Nursery
From RAWiki
Contents
Mission/Vision
Goals
Goals for 2016
Fruit trees
-apples -pears -plums -apricots -peaches -cherries
Perennials
- buy from Nourse
- Reselling strategy: advertise weekly on Craigslist,
- secure a space at the Boulder culinary gardeners club annual spring plant sale (usually there are few/no vendors of perennials)
- Put up signs and sell self-serve at a farm stand
- convince like-minded landowners to plant heavily in perennial type environments (Churches: BVCC, City on the Hill, Schools:Shepherd Valley, Businesses, individuals etc...)
- visit other farm stands and places selling starts and let them in on your order for 150%-200% of your price with an agreement not to undercut your price and payment up front
- Landscapers often purchase trees from us to resell - pitch other perennials to them also?
asparagus
Purchase in quantities above 100 roots per variety to get to a price point below $0.65 each. Asparagus roots packed in sand sell for up to $5 in places like McGuckins, $3 gives a healthy profit or $2.50 for more than 10. Plants which have been potted and are starting to grow could be sold for $7-15.
currants and gooseberries
They do very well in this area and most people are unaware
- Order 25 – 99 per variety to get a price of $6.50 each - sell them barefoot on craigslist for $12-$15 and potted at farmstead and plant sales for $15-20
raspberries
Others
- Horseradish does well here, $1.64 per plant cost at 100 quantity, Sell for $5-8 bare root and $8-12 potted?
- strawberries are ~$0.40 - Sell for $3-$5 barefoot and $5-8 potted?
- rhubarb plants are costly ~$6 per plant look for another source
- do elderberries make sense? $7 / plant
Economics
- Purchase fruit trees for ~$8.50/tree
Options for fate of tree
- Sell bare-root 3/4" fruit trees for $25/tree or $20/tree when purchasing 10 or more trees (avg $21/tree)
- Sell potted 3/4" trees leafed out for $45/tree
- Plant and grow trees in the ground until next season, sell as 1" bare-root for $35
- Plant and grow trees in pots until next season, sell as 1" potted for $60
Options for how trees are sold (using 500 trees as a baseline): net profit
- All bare-root sales: 500 trees = $6,250
- All potted sales: 500 trees = $18,250 MINUS cost of pots/soil/fertilizer
- Assuming free soil and fertilizer from farm, pots costing $700: $17,550
- Assuming $250 on fertilizer and $600 on soil: $16,700
- Trees overwintered in-ground and sold as bare-root next season: $13,250
- Trees overwintered in pots and sold next season: $25,750 MINUS cost of pots/soil/fertilizer
- Assuming free soil and fertilizer from farm, pots costing $700: $25,050
- Assuming $500 on fertilizer and $600 on soil: $23,950
Realistic scenario
- 300 total trees ($2,500 invested)
- 200 bare-root for $2,500
- 100 potted for $3,500
- Net total $6,000
Timetable
Jan-Mar
Apr
May-Aug
Sept-Dec
Growing Methods
Soils
- Recycling grow facility soil
- On-farm compost
- Local soil
Irrigation
- Drip irrigation
Containers
- In-ground bags
- Above-ground air pruning bags
- Plastic pots
Resources
- Tooley's Trees
- Tree bags
- CSU extension Tree resources
- VanWell nursery - great prices on good-sized trees
- Nourse farms - great prices for asparagus, strawberries, other berries and perennials
- Cummins nursery - great selection of varieties, decent prices on rootstocks
- Orange pippin great variety information