Thursday, April 25, 2013

Sorting stations of the posts and planes work during the week ends

The two pictures below show tracking information available online : we posted in Thailand on Friday 5 April an EMS parcel for Sweden and on Thursday 18 April a Small parcel air for Poland; the parcels were sorted on Sunday 7 and Sunday 21 at Suvarnabhumi international airport.  Customs clearances in the arrival countries were done on Monday for the EMS parcel ( delivered the following day, on Tuesday ) and on Tuesday for the Small parcel air ( delivered on Thursday ).

Nota : most countries do not have an online tracking system for small parcels air; only EMS parcels can be tracked by all countries. Moreover information is not always reported on the tracking site when it could be available.

In countries with a fast postal system, the cheaper Small parcels air of live plants ( available up to 2000 gr in most countries ) may be preferred to EMS : EMS parcels are more often checked by customs than small parcels.

1- EMS parcel to SWEDEN





2 - Small Parcel Air to  POLAND





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

Wednesday, April 17, 2013

Risk of frozen plants in planes : how cold it gets with altitude.

  I am in Texas , can I safely import live plants from Thailand in April and May ? 
 
Thailand is like Texas in the northern hemisphere and the planes take routes in this hemisphere, where temperature get warmer during these months.

But at anytime of the year the risk of freezing in planes exists when they fly, and this risk is between any two airports, whether it be between 2 distant towns of the same country or between two countries  ( we are not considering temperature at the airports where cargo are downloaded, or in Post office buildings and warehouses etc. where temperature are warmer in spring ).  Indeed at the altitude where planes fly the temperature is less than on ground by more or less 6.5 Celsius per km ( 3 F per 1,000 ft. ) of altitude.
For instance if the temperature in your garden is 25 Celsius in April or May then 9 km above ( where planes can fly ) the temperature is 25 - ( 9 x 6.5 ) = - 33.5 Celsius ( - 92.3 Fahrenheit ) .

In aircrafts the temperature normally flows from the cabin to the hold so temperature and pressure are about the same in cargo holds and cabins : usually holds are only a couple degrees cooler than the main cabin.  But this setup can change from aircraft model to aircraft model and a reader on a http://www.airliners.net, made this comment : " it doesn't usually go below freezing. If you're worried about too hot, that's a little more iffy. "
Adding foam in cartons can be an option, but the cost of transport increases accordingly.

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