Wondering how hard it would be to buy Tissue Culture Blackberry plugs and replant to 3 inch pots and sell in the spring?
Plants are pretty cheap but I’m unsure when to repot the plugs and the best temperature range to grow the plug into a nice 3 inch pot that I could sell in Feb/March
Any ideas or suggestions?
Resale of berry TCs is a common practice. They are initially slow growers. A good strategy is to watch the availability lists from Spring onward, order when offered, and then propagate in a green house for sale the following year.
Kris
I need to watch his video again and check out the others too. I want to do something similar to what he is doing, but I want to start with small plugs and finish with plants about the size of the BR plants he bought
Never seen any TC plugs that large. I believe the last ones I bought were packed about 100/tray
Wonder where those huge plants came from? I could not see the name of the nursery on the box
With proper notice I can get the varieties I want delivered when I choose.
Wonder if I could plant small plugs in the fall in 3 perhaps 4 inch pots, carry them over in an unheated greenhouse and sell them mail order in the spring?
Nourse Farms.
I’ve heard that the plants don’t have as much vigor from tissue culture…
but I’ve not bought a lot from this company.
I bought my first TC plants from Nourse Farms a long time ago,
They grew like crazy but they were much smaller when received, more like a 100 count tray
They were so small I was concerned they would not do well when set in the field.
Noticed their Blackberry plants are around $5 each at the QTY 100 price.
I would need to buy something a lot cheaper to make my project work.
I’m waiting on prices, but the 72 or 100 count TC plants were running about $2 each from some other TC labs, but I believe they have a 2 tray minimum per variety.
If you want to sell larger plants in the spring then you will have to get Tissue Culture in the fall and grow them in a heated greenhouse and probably add some light, water and nutrients… which is what Nourse/Pense/Indiana etc do. You have to figure if the $2/per plant is worth it for the up potting and heat and light and time and effort…
Outfits like Simmons Plant Farm grow all of theirs out…sell the bare root and trim the roots before shipping. They plant those trimmed roots and keep the process going. More profit but more work.
Thanks for the information.
I’m refining my plan. I’m looking for a project on a hobby scale that will give me something productive and enjoyable to do and also take advantage of what I already have in place. Nothing like a big commercial nursery like Nourse.
I’m hoping to use my hobby scale 8X16 greenhouse with no heat on the Blackberries. We use it now to force Elderberry plants before I sell them mail order.
Looking to sell a three variety package of small Blackberry plants of best Blackberry varieties for around $25 plus shipping.
After some research, it looks like best option may be to buy 72 count TC plants for around $2, grow them on in existing tray packs until the root ball is thick and saturates the media. Then sell them on Etsy in March and April. Second best would be to buy small TC plants like 144 count plants, pot them into 72s and grow them until the rootball saturates media and sell them.
Selling 4 inch pots was the original idea but it looks like selling something the size of a 72 count cell pack would be a lot less work. It also cuts shipping costs by 50% compared to 4 inch pots.
I need to try to understand how much growth I could put on the small TC plants using an unheated greenhouse if I held the plants from October to February
That is my plan as well. I have some berry plants and other things that arent in the market. I dont want to go big time with it, but i dont want to waste my time either.
This is pretty debatable…but as far as i am with it…the magic number is 32F…at that point the roots stop growing and the plants get a signal to head into dormancy. Also if the vegetative growth is shocked that cancels respiration which in turn will stop root growth i think.
Most of the Etsy and Ebay sellers that sell plants year round are in FL or CA or OR.
This statement kind of makes the most sense.
Often our one year old plants are larger than 2 year old plants grown in other parts of the country.
Likely their greenhouses are heated but with thermostats…and only have to be heated on rare occasions to achieve that extra growth.
Simmons Plant Farm will be nearly impossible to beat if you plan on selling known varieties of thornless.
50 bare root plants for $150 makes them $3 each. Likely cheaper if you buy more than that.
That extra $1 gets you alot more to work with, and a whole lot less hassle and worry.
Do most of the old school bareroot growers still root their own cuttings?
We used to root Blackberries and Blueberries before patented plant material became common
Used some ourselves and sold what was left over.
I’m going to look at how much the TC Von Blackberries sitting under the tree at my son’s place have grown since October.
Looks like the Blackberry idea is not going to work out.
New idea is to sell Peach wood through Etsy.
We normally flail that stuff but I could could get a bunch on scion wood for no money
Looked at the flat of Tissue Culture plants that did not get planted in October and were still sitting under the trees at my son’s farm
The size was a deep 50 pack. Most were well rooted but not as much as I would need.
I believe if these had been moved to an unheated greenhouse, fertilized and cared for better they may be good plants to sell mail order. No real need to step up into larger containers. Could get 3 or 4 into a small flat rate box and ship for about $8
When we ship for 4 inch Elderberry plants on Etsy in a medium flat rate box it cost $15 and the shipping is a problem for some folks.
Also noticed some of the sellers there are selling “organic” and non GMO Peach scions.
Not sure if we will move forward with selling the Blackberry plants but I will not be selling any organic or non GMO peach scion wood for sure.
Dig bare root plant. Trim roots. Plant root in hole you dug…repeat.
Im trying to figure out the science behind rooting canes… ive seen and read everything that i can get my hands on and there are plenty of them sticking the cuttings but never hardly any results.
I know its possible because the USDA sends folks cane cuttings to root…
I also see alot of folks on social media asking for cane cuttings.
I am trying a few techniques but i cant get it down to anything that works consistantly yet… unless this trial works that i have going.
I need a tried and true recipe for success.
We rooted a bunch of blackberry plants before patients became common.
Used an outdoor misting bed with shade and intermittent mist to root a bunch at a time.
Rooted Blueberries and Azalea the same way.
Never got more than about 50% take on Blackberries which was good enough since we rooted so many.
Some folks on this forum showed pictures of their set ups using old aquariums and foggers on a smaller scale
I saw a FB marketplace listing of rooted cane cuttings…the person had about 500 plants for sale. I asked about them last month and they said they werent ready yet…so that must mean that they stuck them in the Fall?
Anyways thats what i am trying now. I stuck 3 varieties in early Dec. One was wrapped in toilet paper on the bottom, one was scarred to the cambium opposite the bud and wiped with garlic…and the other i just stuck them. I also laid a few horizontally under some soil. I saw the two weird techniques on roses and thought it would be worth trying…nothing ventured nothing gained.
I saw one video on youtube where a guy just laid the cuttings horizontally instead of vertical…and it showed roots and growth… i tried that with soft cuttings and it failed so im trying with dormant canes now.
I did tiny root cuttings in solo cups last year and had nearly 100 percent take on red rasp, black rasp and blackberries. I can have something the size of what you are looking to sell in 1 year. So if i cant get the cuttings to work i think i will sell my plants by this method and and tip rooting on the non erect varieties. I only want to sell things that are out of the market or lost varieties…very niche market so i dont need to get too big time with it.
I have seen the misting method of rooting tip cuttings… and the hydroponic rooting of tips as well.
The leaf bud rooting seems to be the most productive on a mass scale…but it takes much longer. I will try this next year.
People love heritage varieties and I expect folks would quickly buy a package of niche Blackberries for big $$
I can see that a lot of crappy plants are getting sold for high prices, so a knowledgeable grower with unique varieties of high quality plants should do great. I just wanted something productive to do but the amount of Elderberry plants and cuttings we are selling in a public mail order site is surprising and fortunately only lasts a few months.
When we rooted cuttings we stuck our softwood cuttings in August for black and blue with rooting hormone.
We also tried some hardwood cuttings on Blueberries but It took them longer to root
Never tried leaf bud rooting or laying the canes horizontal but I would like to know a lot more about all that stuff. I saw a greenhouse guy pull about 100 cuttings out of a small pot of sharp sand that had been in the greenhouse for a few months.
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Have you seen the one node propagation of Elderberry? Where you split the cane in half and only root one tiny node. That seems to be the best bang for the buck in mass propagation… but it takes time to get the plants to size.
I think last year Costco was selling rooted elderberry plants in some states… I dont have a Costco so i only saw pictures. I think its a matter of time before they start showing up in box stores.
I guess i will sort of end up with a business like Doyle’s. There is literally no reason to buy Doyles Thornless Blackberries but he still makes it work and people still buy them. I think it was about 1979 or so when i tasted my first Doyles blackberry. It was incredible at that time.
I am noticing that Black Satin is making a comeback on the west coast… i never thought that was possible.
Yesterday i met an old lady that had 4 bare root canes of Heritage Raspberries in her cart… To be honest that is really the only variety of red raspberry that the public can buy in a box store…its everywhere. It was introduced in 1969. Its currently at walmart, tsc, lowes, home depot…and will likely be at rural king and menards as well.
Have you thought about potting up your original idea and consigning them to local nurseries? I worked with a friend in the 1990s and he made a killing consigning hanging flower baskets. He just had a medium sized greenhouse beside of his home and it was a great little business. He also sold wholesale to flea market vendors and roadside sellers… maybe that would work with berry plants as well in your area?
This was in the Berea/Richmond Ky area.
Where are good places to get blackberry plant plugs? Simmons is about $5/ea, which is pricey.