What To Do With The Plant After Shipping

What to do with plants after you receive them in the mail. So if they're looking good if they're looking not good somewhere in between did they have yellowing leaves? Are the leaves damaged is the soil dry is the soil wet, it's easy to miss what's going on?

Now some Aroids are obviously fussier than others. But generally, the information kind of applies to all of them.

You receive a cutting

There seem to be no issues at all everything looks completely and only as it was on the image when you board on the website. I don't know if many people know this, but this is reasonably typical of what you might get, a plant that does not look the best.

So if your plant does arrive like this just take off the moss and pop it straight into the water, yes water. I would say to do this for a minimum of 24 hours if you're going to do it for longer than 24 hours make sure you change the water you know every single day just to make sure the water stays fresh. 

If your plant wasn't quite plumb enough prior to doing this it certainly will be now 100% you should see the plant completely and totally plump back up. Once you're ready to put your plant up make sure you put it into a really well-draining arid mix. Keep it moist keep it humid all the stuff you'd normally do. 

If you have imported a really large leaf Anthurion like Anthurium Queen or something like that, it would be helpful to either bag up the plant just to make sure the humidity stays right up. Because that's like the first thing that can go wrong with all these big exotic Anthuriums, Anthurium Regale is another one as well. That's terrible when that ship's crystalline them can be a bit finicky to anything bid and exotic you're probably going to want.

If your plant is a Monstera you probably don't need to keep it in the water quite as you know as long as you probably would have with other plants like Philodendron you probably need to keep that in the water much longer maybe 72 hours. Monstera you can just do for 24 hours and then pop that right off. Monstera tends to recover so much faster than a lot of other types of plants, to be honest with you. So if you've got a Monstera don't worry so much you should be good.

Plant arrives in moss or tissue paper: all seems fine

• remove the plant from the packaging
• put it in a jar of water
• replace water daily
• pot up after a few days
• Monstera only need 24 hours 
• non-water-loving plants-use moss instead

If your plant has not come in moss it's actually potted up

So if you receive your plant and for whatever reason, you know the plant looks absolutely fine, but the soil is absolutely sopping wet what you need to do is you need to put this plant in a warm place and not water at all. At least for a week until that thing dries out. 

To actually pop that on a heat mat if you've got one just because the heat mats actually going to allow like extra water to evaporate from that pot as well as the plant actually consuming more. So it kind of works as a double-whammy for getting rid of that extra water.

Plant potted in soil or coir etc: the soil is soaking wet

• do not water the plant
• place in a warm area
• heat mats really help
• leave it alone
• check on progress

If your plant has arrived and it is potted up and the soil is absolutely bone desert dry

And what you need to do is place it into a bowl of water you know a shallow bowl and water from the bottom upward. So you take your plant you put it into a bowl you feel maybe an inch that bowl with water and the plant will slowly take it up from the bottom. Once that top substrate is actually damp you can remove it from the bowl and just place the plant where you'd normally place it. 

If you water it right through you can actually initiate root rot. So be super careful. This is actually the reason why we're watering from the bottom up it's so that we do not overwater it. So the plant can take what it needs and it's not just gonna be you know completely flushed through. 

Plant potted in soil or coir etc: the soil is bone dry

• place pot in water (1inch)
• when top soil is moist remove the plant and place it somewhere to recover

So what do you do if your plant arrives and it looks great and the soil is moist and everything seems fine

The answer is you do nothing for a week. Do not repot your plant. So what you need to do you need to take your plant and let it acclimate if it arrives sine and it seems fine nothing seems wrong don't touch it it's like the old saying if it ain't broke don't fix it leave it for one week to make sure that it can you know just rest and deal with the stress of transit.

That the plant has undoubtedly undergone it's like if you are jet-lagged from a massive right and you get home from the airport and you immediately have to move house. Like would you do that no you wouldn't you would rest first for a week think of it that way you are causing so much stress to your plants by doing that?

Even if they look fine because they might look fine they might not be fine transit shock doesn't always happen straight away if that makes any sense. Honestly, they can arrive and be absolutely beautiful and they'll be just totally golden for the best part of the week. And then all of a sudden gone, just look and terrible ok so it can happen please just let your plant rest for a week you will have a much happier plant if you do this.

Plant potted in soil or coir etc: soil is moist

• do nothing 
• seriously, do nothing 
• do not repot
• do nothing
• PLZ
• wait a week 

What to do if the plant is not looking so good you know it's arrived it's just not it hasn't had a good time for whatever reason

The first thing I would like you to do is if you receive your plants in the mill you open it however it's boxed however it's packaged it doesn't matter. The first thing I want you to do if the plant looks a little bit crap is to take photographs of the plant do not disturb the plants in any way. Leave it in its original packaging whether that is you know moss or it's you know potted or take pictures of the plant and speak with your seller. 

So I'm speaking on behalf of all sellers here it's very very helpful if you take images of the plant on arrival. If you suspect if the box has been kind of bashed around I would take a picture of that as well I know it sucks. But so many things can go wrong in the shipping process okay, so when you do take pictures of these plants and you do communicate with your seller please do not assume it is your seller's fault. Because so many things can go wrong in shipping so many things could go wrong in shipping. It could be just a temperature drop that no one falls. 

So it could be that the courier mistreated the package that happens a lot it could just be because that particular species of the plant just does not travel well it's just notorious for being difficult you know to ship it could be many many reasons. So make sure you take a photograph of your plant before you do anything before you remove leaves before anything. 

So what do you do if the plant arrives like really not good? Like yellowing leaves droopiness maybe even mushy stems

So we need to check the plant for rot this does include the roots and the stem if we find any rot we need to chop that off. If we see any yellowing leaves we can remove those immediately as the plant has obviously lost the root system and for whatever reason, it cannot support these extra leaves.

So you could leave them but they're gonna go anyway if they're gone yellow that's a game over for our leaves. So remove those and it can be a good idea I know nobody's gonna like this. But it can be a good idea to remove up to two-thirds of the healthy leaves on the plant. This is basically because f that plants have suffered root rot. It's not gonna sustain those leaves either they're gonna die anyway. So if you do remove those leaves the plant now has more energy to actually recover whereas if you kept the leaves on it wouldn't.

Any water left in the meristem is conserved so it's not actually gonna be sent out elsewhere the plant will be able to retain more water kind of for the long haul think of it that way to keep this plant alive. 

So once we've checked the roots we've cut off the raw we've maybe decided to remove a couple of extra leaves along with the yellowing leaves. The best thing you could now do would be to put your plant into the water. Especially if that plant is you know Philodendron and Monstera and Alocasia. 

So put it in water replace the water every day and do not pop this plant until you can see a healthy root system you know coming in. That could take a while that could take a good two weeks but you are massively improving your chances of survival if you leave that plant in the water while it roots if you put it in soil and it doesn't really have roots it's not really gonna root. 

Droopy, yellow leaves, mushy areas:

• examine the roots
• remove all visible rot
• remove yellow leaves
• remove extra leaves
• place in water
• do not repot until there is a decent root system

When rehabbing plants in water:

• use cool water and NOT warm water

This will reduce the chance of rot.

• keep plants separate from one another 

This will reduce any potential rot from spreading.

•  DO NOT FEED THE PLANTS

They don't have a good root system and they are under stress.

When you're having your plant don't go full sunlight I know this is like a super obvious one. But a lot of people might be more tempted to put it in a brighter spot for it to recover faster. 

Don't do it just put it where you'd normally put a plant grow lights are okay but try and keep it a bit shaded just don't give the plant more than it can deal. With we're trying to reduce stress on the plant. So give it some life, but just don't get carried away. Okay, that's the best way I can put it don't get carried away. 

But if you do have something high humidity putting it inside a bag or cloche or some things to keep that humidity up will really really help your plant to recover. Okay, so this one isn't a tip it's kind of more of a word of warning. 

When rehabbing plants generally:

• don't go full sunlight

Kinda obvious but keep the plant in regular conditions.

• give super-fussy, high-humidity plants more humidity

E.g use a bag or cloche. 

You know heavier stronger leaves that variegation might develop you know a brown spot and you might just get it kind of go brown and just kind of die. It really sucks. Because it's kind of what you paid for, but this can happen in the post in the mail not always. 

I'm not saying it's doom and gloom but it can happen and you will notice it happening if you see a brown crispy spot in you know the middle of your sectoral variation and it just starts to get larger that's basically what's gonna happen. 

Now it's not all bad because obviously, you have the nodes in the plant, and they will you've got the genetics cus you know it's in the stem right. So you can grow a back and get more of them. You know what I mean you haven't lost your variegation you've just lost your leaf and I know it sucks but I just want to let you know that might happen. So not a tip more like a word of warning a little bit.

Plants with large areas of sectoral variegation:

• be prepared for these parts to turn brown and die off

Don't worry you still have good nodes and the plant will grow.

The last tip I have for you is if your plant has arrived and it just looks great there are no issues. And I've told you not to report it just leave it for a week. But for whatever reason, you just feel it welling within you and you cannot control it and you really want to report your plant please don't remove the substrate from the roots. 

Do not shake off the substrate from the roots leave the roots alone. So if you can get that out of you know this pot without disturbing the roots like you know how you'll have all done it before in your eco sometimes it comes out and you know kind of a solid lump on you good. Do not do anything with that just put that into your new part a little bit of a new substrate around it if necessary. But do not disturb the root otherwise you're back to square one and you probably are going to have a lot of shocks to deal with.

If you feel that you must report your plant:

• do so without disturbing the substrate

What do I do if it's and it looks bad but also it looks you know the leaves yellow and everything else I know it's confusing. So what I've done is and this may be slightly unnecessary I don't really know. But I have made a flowchart that I've linked down below. 

1. you can actually follow along according to your plant
2. always speak to your seller when you get the plant
3. when it's not in good condition please do take photos to be polite

Because but nine out of every ten sellers want you to get good plants they don't want to be sending out bed plants because it's bad business for them. So please be polite to them and please do not assume it's something that the seller has done. 

Remember a lot of the plants that you are ordering online have come from countries where just they've and the conditions and the climate are so astronomically different from ours. 

For example, if I get an inferior work and the leaves and it goes all dry and then it just becomes a stump when that does rehab itself. You know a few weeks and a new leaf comes out the best part of this whole process is when that new leaf comes out. 

That's grown in my conditions do you know what I'm saying so when you do rehab these plants and they do produce new grow both the new growth is absolutely gold and because that's growth that's happened in your conditions. So from that point onwards, you're good. 

So there is 100% light at the end of the tunnel please do not lose hope you can do it.