanted more drainage was in ABG mix only. Stuff that looked like it wanted to stay moist got more ABG. Stuff that looked epiphytic, or with horizontal type rhizomes, I tried to leave some of the roots exposed and get them a little light by placing the roots on the sides of the clear cups. Ferns I removed any damaged leaves, and removed a couple damaged leaves from the other plants. After planting I put a good amount of water in each cup so that it could soak the roots pretty good. I also gave everything a misting on the leaves (recommended in the link posted previously).

Right now I just have the ambient lights in the room on. I didn't have time to put in the window screen, so starting tomorrow I'll put in some window screen and start using the LED bar over the tank for lighting, gradually increasing over time. I'm also going to drape a sheet of plastic with gaps around the bottom and edges so it gets decent circulation, but hope to have around 70% humidity. Room is at 40% ambient.

Here's some pictures (I turned the LED light on to take these). Pictures are pretty large in case people wanted to zoom in to see how I have individual plants set up.





And here's a couple mosses. The one on the right looks a little dark, I'm assuming because it wasn't able to photosynthesize during the trip. The one on the left looks brighter green. These are just on a thick layer of wet sphagnum, with a little ABG mix below it for drainage. I'm actually planning to give these a little more light, and might loosely cover with plastic wrap right over the top to have close to 100% humidity.




Plant list is below for anyone curious. I'm keeping a build thread in for the tank they're going in in the beginners section.


Asplenium
Barbosella orbicularis
Begonia ludwigii silver
Cochlidium serrulatum 
Elaphoglossum peltatum var. standleyi
Elaphoglossum sp silver
Microgramma pillesoides 
Moss
Moss
Pearcea
Pearcea
Peperomia 
Piper ulceratum 
Piperaceae
Polypodium
Trisetella hoeijeri
Selaginella serecea bronze
Reldia minutiflora


Thanks for reading,
Thane


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