Decided a few days ago to place a last minute sping order from Cummins of a few apple and pear roostock and a peach tree. To my surprise when I opened the box today along with my order was 2 - 50 count buddles of G-41 rootstock.
A few of the rootstock are starting to leaf out, I have not contacted Cummins yet but I find it unlikely the extra rootstock was a mistake with my small order. Could it be they were needing to get rid of them quickly and maybe wanted to show appeciation for me ordering from them the last 5 years?
Anyway, I only need a couple and have no desire to sell apple trees or mail them to anyone. I am located in a northern suburb of Atlanta, if anyone out there would like some free Geneva 41 rootstock and donât coming to my place to pick them up, I will be happy to share the bounty with you and would enjoy meeting some fellow fruit growers, Chris.
Wow, what a haul! Each one of those is $2.75 (with 100+ discount), so I canât imagine why theyâd just give them away. I wish I wasnât a thousand miles away, I wouldnât mind a few. I didnât know rootstocks were so long, I figured theyâd be two feet long max, but Iâve never seen one before.
Didnât you get a tree or two on G11? How have they done for you? I ordered an Alkmene from them on that RS, and planted it Thu.
I think 2 bundles of 50 g41 rootstock were absolutely a mistake and offering them to other people before you have the permission of Cummins to do so would also be a mistake. This stock has a value of $275 according to their website. This no different than losing your watch or other merchandise and having a customer say, how nice, I just hit the watch lottery.
Call Cummings Mon., and ask them if they gifted you 100 g41 stock. Iâll bet they wonât want them back and then you can offer them to others.
Before I even read Bobâs comment I was sitting here thinking âwhy in the world are they so long?â. Iâd have thought 2 ft max. Are these normal for RS? If so, why so long? Just curious.
Cummins is having real problems this year - they canceled my order for Cherry trees and I did a round with Tino and Steve Cummins over that. Backed off because they said there order from Stark Bros was canceled (I thought thought they grew there own). Then I look on there website today and they have the trees I canceled. I have ordered from them before with good success but they wonât be my first choice after this year âŚ
Well, I donât know if it was a mistake or not. Personally Iâve had really good luck with Cummins and most of my present orchard originated there; I like the folks there. Wish I was in the Atlanta area though because Iâd definitely take 10 or a dozen and teach myself some grafting techniques.
That seems like a mistake. While you have no legal obligation to fix their mistake for them, this might mean that someone somewhere is pining for those rootstocks. It would be nice of you to let Cummins know so they realize they still owe rootstocks to someone.
If you donât want to ship them, you could offer them in the Atlanta Fruits Club/Southern Piedmont Fruit Growers Facebook group, and/or the Southern Fruit Fellowship. Iâm tempted to get a few, although theyâre more dwarfing than I would have chosen. Are you near Decatur?
I understand the law here, the point Iâm trying to make is Cumminsâ is a good supplier and Iâve had good results from them, so have much of this forum. They supply differing and unusual stock that is not always easy to find and for as much as possible their relationships have been cordial. These small to midsized suppliers cater to growers the size of many of us and giving them the benefit of the doubt, to correct inventory, ship to a person waiting for rootstock, etc. is just a âgood neighborâ policy, you know, golden rule type stuff. Sure, thereâs nothing demanding that chris in Ga. call Cumminsâ, just call it workinâ on your karma.
I vote for Chikn. Tree growers usually have ethics that go far beyond legal requirement and small nurseries really canât afford that kind of mistake- and Iâm positive it was a mistake. As if they can afford to pay shipping to send a surprise package to a customer they have no reason to believe even has use of the contents.
The margins are small here.
Of course, thereâs a good chance they wonât want to pay shipping to get them back and if you contact them they may let you keep them.
You do not have to return them to cummis or pay them, however if you want to offer them something I will gladly pay you the price for x number that can fit in a media mail tube. And the shipping. Just bundle the roots with we paper
, Iâm positive they can make it to nj
Well, Chikn is right as expected, spoke to Alan at Cummins this morning and the rootstock some how fell out of another order box into mine during processing. The roostock are getting shipped back today, as the saying goes, easy come, easy go.
Kudos to you Chris. Considering the number of people on this forum alone who brazenly brag about trespassing to either guerrilla graft or steal plant material or willfully damage city/public property because they donât like a specific tree â I salute your honesty. Apparently your mama raised you right.
Just curious @Chris_in_GA, but did they agree to pay for your shipping the rootstocks back? And/or, did they give you a credit for a future purchase because of you doing this for them? Seems like that would be a good business move on their part.
Cummins always ships plants that are too long/tall. I had better luck with their stuff the second time around when I shortened the trunks before planting. I am guessing that they have a clay site and they end up leaving some roots in the soil when they fork them out.
Dood, they sent me a UPS label to slap on the box and UPS came to my house and picked it up. All I got was a âthank you for being an honestâ which is fine, not looking for any reward other than the satisfaction of doing the right thing.
Chris, you did the right thing, but if I were the merchant and you the customer I would have asked if you could use one or two or maybe even three for yourself, and invited you to keep them for your trouble- as a kind of apology for your trouble (after all, you had to overcome temptation!) and goodwill gesture, and to save a little face.
For that matter, if I were the customer in your shoes I might have hinted that they were shore 'nuff purty rootstocks âŚ
