Lost 99% of value in 113 years…IDK…%inflation.
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The Fed aims for 2% inflation as part of their mandate, so, assuming they did that, you could expect prices to 2x every 35 years or so. They don’t actually know what they’re doing though, so the 1970s and 2020s happened, and it’s actually a lot higher. It gets massaged down so the government doesn’t have to increase people’s Social Security, etc.
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It is more blessed to give than to receive…that’s from The Book.
But “a laborer is worthy of his hire” is also in The Book.
Making a living from one’s labors is expected. But, those that can give, are blessed.
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As has no doubt been mentioned several times on this site, Mehrabyan nursery, a nursery of good repute, but with whom I have no personal experience has held the line on prices.
They still seem to have a good selection ( for my z6 Southern Rockies area) If I knew then what I know now, I’d have’Gala’ ‘NovaMac’ for apples, ‘Castleton’ for plums and ‘Harrowsweet’ for pear. I would probably need another pollinizer for the pear in a couple or three years if the Harrowsweet made it, but I would have a productive home orchard for $150 or so. Not bad considering all the other inputs that go into a home orchard.
Deliberately buying whips is a good strategy for someone testing the waters on a new hobby. So it takes an extra year before you get those first few fruits. So what?
Also, keep things in perspective: Assuming a conservative average lifespan of, say 7 years, (quite a few of them don’t make it or get pulled out, right?) the extra money isn’t all that material for Joe Suburbanite looking to put two or three trees in at his new house.)
I’m one of those guys who takes inordinate pleasure in beating the system. So I’ve taken up grafting. I’m terrible at it, but it’s cheap and trying to place excess stock with friends is a lot easier than trying to find a home for a kitten.
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Of course for patented trees, we are still stuck with spending to get them.
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People spending crazy amounts of money on hobbies, a bass fisherman spends a ton of money on his hobby, a garden guy spends Aton of money on a greenhouse. I love with what I am doing, so what if I spend $1000.00 on a few trees. I have a nice collection of fruit trees, didn’t spend much on trees, as a Matt of fact, NOTHING, just MAIL. EXCHANGING SION WOOD.
IF YOU sell stuff buy trees by the hundreds like some of the members, different story. You buy wholesale.Forums are the way to go. Some spend a lot of money on the newest and best tasting variety, nuts. My hobby since the seventies? Near zero, can’t remember buying a fruit tree! It’s fun the way I do things.Way more satisfying And I am not not a cheapskate, did spend $75 on two orchard ladders.
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If you can produce a harvest and not invest much…
obviously you’re ahead. It took awhile to do though? (They say time is money.)
But, if you had fun doing it, money can’t buy that.
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I’ve been looking at Asian Pears recently. Here’s what I found local.
Home Depot $109 for a 4 in 1 Asian Pear tree with horrific reviews. Don’t see what rootstock but doesn’t matter I wouldn’t pay that anyways. Asian Pear Home Depot
My local Green Acres Nursery selling br Dave Wilson 4 in 1 AP trees for $87.50 but that’s on OHxf333 I want the OHxF97 or BET rootstock. Price isn’t bad compared to some local tree nurseries here that sell single cultivars for around that. Green Acres Multi Graft
Trees outlet sells them for $85 in 15g offing more types.Trees Outlet Hosui
Fowler Nursery has has came highly recommended carrying br for around $38 and graft onto that tree. Or a potted tree for $48. They put their pears on BET. Fowler Trees Catalog
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Mehrabyan has them for $27 plus shipping on BET.
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That’s a good deal and seems like a great nursery. Plus the cost of shipping. I think the best thing to do is go with the 15g. For that price a several year old tree with thick calipers ready to start grafting and producing.
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Aren’t asian pear fruit significantly smaller on OHxF333? I was under the impression there was some problem with putting asian pear scions on dwarfing rootstocks for pear (to the limited extent they exist).
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OFxH333 is semi dwarf I believe. It seems to be recommended for AP trees. I want something a little larger with vigor since it will be a partial shade tree too.
I like to call up local nurseries around this time of year and tell them that I’m not interested in their underwhelming variety of fruit trees and that I’m going to be grafting my own for $4 each. I wouldn’t do that to someone who sold more that 2 varieties of each thing, but when you don’t even provide a wide variety of things you can’t quite justify $40 a tree.
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I see I’m a bit late to the party. For what it’s worth, here’s my .02:
I spent many years working in nurseries. In the late 90s, people would come in and ask, why are your plants so expensive. The things that would go through my mind that i could never say are as follows:
I earn $2 over minimum wage so you can tell me i get paid too much. I get laid off over winter, industry standard, no retirement, no benefits, so you can complain about how i get paid too much.
Then you’d have people who come in and only expect to get things cheap off the trash pile. As you load them up, they’d tell you to be careful of the expensive rims they have in the bed of their truck. Usually, they’d make a point of stating what those items cost.
Any questions why I don’t work in that line of business anymore?
gardeners are cheap. the endeavor of gardening and landscaping is not. quite the conundrum.
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The richest bitch the most.
They give the smallest percentages to charities (one exception being they control the charity).
The ones most able to afford your trees are the ones most likely to try and conn you into making them a good deal.
It’s life I guess…
If it’s just the money they’re looking at, agriculture or related jobs are not the place to be.
But, if you enjoy it, and can put food on the table and a roof over the head…you may be happier than the top 10% are.
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The nurseries that stay in business more than 4 or 5 years are buying that tree for about $15 and selling it for $40. Those that don’t, you’ll see a chain across the entrance in a year or three.
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Blueberry, I sure love that first line. That pretty much says it all.
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I get it, and just don’t get why more nurseries don’t do their own propagation. If instead of buying for $15 and selling for $40, I had my own stool beds and scion producing trees, then I could sell trees for $25-$30, after a few years of growing them out.
But when I do the math, I guess there’s just not much money in it. If you wanted to do $100,000 in business, you would have to sell 4,000 trees at $25.
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I would be more likely to sell for $40 or maybe $35, and keep the extra buffer. After all, you now have to pay for propagation supplies. It seems like only the smaller operations do their own propagation.
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