Hi everyone! Sorry I haven’t checked in lately, but between our adventure with the power last week and all the fall shipping, we’re running around like crazy over in P&S. Did everyone see our announcement about some of the plants needing to be trimmed before being shipped because they’re so big? Ha — there’s a problem we wish we’d had every season, let me tell you.
Now, on to the discussion of our excelsior (those famous packing peanuts). We have tried, oh we have tried, to use biodegradable materials, and we just haven’t had any luck. The popcorn WAS real, and for a while there we thought we had the perfect solution, but we just couldn’t keep it stored on site. Critters and bugs were drawn to it like you’d expect, so it became a maintenance nightmare. (The whole place smelled great, though. I think we all got the munchies whenever they were popping up a new batch!)
Then there was the biodegradable peanut, which seemed to be the answer to everything. It broke down all right — DURING SHIPPING if it got the least bit wet or moist, which in the heat was about 80% of the time. And when it broke down in the packing box, it turned to mush. Not good for the leaves on our plants at all. It was a real disappointment.
The plastic peanut has been our mainstay for many seasons now. Nothing else is as light, or as good at taking up space without hurting the plants. We hate that it’s not biodegradable, but customers have come up with some great ways to use them in their gardens. The most common is as "filler" for the bottom of large containers; apparently they do a good job letting some air into the container and saving on layers and layers of expensive potting soil for plants that aren’t that deep-rooted. I know some folks grind them down and use them in homemade potting soil, too.
So that’s the tale of our excelsior. Right now we’re getting great feedback about the fall plants, so I think our new shipping schedule combined with the pot boxes for bigger plants is a success. Of course, some zones have just opened, so I might be counting my chickens, but so far so good.
Randy Hagood