North American Plants, Inc serves the wholesale nursery trade in the capacity of a propagator of woody ornamentals, rootstocks and nut and berry varieties. We employ in vitro micropropagation (tissue culture) in our onsite laboratory as the exclusive means of propagation. The plants we produce thereby are then acclimatized to ambient conditions and grown-on to transplantable size in our signature paper-plug format for your convenience. Because of our unique combination of laboratory and greenhouse facilities, we can both propagate as well as establish high quality micropropagated starter plants completely in-house.This means that we do not sell any materials that are still in vitro, such as stage II or III plantlets. Instead, we offer only fully-established transplants or liners that are ready to transplant right away. So our customers do not need high humidity tenting setups or specially designed environments to succeed with our materials.

All of our plants are initially planted out of the laboratory in paper plugs. We believe that starting plants in paper plug systems, such as the Ellepot®, results in higher quality more easily handled transplants as compared to plant material grown or rooted in common flats or standard cell packs/small pots.

We make our own paper plugs at North American Plants (see picture of our machine below). This allows us to vary the components of the substrate from crop to crop to fit the exacting root-zone and fertility requirements for each variety. In our paper plugs, we use the same peat-based substrates that most growers use for softwood cuttings or micropropagated materials. But there is one very important difference: the root system of a paper plug is supported on the sides by a non-woven fabric “paper.” North American Plants was the first propagator in North America to utilize this technology in the production of tissue cultured woody plants. We think that you will be impressed by the speedy transplanting and establishment of our small and large size products that are grown in this system as compared to bareroot,or cell-pack grown, starter plants.

 

Important Note About Paper Plugs: As with any containerized growing system, root systems are artificially restricted by the “walls” of the container. In the case of paper plugs, this is also true. We recommend inspecting the root systems of the paper plugs you receive for any circling or upturned roots (which could result in a small “J” root) and take remedial action prior to transplanting in order to avoid later root quality issues in bare-root production.