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Here's something I was forced to put up in a couple of gardening groups in my local area today. I was just wondering about your opinions of this. Is this normal?
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Plant & See Nursery is kind of a problem. I refuse to do business with them any more. I will let you decide for yourself at the end of this story (evidence included). I would recommend you do the same. They no longer care about their customers, or their business, or even plants! I hope you will share this on your social media, because this is a story that needs to be told. These folks need to know this is not how you treat customers.
Let's begin with a few months ago. I bought some wheat straw from them and brought it home. I had asked when I called, while I was there AND while I was paying if this had been treated with herbicide. Thrice I asked and thrice I was assured it was not. When I got it home, I applied it to a watermelon bed, 1 out of 2 planted within a few days of each other. I also used this on my peppers bed, and my potatoes/sweet potatoes bed, and I put the rest of the bale (I bought 2) into my homemade compost bins (6 bins, 4x4x4, so abour $2,500 worth of compost).
It turns out that this straw had been sprayed with a herbicide called AMINOPYRALID. This was confirmed by the type of damage (leaves curling up, new growth being stunted and curling from the edges, yellowing leaves) but also by what plants are targetted. Beans are the most susceptible, followed by solanaceae including peppers, potatoes, tomatoes, etc, then by cucurbits like watermelon and squash. In the potato bed, the potatoes keeled over pretty much immediately. Within weeks. I harvested what I could, it was all pretty small. The sweet potatoes, not being in the solanaceae family (they are a type of morning glory believe it or not!), thrived and took over the bed. The peppers stayed 6 inches tall for 5 months and just recently died in the August sun, six inches tall since it was put in in late April. I saved a few of the luffa and watermelon by pulling the mulch off the bed after the potatoes died, but they were still quite stunted and frost will probably kill them before they fruit. The other watermelon plant, that didn't get mulched with this (it received cattails from my neighbor's farm) was about 14 foot wide at this point, while the other one was maybe a 2 foot vine. Photos included.
I contacted Plant & See once I had used a bean test to confirm it was the mulch. I put a quick-germinating bean in a cell, got it to two true leaves like I always do and put it right in. I did this with 4 different plants and all displayed aminopyralid damage then death immediately. They could not have cared less. They said their straw came from a reputable source, the biggest in North Carolina, and they have limited options which they could spray it with. Remember that I had been told multiple times, including in the phone call earlier in the week when I was told two things very clearly: #1 the boss lady was on vacation and #2 they did not have herbicide in the straw. Once they returned from vacation -- I wasn't going to stress them while they were out of town -- they responded in such a hostile fashion, like of course they use herbicide, duh. They responded as though I was the bad guy for asking, but their staff were telling people this product was herbicide-free so I had to contact the EPA. They were continuing to sell this product knowing it was tainted. I'm still waiting for the EPA results, I'll update this thread with that information when I receive it. But I can confirm that from the time I put that report in in June until today, 8/24/2021, they are still telling people their product does not have herbicide, despit the Lassiters clearly admitting it does.
At that point I decided I would never shop there again. But I had already shopped there, and it turns out that came back to bite me in the butt. You see, I bought a tree called STRAWBERRY VERTE from them, among a few other trees. This produces a GREEN fig when ripe, hence VERTE in the name. The fig that this tree they sold me produced was violete, quite an unexpected color. I called, spoke to the tree guy in the back, and when I identified myself as the guy who had had issues with the straw he said "no, no, our straw doesn't have herbicide" (so they're still telling people that as of 8/24/2021) then was told to send the boss lady an email. I did, and she did not even have the courtesy to look at the photos. I'll include evidence of all of this, but notice that the tree in question is CLEARLY in a pot, correct? Notice this lady CLEARLY tells me to "dig it up" if I want to get a refund, and that she only acquires plants from reputable sources, but she can't remember who those sources are. In the fruit tree game, where it takes up to 8 years or more for fruit to bear, that is simply unacceptable. But equally unacceptable would be her not realizing from that photo that that fig was in a container, the same container she sold it to me in, with the same label she sold it to me with. I'm not sure how they can't go look at that label and determine where it came from, but I must conclude that they don't truly care.
Please share this and leave a comment if you think this is as unacceptable as I do.
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Plant & See Nursery is kind of a problem. I refuse to do business with them any more. I will let you decide for yourself at the end of this story (evidence included). I would recommend you do the same. They no longer care about their customers, or their business, or even plants! I hope you will share this on your social media, because this is a story that needs to be told. These folks need to know this is not how you treat customers.
Let's begin with a few months ago. I bought some wheat straw from them and brought it home. I had asked when I called, while I was there AND while I was paying if this had been treated with herbicide. Thrice I asked and thrice I was assured it was not. When I got it home, I applied it to a watermelon bed, 1 out of 2 planted within a few days of each other. I also used this on my peppers bed, and my potatoes/sweet potatoes bed, and I put the rest of the bale (I bought 2) into my homemade compost bins (6 bins, 4x4x4, so abour $2,500 worth of compost).
It turns out that this straw had been sprayed with a herbicide called AMINOPYRALID. This was confirmed by the type of damage (leaves curling up, new growth being stunted and curling from the edges, yellowing leaves) but also by what plants are targetted. Beans are the most susceptible, followed by solanaceae including peppers, potatoes, tomatoes, etc, then by cucurbits like watermelon and squash. In the potato bed, the potatoes keeled over pretty much immediately. Within weeks. I harvested what I could, it was all pretty small. The sweet potatoes, not being in the solanaceae family (they are a type of morning glory believe it or not!), thrived and took over the bed. The peppers stayed 6 inches tall for 5 months and just recently died in the August sun, six inches tall since it was put in in late April. I saved a few of the luffa and watermelon by pulling the mulch off the bed after the potatoes died, but they were still quite stunted and frost will probably kill them before they fruit. The other watermelon plant, that didn't get mulched with this (it received cattails from my neighbor's farm) was about 14 foot wide at this point, while the other one was maybe a 2 foot vine. Photos included.
I contacted Plant & See once I had used a bean test to confirm it was the mulch. I put a quick-germinating bean in a cell, got it to two true leaves like I always do and put it right in. I did this with 4 different plants and all displayed aminopyralid damage then death immediately. They could not have cared less. They said their straw came from a reputable source, the biggest in North Carolina, and they have limited options which they could spray it with. Remember that I had been told multiple times, including in the phone call earlier in the week when I was told two things very clearly: #1 the boss lady was on vacation and #2 they did not have herbicide in the straw. Once they returned from vacation -- I wasn't going to stress them while they were out of town -- they responded in such a hostile fashion, like of course they use herbicide, duh. They responded as though I was the bad guy for asking, but their staff were telling people this product was herbicide-free so I had to contact the EPA. They were continuing to sell this product knowing it was tainted. I'm still waiting for the EPA results, I'll update this thread with that information when I receive it. But I can confirm that from the time I put that report in in June until today, 8/24/2021, they are still telling people their product does not have herbicide, despit the Lassiters clearly admitting it does.
At that point I decided I would never shop there again. But I had already shopped there, and it turns out that came back to bite me in the butt. You see, I bought a tree called STRAWBERRY VERTE from them, among a few other trees. This produces a GREEN fig when ripe, hence VERTE in the name. The fig that this tree they sold me produced was violete, quite an unexpected color. I called, spoke to the tree guy in the back, and when I identified myself as the guy who had had issues with the straw he said "no, no, our straw doesn't have herbicide" (so they're still telling people that as of 8/24/2021) then was told to send the boss lady an email. I did, and she did not even have the courtesy to look at the photos. I'll include evidence of all of this, but notice that the tree in question is CLEARLY in a pot, correct? Notice this lady CLEARLY tells me to "dig it up" if I want to get a refund, and that she only acquires plants from reputable sources, but she can't remember who those sources are. In the fruit tree game, where it takes up to 8 years or more for fruit to bear, that is simply unacceptable. But equally unacceptable would be her not realizing from that photo that that fig was in a container, the same container she sold it to me in, with the same label she sold it to me with. I'm not sure how they can't go look at that label and determine where it came from, but I must conclude that they don't truly care.
Please share this and leave a comment if you think this is as unacceptable as I do.
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