Turning this hobby into a small business?

[Ray]

I think this "legality" thing is overblown.

As a nursery licensed by the PA Dept of Ag, I am inspected to insure that I am not harboring infestations of insects and diseases. That entitles me to ship. My packages bear bright green stickers bearing notice that they contain "Live Orchid Plants" with some handling requests, and they have never been stopped or inspected.

California, Hawaii, and Arizona have additional requirements that are not covered by my license, one of which is their concern over the introduction of Japanese beetles. Fortunately, by having screens over all openings in the GH (inlet and exhaust vents, in my case), and a double door ("air lock", if you will) on the entrance, that certification can be had as well.

I cannot speak for the requirements of Hawaii. Do they even need to mail order orchids from elsewhere????

[Arenalbotanicalgarden]

Ebay is the IRS's next target. Be prepared for that.

They don't call America the Land of the Fee for nuthin' ! I don't know what the penalties might be but anything alive going into Arizona or Californistan requires special certification.
I used to send seeds up there quite often. The last 10 or so times they got "disappeared" so I don't even bother any more.
If I were you I'd work out something with a garden center or set up shop at various swap meets. It'll be a while before they go after those, I think.

[Franco24]

I will be certified to ship to California, I avoid any need for inspection of Japanese beetles because orchids never touch true "soil" (they are either mounted or growing in bark or moss) and I will be shipping everything bare root. The USDA supervisor covered that on the phone. I didn't inquire about Arizona, but I most definitely will on Wednesday.

[tom_e_boi]

I bought an orchid thru eBay for the first time about a month ago. Little did I know, until after buying it, that it was being shipped all the way from Europe. I didn't know the seller lived in Spain. I thought nothing of it because the prices were so cheap, even for shipping. I think I paid roughly $9 total, $5 for the orchid and a little over $3 for shipping.

The orchid wasn't exotic or anything, just a regular NoID white Dendrobium phalaenopsis. The seller even threw in a few NoID Epidendrum keikis for free because the order was a little late getting shipped out. It didn't even dawn on me that it was coming from Europe until after it got shipped out. The package arrived safely thru the mail with no problems. From the sheer volume of plants that are up for sale on eBay, I doubt that any laws or regulations are strictly enforced. But then again, I'm not an expert on this subject either, this was my first ever purchase of plants from eBay.

On a side note: my Dend. phal, which had only one cane but was pretty healthy and almost a foot long, has a new cane and even three keikis budding out from it now. And the Epidendrums are growing pretty well too.

[goodgollymissmolly]

Tom, I think you're correct that the volume of work prevents 100% control, but I did have an interesting thing happen. I had a domestic orchid order that did not arrive on schedule. It did arrive the following day and the box had a note saying it had been opened for inspection.

Turns out that local police (and I believe it's true everywhere) conduct random drugs searches of UPS (and others also I think) terminals. They use dogs to sniff out suspicious packages which they can then legally open. Here at least if one dog identifies a package, it is passed by a second dog and if he hits on it; it is inspected.

The moral of this story is that just because you were able to get one uninspected shipment, you won't necessarily be successful all the time. In the case of illegal importations, you could be in a world of hurt. I suspect misconducted domestic shipments might just get you a slap from federal officials, but those states trying to prevent insect infestations might not be so kind hearted.

[orchidsarefun]

people against gubment "over-regulation" should take a little time to investigate the GOOD things that gubment does accomplish.
Japanese Beetles were introduced to much of the USA and Canada through plant smuggling. While it may seem an impossible task to stop the infestation throughout the rest of the USA, at least something is being done !!! And it may prevent some other invasive species from taking hold.

BTW - I HATE Japanese beetles with a passion !

http://www.lakshmi-sridharan.com/Doc...ese-Beetle.doc

[Ray]

Originally Posted by Franco24

I will be certified to ship to California, I avoid any need for inspection of Japanese beetles because orchids never touch true "soil" (they are either mounted or growing in bark or moss) and I will be shipping everything bare root. The USDA supervisor covered that on the phone. I didn't inquire about Arizona, but I most definitely will on Wednesday.

I think you had better check with the CA authorities.

Japanese beetles do not require soil, they just need a plant to munch on. Unless your guy can issue to a Japanese Beetle permit, you are not likely to get your plants into the state.

Here is a link to a proposed CA change in their law, with current wording struck out so you can still read it.

[Franco24]

I agree. I can almost guarantee a good half or even three quarters of those people don't have licenses. The only reason i really looked into it is because I received threatening messages on eBay saying what I was doing was illegal. Though now, I think it was just done to try and knock the new kid off the market ... Considering a ton of people sell orchids and I highly doubt they all have licenses.

Whatever it was, I'm glad that I'm doing everything the legal route. And I'll even be able to make fancy business cards with my nursery license number on it!

[Franco24]

He's coming here this coming Wednesday. He claims to be one of the head supervisors of the NJ department of agriculture. The guy seemed very knowledgeable about orchids too, I was quite impressed. I'm going to cover all my bases and ask a ton of questions.

[isurus79]

Originally Posted by goodgollymissmolly

"....more government overreach to me....."

Nonsense! The government has a responsibility to limit (and hopefully prevent) both the import and domestic spreading of pathogens and pests infecting agriculture, horticulture, and native vegetation.

Without these controls we would have massive failure of agricultural crops resulting in worldwide famine, many more horticultural problems such as those allowing unhindered distribution of ornamentals that serve as intermediate sexual hosts for rusts, to name one, and distribution of insect pests into areas where they now do not exist.

I understand this part. But it seems to me that requiring hobbyists to pay $75 per year to ship cuttings within the borders of the USA is a bit steep. Not to mention the fact that just because you pay a fee to an agency, this does not mean that the aforementioned problems are suddenly and magically gone from the person doing the shipping.

Originally Posted by goodgollymissmolly

Your objection reeks of some political idealogy soapbox and is short on common sense and scientific reasoning.

Wrong. It's an observation not a rant, tirade or soapbox. Do not add words or context where they do not exist.