Shipping, Acclimating Plants and Guarantee
Will my plants look exactly like the picture?
The simple answer is yes and no. The photos on each product page are an example of what a mature plant will look like. This is what you can expect the plant to look like once it has grown and filled in.
When we purchase plants they are shipped directly from the farm. Sometimes they are smaller, younger plants while other times they are larger more mature plants. We as the retailer are at the mercy of what the nurseries have available at the time and what they send us.
Our plant sales are growing rapidly and we receive hundreds if not thousands of plants from multiple nurseries each week. Sometimes we purchase so many that the only plants they have left are on the smaller side. This doesn't mean they're bad and doesn't mean they're not valuable, it just means they need a little more time to reach their full potential.
We see this as a good thing. When you buy fish at the pet store you are almost always buying juveniles and part of the enjoyment of this hobby is watching them grow and thrive. We look at plants the same way. You put a smaller plant in your aquarium and come back two weeks later and say "Oh my, look how much it has grown".
Our mission is, has been and always will be to deliver an amazing experience for our customers and to ensure you receive the best experience possible we make suer when we pack your plants you're getting the best specimens we have available.
SHIPPING
We ship live plants Mondays and Tuesdays and Wednesdays if transit times are stated to be 2 days or less, this would risk plants being stuck in shipping over the weekend prolonging delivery.
Live plants are shipped the next shipping day from when they were ordered. Orders for live plants that are placed Wednesday - Saturday will ship the next Monday. Orders placed Sunday and Monday will ship on Tuesday.
Plants are shipped with UPS ground or 3 Day Select for customers in certain areas of the west coast, we will determine which service will deliver the package faster and that service will be utilized.
Tracking information will be sent at the time of label creation which in most cases is the day of shipping. Be sure to add keepfishkeeping@gmail.com to your contacts to ensure the follow up emails do not get placed in your spam folder.
We encourage all customers to monitor the tracking information closely and ensure you have arrangements to have your package brought in out of the elements if you are not home at time of delivery. This is extremely important in the extremely cold or hot months. Our plants are packed and insulated well but a package sitting on a porch in January is doomed no matter how well it's packed. If you are unable to be home for delivery we recommend calling your local post office and request that they hold the package there for pick up. Post offices are climate controlled and will protect packages from extreme weather.
Our plants are packed wrapped in wet paper to keep them damp then placed in plastic bags to ensure they stay hydrated. These bags are then placed in either an insulated pouch or insulated box depending on temperatures. Heat packs or cool packs are included at no extra charge.
ACCLIMATING
We recommend getting your new plants into the water as soon as possible to prevent them from drying out.
When acclimating tissue culture plants, remove the plant from the cup and clean off the gel material from the roots. Once they are cleaned separate into the desired amount of pieces then plant. It's that easy. This is why they call them 1-2 Grow.
When acclimating potted plants it is best to cut the roots that have grown through the pot to ensure they don't rip when removed from the pot. Once the roots are trimmed remove the rock wool from the pot and separate into two halves. Clean off as much of the rock wool as possible (a fork can be used to assist in the removal of the wool).
Once the wool is cleaned off trim the excess roots before planting or attaching. I know this is scary and it took me a while to get use to this but I can assure you this will not kill the plants. We're just removing the excess, not the entire root. This will allow for easier planting and promote new root growth.
The nurseries we've partnered with grow their plants immersed which means they are grown with only the roots submerged in water. When the plants are brought into our facility they're also kept immersed. This promotes faster, more healthier growth. Immersed plants are also considerably hardier for shipping since they're not use to being fully submerged in water.
Don't believe the hype you hear about immersed plants having a difficult time converting to submerged. In our experience of planting hundreds of plants we've had very few experience ill effects after submerging. Those that have bounced back within only a few days or a week.
If you plant your plants in your aquarium and after a couple days notice slight yellowing of the plant do not panic. If your plants have been planted properly and your water is adequately fertilized they'll bounce back very quickly.
Enjoy your new plants and welcome to the KGTropicals family!!
Pests:
We are diligent about monitoring our plants for pests and I wish I could tell you one never gets by us but that would be a lie.
The nurseries we've partnered with grow their plants in large outdoor greenhouses and in those conditions it's impossible to guarantee a snail, leech or stud could ever infiltrate the root ball.
Pasts tagging along and ending up in your aquarium is rare but it can happen and because of this we recommend removing the plants from the rock wool being sure to remove 100% of the wool. Once the rock wool is removed rinse the plant in tap water thoroughly to remove any potential threat of pests. Once the plant is rinsed lay it on a clean paper towel for 10-15 minutes and then inspect the towel, if you don't see anything on the towel rinse the plant again and it's ready to plant in your aquarium. If something unexpected is found on the paper towel repeat the process until the towel is clean.
Guarantee:
We guarantee your plants will arrive to you alive and healthy but sometimes things happen such as unforeseen delays due to weather events or mistakes by the Postal Service, in the event one of these delays occur and your plants do not survive transport we will require photographs of the plants in the bag or immediately after it is removed from the bag.
Photos must be submitted within 2 hours of delivery of your plants. If your plants are melted or dead on arrival a replacement plant will be sent on the next plant shipping day or a site credit can be issued at the customers request.