NEED HELP!! Nutmeg tree (Myristica fragrans)

I purchased 2 nutmeg trees. They are about 2 feet tall. They took 9 days to reach me. The roots can wrapped in moist SPHAGNUM moss, no soil. Most of the leaves had been cut in half and they were green. The instructions were to place them in 4 inch pots filled with PEAT moss, not to water, place the whole thing in a plastic bag with a cup of water on the side to create a humid condition with 7 holes for breathing and keep them indoors.

One week later the leaves were brown the trunk still had life so I wrote to the shipper the condition of the plants. They instructed me to water with vit. B but keep the plants in the baggy. Two weeks later one tree is dead. The leave have fallen from the second tree and they are bought still in the house. I REALLLLLYYYYY want the plant to thrive. Is there any suggestions?

9 days in a box during the summer could be too much even for a plant that's shipped in soil, but being shipped bare root is even more stressful so I'm not surprised that the plants are suffering a bit. It's a good sign that the sphagnum moss was still moist when they arrived, but I expect the plants were probably exposed to some pretty hot temperatures during their 9 day trip which would have stressed them. Personally I would try to get replacement plants or money back from the seller, although I wouldn't necessarily give up on these yet, plants can be surprisingly tough sometimes so it's possible that it'll put out some new leaves. If they're willing to send replacements, see if they've got a faster shipping method. Mail order nurseries in some places can only ship to CA if the plants are bare-root so you probably can't get them to change that part, but less days in a box and less exposure to heat will give them a better chance.

I also disagree with some of their post-receipt instructions. Peat moss on its own is not really a suitable potting medium--if it dries out it becomes very hard to re-wet so it's much better if you use a potting mix rather than straight peat. And you definitely should water when you first pot something up--the humidity that you created in the baggie doesn't do much to get water to the roots. I would argue that the baggie thing wasn't necessary (I've never done it with plants I've gotten through mail order), but unless you had the plant/baggie in the sun a bit of extra humidity shouldn't have hurt them.

Last...how big was the root ball on the plants? Based on the size of the pots you have them in I would guess there weren't a ton of roots, and the fact that the leaves had been cut in half makes me wonder if these were barely rooted cuttings which I would definitely not expect to survive 9 days bare-root in the heat.

ecrane3, we agree on this one. LOL.. The cut leaves tell me they were very young newly planted cuttings and were not ready to ship. I also agree I never use that baggie trick on any plants that need humidity. In CA wouldn't she have enough humidity to put them outside with a good drink of water and see what happens? That is what I would do. Or, if they are inside, I use pebbles in water under the plant and create a natural humidity but I always water plants I receive. In fact I use tepid water only on them. Were they shipped over the 4th holiday. If so, they sat someplace over the long holiday. What a sad thing for those poor babies.
I know nothing about the kind of trees you purchased, but I ship starter plants, bare root weekly to the West Coast, but I specify that I will not ship cheaper than Priority just for that reason. Also when the temperature gets above 80, I will only ship locally. For those sellers who use UPS or Fedex they should offer you the different shipping costs and that would then be your problem if you chose the cheaper, which would have been the longest. 9 days, wow, where did it come from? We have our Christmas trees shipped UPS when we buy babies and it is worth the extra shipping to get them in a few days. I would certainly contact the seller and ask when they were shipped and who was the carrier. Unless of course you chose the cheap price, then you have nothing you can do. The Seller should have used better judgment than to ship plants in this hot weather, especially if they came cross country and went through the extreme heat in the southwest to get to you.
I apologize for butting in here, but shipping is one of the things that I am so fussy about and this caught my eye. Have a great day. Good luck with what you have left of those plants. JB

We have the closely related Myristica insipida growing native here, trees of the genus are rainforest plants. They're generally grown from seed. But plants of the size you describe are too large for the pot size you said you were recommended to use. I personally would never use peat moss, sphagnum moss is far better in my opinion. But the main thing with most rainforest plants is to keep them well watered in a fast draining medium. A large plastic bag over the whole of the plant is a good idea to keep humidity in, but should definitely be kept out of direct sun. You're real problem is not knowing what happened to them over the 9 days. In the normal course of events moist sphagnum should have kept them okay despite 9 days, even though that's longer you'd want.

Thank you for all of the input. It gives me a idea of what to do next. I found this info:

The Indian Institute of Spices Research says the soil mix should be as follows (soil: coir dust: sand: vermicompost 1:1:1:1) http://www.academicjournals.org/jmpr/PDF/pdf2010/4Oct/Abirami%20et%20al.pdf.

I have potting soil and sand and worm poop! I was thinking compost instead of instead of coir. My clove tree seems to like it. What say ye!!

Both coir and compost will rot away, compost possibly a bit faster. Coir might rob some nitrogen from the mix. Looking at the analysis of their preferred medium, it has the higher mineral content except for zinc. Your compost would more likely have higher mineral content as well. They don't include nitrogen in their analysis yet it must have a significant impact. Just a few thoughts.

tropicbreeze: WAY over my newbie head! Please advise in layman's terms!!! What soil mix would you suggest? I get the nitrogen but not the zinc. Does my nutmeg require a high or trace zine content?

Thanks bunches!!

The basic mineral element requirements of plants are represented as "NPK". N = nitrogen, P = phosphorus, K = potassium (latin name kalium, hence the K). On fertiliser packs you'll see those letters with numbers. The numbers indicate the ratios of those elements within that particular fertiliser mix. However, there are numerous other elements just as critical but in very small quantities. In fact too much of some of those elements can be toxic. They're referred to as "trace elements" (TE) as only a trace is required. Zinc is one of those trace elements. Different plants require differing amounts of these.

Looking at the list of elements in the various mixes the Indian Institute used you can see the highest numbers (quantities) were in the preferred mix T16. However, zinc in the preferred mix was in the mid range.

This doesn't necessarily indicate that quantity of zinc was a crucial factor. Just that the particular mix in T16 showed better results than the other mixes. You need to read the paper thoroughly to see what they were setting out to prove, and then what they actually did prove. From a quick read of parts I think they wanted to show that whilst vermicompost on its own had an inhibiting effect on growth, when coir dust was added it improved the physical characteristics of the mix which benefitted the plants.

Generally I think the mix you're planning is reasonably good but compost rather than coir probably wouldn't drain as well. You'd need to watch that the mix doesn't get too soggy. When you do fertilise remember to include trace elements. But also remember that after a while there can be a build up of minerals in the pot which will need flushing out or a change of soil. Working outside of nature means you have to perform a balancing act.

tropicbreeze: When I grow up I want to be like you!! Thanks for the info. I will give it a go. Currently I us Dyna Gro GROW liquid fertilizer. It seams to be complete.

Rhapsody, I wouldn't wish that on anybody, LOL.

tooo funny!!