Re: [AGA Member] German store

[Heather J Gladney <hgladney@comcast.net>]

A really good export nursery (including aquatic nurseries) will be able 
to give you a phytosanitary certificate so you don't have to leave your 
plants in quarantine with the border people for three weeks or more.  
That certificate would be worth the trouble.  Orchid and bonsai people 
both have issues with the way the plants come out looking after import 
quarantine & fumigation without it.  Don't take me word for it, do a 
search on American Orchid Society archives.  Dept. of Food and Ag or 
state level ones should have websites whee you can look up the rules, or 
at least get phone #s to call.  I'd check on that first.
The other possibility is to pick things out and have such a nursery ship 
it to you (including the certificate, handled at the airport through a 
broker) once you're home.
You also have state import issues, since many have declared that certain 
fast-growing plants are aquatic pests - check out some of restrictions 
noted in some of the internet aquatic plant nurseries, for instance.
I can say freely that I have no idea how effective these Customs & 
border inspections are, i.e. how likely they are to pick up on things 
tucked away in your bags or your trunk, but of course the airlines are 
x-raying everything.  I don't know if they pass this along to Customs 
etc. but of course they could be.  I was just reading a live journal 
posting about how consistently nasty the US Customs people tend to be.
In the current climate of inspection paranoia, I would suggest it's not 
worth risking the fines.  At the Mexican border near SD, for instance, 
they do look for contraband fruit and nervous people.  It's also a great 
excuse to detain you and search for other infractions of all kinds, such 
as your car's equipment and your driver's license, and so on.

Livay Aviel-R51374 wrote:

> Hi,
>
> When you go back to the US - after custom you pick your stuff and go through yet another "argriculture screening machine"... and there's a big sign that asks you again to confess that you don't carry anything with you including food and plants and warns you that there are fines. I have no idea how effective is this screening but I also don't want to mess with them. Maybe someone else could comment on how effective this screening thing is... :-)
>
> I believe there's no such machine on the Mexican border if you plan to return by a car! Oh boy - this is exciting.
>
> Aviel.
> ------------------
> To unsubscribe from this list, please send mail to majordomo@thekrib.com
> with "Unsubscribe aga-member" in the body of the message.  Archives of
> this list can be found at http://lists.thekrib.com/aga-member/
>
>
>  

------------------
To unsubscribe from this list, please send mail to majordomo@thekrib.com
with "Unsubscribe aga-member" in the body of the message.  Archives of
this list can be found at http://lists.thekrib.com/aga-member/