Question to folks running a backyard nursery

General Fruit Growing
#41

Im fairly certain.

Im fairly certain that i could ask 2x what i would ask locally on Ebay or Etsy…and probably sell alot more with no drama.

The things ive sold on FB marketplace have been a nightmare…i hate it. Take pictures of everything, measure everything, answer a dozen questions…then sell it to them on their schedule…they may or may not show up.

I wish i had the gumption that Jim Fruth had. He turned half an acre into a money making machine by processing the fruit. I think he figured it out.

Do the math on buying a tree for $5 and upselling it vs growing it out and selling and processing the fruit over its lifetime. Alot more labor yes… but financially a better option.

Maybe i need a backyard jelly and jam nursery?

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#42

Pirateship.com makes UPS FAR more competitive than USPS. I think it’s only about $15 total to ship decent sized packages last time I checked.

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#43

There are ways to minimize the aggravations of retail in a world full of spoiled children. Here’s a funny one: on my marketplace listings I start with the following:

"Please read: messages in the likes of “If this item still available will be cheerfully ignored. Say something and you will have my undivided attention”.

Guess what; if I’m selling a popular item I still get 4~6 “is this item available?” messages. That simple reading test and ignoring those has cut down on around 95% of my unpleasant interactions on FB marketplace.

But if you don’t like dealing with random people at the retail level don’t, you still can have your cake and eat it too. Produce plugs and sell the whole tray to somebody else to worry about retail. If you nail down the correct protocol for a slightly harder to propagate plant you got something even fellow small nursery guys would be happy to pay for. Heck check with landscape outfits, see what they are using and provide it to them. Growing for somebody else come with its own worries but the point is; you pick and choose how you want things to work.

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#44

Couldnt be more true about Facebook Market Place. It has to be one of the most frustrating places to find customers, though we advertise a small amount there every year just to spread the word a bit. Dealing with people who cant read and/or comprehend what you have posted even though it is clear and lists all the details will drive you to drink in short order.

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#45

a youtuber I follow has a whole series on starting your own nursery. one of the things he stresses is that the sales side is a lot harder than the propagation side, for most people. he usually suggests starting out by just buying plants wholesale and reselling them, for example you could bring in a big order of bareroot from schlabach’s, or a pack of blueberries from hartmann, and see if you can sell them. once you know you can sell then you can start working your own propagation into your supply, if you want

here’s a list of his nursery videos

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#46

I’m telling you, open up with that simple reading test and you’ll filter most of them out.

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#47

[quote=“don1357, post:1, topic:45127”]
for fruit trees are you grafting or working with bareroots from a wholesale propagator?
[/quote

There are three local nurseries in my town, Helena, Montana, and all source from wholesale propagators–and don’t even know the rootstock types for the trees they are selling! It would seem they prefer reselling verses spending the time and effort to propagate.

As a hobbiest, I have grafted onto rootstock aquired at Willamette, Treco, and also some from Steve Masterman @ AlaskaFruits.com, and Todd @ WaldenHeightsNursery.com.

I am in Zone 3 Montana, and so I have been trialing rootstock types and apple varieties to discover what works best here, as there is little help to be found, even at the County Extension office and state AG resouces people. Might as well be on another planet!

Anyway, I discovered that Bud-118 far and away out performs Antonovka roots (perhaps because the soil in this area is generally in the 8.1 to 8.3 PH range), and I am still waiting to see if the Baccata (Alaska Fruits) and Ranetka Walden Heights) will get their roots going and “catch up” to the B-118, or if that is only a myth.

So, to answer your question more clearly, I would do my own grafting, so as to be sure what I have (to perhaps sell), and also observe the apple or pear varieties develop and learn which are those which will grow more vigorously and thrive in my area. (If the trees are coming from another location, there is no knowing how they will perform here.)

I have about 50 apple one year olds on B-118, 30 each on Baccata and Ranetka, about 10 two year olds, and I am grafting another 100 onto B-118 this week. I have collected about 100 apple varieties for trialing, a dozen pear varities (onto OHxF97, and Pyrus ussuriensis), and I have also grafted about 40 apple varities onto some exhisting (50 y/o) heritage trees for trialing more quickly. Would be happy to share my varities list with anyone who is interested.

…

apple pressing days
apple pressing days1080×810 254 KB

And I am also discovering the joy of making cider at home as well.

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#48

I have a collection of around 150 apple varieties, most have not produced yet.
Predominently on B-9 and B-118 roots. I’m not trying to sell fruit, but test …
and crossing to red fleshed cultivars

A couple I hope to sample in a few months for the first time are Esophus Spitzenburg and Cornish Aromatic.

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#49

Sadly I don’t have the space for a lot of trees. Currently I have 13 on the grown with a few spots left. I may need to start chopping down the wooded area…

I just grafted 14 apple trees on Baccata; honey crisp, zestar (so I can be one of the cool kids growing those), prairie magic (one of my favorite apples ever, not being commercially produced anymore), Alma sweet, and trailman. Heck if you want cold hardiness trailman is a great crab that will survive in zone 1.

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#50

i almost got a trailman scion this spring from fedco. figured if nothing else its a guaranteed pollinator for other cultivars. how do they taste?

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#51

JohnnyRoger, what make and model fruit grinder is that, and how do you like it?

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#52

I think Trailman are great. They are very sweet with a pleasant bite feel. Actually quite a bite feel like a honey crisp but harder to notice because of the small size. It has a well balanced acidity that supports a nutty flavor. Heck most early apples can be sub standard in regards of flavor and texture, but not this one. In addition is super hardy and pretty much plant-it-and-forget-it. This is the sort of apple that you keep grabbing apples to eat every time you walk by it.

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#53

It is the German-made Speidel Motorized Apple & Pear Crusher | MoreBeer. Looking at the website where I purchased it, I see the price has increased by $200, since the time I bought mine last year. It is awesome, and worth every penny. Turns a 5 gallon bucket of apples or pears into slaw in about 15 to 20 seconds, and supposed to grind 2,200 lbs an hour. You could start a business grinding for people who have apples and want to get them juiced (I see someone doing that, and selling the juice back to owner for $8.00 a gallon.) The $1,499 price does not include the $260 charge for crating and shipping by freight (this company did very good crating job, and shipping was fast. I buy a lot of stuff for cidermaking from Morebeer.com), and the price also does not include the 50 foot 220 volt electrical cord with connectors (I plug into my dryer outlet and run out window into back yard). So you’re looking at about $2,000 investment, but it is very fast, efficient one man operation, and easy to clean. Here is video of me grinding 5 gallon bucket in seconds: https://youtube.com/shorts/vrKreN78VIU?feature=share

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#54

steveb4, I am told by Steve Masterman @ AlaskaFruits.com that Trailman blended with Kerr crab makes an excellent cider… I have some growing but not producing yet.

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#55

I am told Baccata doesn’t accept some varieties, so that was why I am trialing Ranetka as well. I have all the varieties you mention, plus many more. As I am also trialing on existing trees to get apples faster for testing, I was very pleasantly surprised to find 6 Hewes Virginia Crab (golf ball sized) apples on a scion grafted just the previous year!! Talk about tasty, I can see why perhaps the Virginia Crab was a George Washington and Thomas Jefferson favorite. Will be growing more of these. I have a few Zone 4 varieties, but mostly Zone 1, 2, and 3 for my location directly on the eastern slope of Northern Rockies.

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#56

I read the same thing about Baccata. I’m looking forward to have that conversation with other folks here that graft trees to find out what they have found not to work.

I am very fond of tasty crab apples. I’m guessing part of it is rooting for the underdog that most people don’t appreciate, comments like “can you really eat crab apples?” are quite common. In reality they can be work horses that are super hardy and super low maintenance, unlike some prima Dona apple trees out there. Even my beloved prairie magic tree will skip a year if it carries one apple too many.

I have a Kerr on the ground producing. Hopefully the trailman and the alma sweet grafts will take, and if I find somebody selling a chestnut crab I would plant it as well. Of those the only one I’m wishy washy about is the alma sweet as it can have off years quality wise. Also it is pretty much just a little sugar bomb without the nuance of say a trailman or a chestnut crab.

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#57

I tried selling my extra fruits, vegetables, and plants last year, I also sell cuttings, and seeds that I collected from my backyard. I made more than 10k last year. I believe I will make more and more. I used my friend’s land to open a mini U- pick farm. There are ponds and well in the farm. If growing vegetables without water bill. It could be profitable.
The tips that you cannot grow common things. You should let your customers feel that kind of enjoying life by eating your fruits, and vegetables.
My customers responded that the vegetables and fruits taste much better than store and farmer market, even better than Ozark Natural food. Price is just farmer market price. So I can sell in 15 minutes whenever my vegetables and fruits were ready.
I only grow the best tasting fruit and vegetable varieties.
Don’t grow apples. Fuji in store is just a few bucks a bag.

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#58

I know how the get started with Antonovka rootstocks, just plant the seeds from that variety, right? But where does one get the plants for growing dwarfing rootstocks from seed?

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#59

@Sophia2017

Is funny how you have to figure out not what you want to sell but what people want to buy, and how. The same people that would not look at a bag of apples at $1.50/pound would gladly give you $3+/pound if they get to pick them from the tree. I hope they can come and pay good money for the top fruit as I’ll be happy juicing and processing the rest.

Heck I truly hate my Jostaberry bush; all it does is put out foliage, barely puts out any fruit at all, and it is a magnet for sawfly larva. And yet it is the easiest thing in the world to propagate and people keep buying them. And consider that it is after giving them the same stellar review I just gave you here. Why? Because it is different and they don’t have one. The norm is that this is not the bush people come to get but the bush people pick as an extra.

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#60

I work as a gardener landscaper in gardens here in Anchorage and Eagle River. I take and stick hardwood and softwood cuttings from a variety of shrubs and perennial groundcovers. I started about 10 years ago when considering what to do with my time after retiring from corporate life. My goal isn’t so much making a killing with plants and shrubs but being engaged with garden owners and pursuing the craft of propagation; and this is working for me - am grateful I’m still able to kick butt outside at my age.
I’ve been propagating berry bushes (ribes, haskap, raspberries, and ornamentals) and it’s a great endeavor for me at this stage of life. I between 400 and 600 cuttings each year depending on spring and fall weather situations.
My biggest frustration is getting bareroot material in Alaska; shipping cost and wholesale minimum order quantity. The retail (and the wholesalers providing their material) market works on trends. Those trends do not favor plants that are not in vogue. Time was there was alot of bareroot activity in Alaska, not any more and it’s a skillset that is vanishing. Several of the local nurseries do order bareroot material, but they pot it up and sell it years later at a tremendous markup. Time was, when there was good availability and price.
A typical example is when a property owner does some research and wants plants that are not common (i.e. they want to use Cornus sericea 'Isanti"). My challenge is finding grower with that variety and then the cost. Only well off clients can afford this and that means the average Joe gardener cannot get the plants they desire. We do not have established Soil and Water Conservation Districts with the plant sales that are common in the lower 48.
So, I gather new varieties one or two at a time or from pruning client gardens, establish them as “mother plants” and slowly build up my inventory. It would be nice to build a network of propagators in Alaska and, somehow, coordinate an effort to provide locally grown material.

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