Friday, September 23, 2011

Hoya gardening in bottles ?


It would be great to ship Hoya rooted in closed bottles, assuming that, in their own environment where they rooted and exchanged, they could do better than sent bare rooted in cartons. But plants need air around them. Here are two pictures showing an experiment with Hoya : cuttings were inserted in humid sphagnum moss in those bottles. Although caps were not on at the beginning only 30% survived fungi infections .. but they did poorly.

In a similar experiment with Pachira seeds in smaller bottles, sown while caps were removed, fungi covered the seed on the left, the seedling on the right is doing poorly.

No doubt that what makes problem is the size
of the containers and the water adjustment.. Experienced growers know that large enough closed containers for air circulation are effective to grow plants.

Hoya and other plant collections are for sale on aleyagarden.com Plant care is available in various posts of this blog. Contact : aleyagarden@hotmail.com

Find all Aleyagarden posts on http://aleyagarden-blog.blogspot.com


Thursday, September 22, 2011

Why don't you memorize instructions and address of past orders ?

One day Aleyagarden received a question from a repeat buyer off site:
- why did you take my last shipment for the address ? ( instead of the paypal address of the order )

And the following day this question, from an other repeat buyer off site :
- why did not you take my last shipment for packing instructions ?

In one case : " why did you ", in the second " why did not you "

Aleyagarden does not use records of addresses and instructions : every order, including repeat off site orders must come with address, name, tel number, plant name, quantity, weight, subtotal and instructions. None of the information is memorized for use in future shipments.
Why orders must come with calculations, and more on orders off site here : http://aleyagarden-dracaena.blogspot.com/2011/02/orders-off-site-with-calculations.html

Hoya and other plant collections are for sale on aleyagarden.com Plant care is available in various posts of this blog. Contact : aleyagarden@hotmail.com

Find all Aleyagarden posts on http://aleyagarden-blog.blogspot.com

Saturday, September 17, 2011

Floods in Nonthaburi disrupt Aleyagarden posting schedules

Aleyagarden is located in Phang Nga and Nonthaburi; the latter province is hard-hit by floods from September to November, that seem to increase every year. Collapsing structures such as dams or gates render flood levels difficult to predict and protect against. As Aleyagarden produce Hoya and other collection plants on their sites in Nonthaburi and Phang Nga provinces their customers can be assured that the plants are available, and usually in good sizes : it takes a few minutes at the nursery to pick them up, there is no need for re supplying to use roads that can be cut off. However the dates of shipping may be disrupted.

There could be a positive outcome of these record high floods : to make us understand that we can respond to a high loss of value by sharing a part of it socially, instead of using poisonous chemicals to all leaving organisms in some illusory battles against pathogens : some assistance taken from taxes will be granted to some of the poorest who suffered most and to some companies. We cannot avoid this way to combat floods that will be increasing each year to already unbearable levels. Instead of using poisonous chemicals to cope with the
agriculture and horticulture losses which are driven by pathogen bearing insects we should follow the example of what we are already doing with the floods : accept to some extent the losses and bear them collectively. It is a great chance that lobbies of the pesticide industries have nothing to offer to combat the floods.
http://aleyagarden-polemiques.blogspot.com/2011/03/imidacloprid-from-bayer-used-in.html


Hoya and other plant collections are for sale on aleyagarden.com Plant care is available in various posts of this blog. Contact : aleyagarden@hotmail.com

Find all Aleyagarden posts on http://aleyagarden-blog.blogspot.com

Friday, September 16, 2011

No EMS to Metropolitan France ? One of two incongruities on the rate-page of the Thai Post


  The picture shows  various options for sending a parcel to France : 1- France, 1 - France again ( the same page of rates, this additional choice is a misleading redundancy ), 2 -France Metropolitan, 3 - French Guiana, 4 - French Polynesia, 5 - French Southern and Antarctic Territories.

Since several years the France Metropolitan rate page shows no EMS option, although this option is on the France rate page : 
Probably the word Metropolitan was understood in some process in the reverse sense : as territories or islands or whatever which is not the mainland; or in " non metropolitan " the " non " would have been accidentally deleted;  but then why the choices 3, 4 an 5 ?

[ Add. In 2013 the correction has not yet been made.]

As I was told on the phone by employees of the Thai post that their French partner ( French Post, or Chronopost I presume ) was responsible for not accepting EMS in the metropolitan France in signed conventions I suggested that someone at the Thai post could verify the meaning of " metropolitan " and take action so that the choice "Metropolitan France" be removed as it is from the postal rate page and users of the post would avoid unintended activities that are time and money consuming.
 By the same token one of the two identical choices : France , could also  be removed. [Add. that has been done finally after some time ]

No post in the world offer the choice of a "Metropolitan France" not served by EMS : all post offices abroad identify the metropolitan France as France.

I emailed the address of this post
on 16 September 2011 to postalcare@thailandpost.co.th and through their request form. Their French partners La Poste and Chronopost don't have email addresses.


On the right a map representing Metropolitan France;









Hoya and other plant collections are for sale on aleyagarden.com Plant care is available in various posts of this blog. Contact : aleyagarden@hotmail.com

Find all Aleyagarden posts on http://aleyagarden-blog.blogspot.com


Hoya, Hoya seeds, Orchid seeds, Ferns, Fern spores and other plant collections are for sale on aleyagarden.com Plant care is available in various posts of this blog. Contact : aleyagarden@hotmail.com

Find all Aleyagarden posts on http://aleyagarden-blog.blogspot.com

Friday, September 9, 2011

Express service for envelopes to Brazil


Is there an express service like EMS for envelopes to Brazil ?
Yes EMS document, but it is expensive.
Please click on the picture to see all the available options for a 135 gr content. The Additional column is for additional registration.

In September 2011 it would cost 900 + registration 65 THB to send an EMS envelope of 135 gr.

At a Paypal rate of 28.6 THB per $ and their 3.5% fee we get : 965/28.6 = 33.75$; x 3.5% = 1.18. Adding a part of the fixed fee of 0.35$ per transaction we get a total of 35$

For the other options the calculation is the same, for instance with Small Parcel Air at 90 THB : 90+65 /28.6, x 3.5% and rounding up to add part of the fixed Paypal fee.

Hoya and other plant collections are for sale on aleyagarden.com Plant care is available in various posts of this blog. Contact : aleyagarden@hotmail.com

Find all Aleyagarden posts on http://aleyagarden-blog.blogspot.com

Saturday, September 3, 2011

Which day is best for posting parcels ?

Is Monday the best day ?

- SHORT ANSWER : during the week ends sorting stations work at the posts and planes fly but Customs don't work; if the arrival country has a fast postal service, then THURSDAY is the best choice for posting parcels because these parcels take usually from 24 to 48 hrs before take off whatever the distance to the airport they are posted; and travelling in plane during the week-end is usually followed by an early arrival in the week ( Monday or Tuesday ) on the conveyor belt of the arrival country; on that condition parcels have a higher probability of being picked before the next week-end. ( ie : an arrival after the Wednesday may prevent the parcel from being picked up for delivery before the week-end ).


- LONG ANSWER : All parcels may be delayed by the Customs non working during the week end, whatever the day these parcels were posted : the rule is first out from the container first in the queue on a conveyor belt and all parcels picked from this conveyor for customs inspection will be delayed in the same way.
From this conveyor the sorting is done randomly. Assuming that the sorting is not done 24 hours and 7 days a week we want the parcel to queue as early as possible on the conveyor belt so it has the highest probability of being picked during working time : a parcel being on the conveyor as early as Monday morning has a higher chance of leaving the conveyor before Saturday than a parcel arriving on this conveyor a Wednesday for instance.

When to mail a parcel in Bangkok or at Phuket international airport so it can be on the conveyor belts abroad on Monday morning ? Assuming an average 48 hours in transport between Thailand and the destination country, Thursday or Friday should be the best days for posting your parcels. A small Parcel Air posted on a Thursday in Bangkok would arrive on the foreign conveyor on Sunday. With a fast postal service like in some European countries the parcel would typically stay in the sorting station 24 hours before being dispatched for delivery, taking 24 to 48 hours : it would be delivered luckily on Tuesday or most probably Wednesday. So the total time of travel from posting to delivery would be 6 days. With 1 more day delivery would be on Thursday, total 7 days. Would the parcel be diverted to the customs, the delivery would be delayed 48 hours, up to the Friday : total 8 days from posting to delivery.
A small parcel air posted on a Monday in Bangkok would be delivered luckily on Friday and typically on a Saturday in the same fast service : total 5 days. With 1 more day ( a more probable situation ) , delivery would be on Monday, total 7 days. But if it were directed to the customs, as they don't work on Saturday, with the average time spent of 48 hours the delivery would be necessarily postponed to Wednesday : total 9 days from posting to delivery.
Shipping small parcel air on Thursday seems the best option if we take in account the most typical situations instead of the luckiest : in a fast service 6 - 8 days versus the 7 - 9 days of the Monday posting.
But the average time in most counties is 10 - 12 days so that the parcels normally stay in the postal system over the week end; therefore the day of mailing does not matter : posted anytime from Monday to Saturday all small parcels air queuing on the conveyor belts will take 10 - 12 days to be delivered.

What about posting at Phuket International airport ?
EMS parcels from there take planes to Bangkok airport so they arrive at the sorting station of this airport faster than if carried from anywhere else in Bangkok and Thailand by truck.
Small air parcels are carried by trucks the day of posting if posted at Khok Kloi post office in our area before 15 : 30. When posted there, small air parcels take as much time as if they were posted in Bangkok : this is probably because what matters is the time of the registration at the post for loading the parcels on a plane, not the distance to the plane : queuing on a night truck or in a warehouse at Bangkok airport doesn't make any difference.

Hoya, Hoya seeds, Orchid seeds, Ferns, Fern spores and other plant collections are for sale on aleyagarden.com Plant care is available in various posts of this blog. Contact : aleyagarden@hotmail.com

Find all Aleyagarden posts on http://aleyagarden-blog.blogspot.com