I agree it’s situational, and can be much cheaper, but it’s good to consider that it might not be. For me, it was not really cheaper since I counted on a low success rate (especially for peaches, apricots, and persimmons). My cost per successful tree was actually pretty low, because I did better than I thought I would. But my cost per tree that I actually needed was only slightly less than buying. If you buy rootstocks in large quanities, they’re $1-2 here, but if you need less than 100 (a few vendors have bundles of 25), it’s more like $3-5 depending on the variety and vendor. Also, shipping will add at least $20 to your total, which is a lot when spread over just a few roots. And that’s if you can get everything you need from one vendor. I needed to order from 3 different sources to get what I needed. And the OP is talking pots, so a quality potting medium is another big expense in the quanitites needed.
For an experienced grafter, grafting in quantity, it is definitely cheaper. But someone just learning, working on whatever trees they can fit in a few square feet in pots, it could very well be more expensive.
I grow red haven peaches from seed. They taste great. start producing in 3rd year and produce bushels by year 5. Sour cherries, Montmorency, produces great cherries by year 4 but it will take 7 years to produce in quantity for pie making. citrus trees grow close to true from seed except Meyer lemon. Key limes and Meiwa kumquat will produce in about 3 years.
You’re getting a lot of good advice here. In terms of what will work for you, a lot depends on your specific goals and situation. And I would say that one of the best investments you can make at this point is in thinking through what you really want to do and what you will need to make that happen.
Going along with that, I’d say that the most valuable thing you can acquire at this point is knowledge and skill. (OK, I guess that’s two things.)
For example, you could definitely start growing out some seedlings, and if things go well you do could have some trees to plant out when you have some dirt to work with in two or three years. On the other hand, you could also just buy some rootstock when you get the land and plant that, and it would probably work as well if not better and cost the same if not less (when you factor in the cost of caring for the seedlings). At this point, the real value of growing out the seedlings would be what you learn in the process, and hopefully the enjoyment you get out of it.
And I’d say that the same general point would hold true for a lot of things at this stage in the game. For example, grafting. With a utility knife and a certain amount of discretion, you can start to practice your grafting skills on whatever you can find handy. (Ornamental crab apples, for example.) You don’t need to be too attached to the results at this point, just put in some practice and it will pay off down the road.
Good luck, and remember that for most of us, a big part of the value in doing this is enjoying the process.
I forgot to say, I sell a bunch of plants every year to support my planting habits, somewhere around $500 gross. I think it barely covers my expenses.
I also trade a lot of material; for haskaps I have about six varieties growing but know people with a few dozen more; getting a new variety is a matter of getting them started from cuttings.
Thank you all for the overwhelming quantity of information! I’ve got a lot of reading to do and some decisions to make. I’ll likely be in touch with some followup questions. This is definitely an active forum - I’m excited to be here.
Again, many many thanks.
We’re glad to see you here! Another thing that occurred to me is to shop around and get a lay of the land before you buy. See what vendors tend to carry what you’re looking for and what the price points are. Take a look at the Nurseries List in the Reference section, most of which are at least pretty good. Some of them are members on this forum. Also look for Garden Watchdog reviews of nurseries. And stay away from TyTy!
Whenever you do buy trees, if you get already grafted, a small bare root or potted tree will establish better and be healthier than an extra jumbo super size, on average. The small trees will often quickly catch up with their bigger, pricier kin.
Another thing I forgot to say; taking the slow approach may be a bit frustrating but it saves you from a rather common mistake; trying to jump all in before developing the skills to keep you from making rookie mistakes. Many folks start by planting 30 big trees the first year just to watch half die by the next spring and then having to sort out what happens and the expense of replacing what went wrong. Killing plants is better done one at a time not wholesale
You have a load of good advice. If you have a close friend or relative with land you could partner with someone who shares your goals and perhaps pursue your goals while you find and finance you own property. Meanwhile, bone up your soils knowledge, how to determine fertility so that you do not over invest in fertilizers, rather you will know what less costly and more organic methods of improving the soil works best. Here is a suggested list of articles that will give you a thorough soils knowledge to make the most of your future property.
Agree with others. First year or so just concentrate on soil improvements. If you can improve the soil fertility, then let’s the micro organisms do the rest, you may never need to purchase commercial fertilizers. The CEC of your soil is the key to fertility. The following articles can give you good insight on how to use composted manures and “green manures” or legumes to improve soil health.
What it is: Particulate organic matter (POM) fraction referred to in this document comprises all soil organic matter (SOM) particles less than 2 mm and greater than 0.053 mm in size (Cambardella and Elliot, 1992). … It is a source of food/energy for microorganisms and soil animals as well as nutrients for plant growth.
My biggest expense has been all the wire and fencing, plus about $750 a year in taxes on my 7-acre orchard land. The deer and rabbits won’t leave a single item alive otherwise. For what I have spent on my orchard I could have bought truckloads of fruit. It is mostly a labor of love.
My strawberries are worth the work knowing they are organic, My blue berries are now becoming worth while. My in ground citrus trees are still on trial here in my zone 6b area. Apple, peaches, plumbs, apricots, kiwi, goose berry, persimmon, sweet cherries, grapes, potted citrus trees, Paw paw, and pears are worthless. Just go to the orchard and buy fresh.
Truer words have never been spoken. I spend more in spray alone each year than I could possibly spend on fruit from the store. But of course home grown tastes 100 times better and is fun the therapeutic for me to grow . Whenever I think about trying to sell my fruit, it gets depressing. For example, I probably got as much as 10 gallons of cherries this year from my 5 fruiting trees. That sounds amazing. But when I REALLY think about it, if I sold every single one at $5 per quart, I’d have made $200!!! That is just depressing. I bought those trees, been spraying and pruning and mulching them for 3-8 years, had to pick all the fruit by hand…all for $200? No, for me fruit growing isn’t a money game.
To OP, I feel your excitement and desire to get started and I respect it. One thing that I don’t think has been mentioned yet and which you need to think about is buying marked down fruit trees at big box stores after the regular season is over. Home Depot is one great example of this- I’ve seen nice, potted fruit trees as little as $3 (yes, $3, and fairly often). These markdowns happen after spring planting season, so you have to water trees more when planting in summer but with potted trees its not that hard to plant in the summer and have them live. I also see these drastically marked down trees in early winter after the fall planting season is over and the stores don’t want to hold those trees until spring. By then they’ve often gone dormant so its a great time to buy and plant them. Yes, you have to look close at these trees as they can be dead or root bound, but if you pay attention you can certainly find some very nice trees for very low cost. Keep it in mind.
Grafting may not end up saving money. In my experience, it ended up just costing me money.
Due to the lack of available stock this past year, I decided to graft for the first time. I ended up purchasing enough enough materials for few dozen trees: root stocks, scions, nursery pots, soil, the grafting materials, and the shipping. All in all, each tree was going to cost approx $14.00. (You can purchase young whip trees for around that cost, though varieties may be limited) I started them indoors because of the fluctuating weather conditions during late winter / early spring. Most seemed to be doing well but gradually they began to fail, and to date, nearly all have failed. The remaining that are alive have cost me approx $100 each… and they are not even the unavailable varieties that prompted my desire to graft. I could have purchased 8-10 bare root trees, or even more established trees from a local nursery, for what it all cost me. I did gain experience so I will not consider it a total loss. They failed for various reasons, some I can understand being a mistake on my end, but others for no apparent reason. Many died because of transplant shock: I should have just left them in the pots to mature. Others, I believe, were failing from fungus gnats which I did not get under control early enough. Others failed for no reason at all: the root stock would live but the scion die, or the scion would live and the root stock die. I doubt it was my grafting technique as I also made several grafts, in the same manner as the bench grafts, to mature trees and they all survived.
@MissionImpossible what kind of fruit do you want to grow? Lower maintenance like pawpaw, persimmon, jujube, mulberry are my focus but I also am trying some apples and pears. I’ve personally shied away from peaches /plums/cherries (stone fruit in general) as they seem to be plagued by more challenging diseases and are harder to graft (with a few exceptions). The upside is that they seem to produce fruit faster than some of the others I mentioned, like pawpaw and apples. Knowing what you are interested in growing from a species perspective is helpful for our advice given.
That said, I’d personally start researching which of the fruits you are interested in you can grow from seed to achieve your goals, and for those you want rootstock for, find out the best sources and time of year to place orders for when you are ready.
I’m not sure if you have in mind specific varieties but http://vaughnnursery.com/ seems like a good choice to start an inexpensive orchard, rather than grafting.
I found a Black Jack fig at my local nursery, not a big box store, at the end of bare-root season, marked down to $5. It was pretty root bound in its sleeve and I had to work at separating those roots. I had it in a pot for two or three years and then again had to work at separating and pruning the roots once it finally had a spot to go into permanently. I’ve been really happy with it. Black Jacks have huge fruit while the trees grow slowly and tend to stay small, so I could have left it in a big pot longer if I’d had to.
On a side note: I have been told and have found it to be true that when you do get fruit, pick first thing in the morning as early as you can to get the sweetest fruit, before some of the sugar goes back into the plant to protect it from the heat of the day.
Early in the season for $15 dollars I bought a Carmine Jewel from a root shot. When I went to pick it up it was basically a 2~3 foot plant on a circle of turf, the stuff that is basically a solid mess of roots. I took it home, and in a plastic tote full of water I washed and washed and washed until I could extricate the tree out of that mess. Lo and behold there was another fat Carmine Jewel root in that mess. I broke the root into three pieces and potted those as well.
Long story short today the original tree seems to have forgiven me for the harsh treatment and two of the three chunks of root are also putting top growth. Getting three (and maybe four) Carmine Jewel trees for $15 bucks is not a bad deal at all.
I also sell plants on Craigslist and Facebook marketplace in order to feed my plant habit. Many a time a sale has turned into a trading session when they have something I don’t have.
Well I have a tiny budget also. I have a huge garden. I do not know where you are but I took cuttings from fig trees and they all grew so I got 50 fig trees for free. But I am in Georgia. I also got trees from a flea market that advertises on facebook marketplace for 15 dollars each, but as I said I am in Georgia. I got 100 Cannas for free when a person advertised on marketplsace, free in return for digging up the bulbs. Then there is someone who advertizes on craigslist and I paid 3 dollars for black berries. In short I get cuttings for free and check craigslist and facebook marketplace for cheap and free stuff. People have better advise but that is how I do it. I have probably 400 plants in a 75 foot garden and a plastic greenhouse where I grow things from seeds I have spit out. Just make sure you do not grow things that need it to be colder or warmer than you can produce. I heat it in winter with a cheap space heater on low. The greenhouse cost 100 dollars on ebay.
Many things are just not worth growing from seed, specially most trees. Take an apple; it pays to even buy a superior named variety, that will still be even better than the same variety from the supermarket, than hope a seed that was probably a cross between something you like with a flowering crabapple and that will take 10 years for you to find out that you got a good source of firewood.
Or better yet once you get into grafting every time you want two trees graft 10, get probably 8 to set, and sell the rest to pay for your supply and time.
I recently got a Bailey compact cranberry on a whim, $40 bucks for the nursery bush. Why? Because I was hoping for a compact cranberry producer and I don’t mind supporting my local nurseries. Once I got home and researched it I found out that it is mostly an ornamental with very crappy fruit production. So out on Facebook marketplace it went, I got $30 bucks back. Except that even before researching it I threw six cuttings in my aeroponic cuttings bed and they seem to be taking quite well. Next spring I’ll sell whatever survives the winter for $10 as small plants.
Don, you have a similar mentality towards the budget side of things that I plan to adopt, at least over the next few years. Pay for the good stuff when necessary, and propagate the good stuff to pay for the original purchase to break even. I haven’t sold anything yet, but learning the propagation side of things is very important to get started. Also, when you have a lot of extras there are plenty of people here to share with as well. Pay it forward.
