Thinking about growing trees...

[PapaPerk]

Thinking about growing trees on my land. Would start from seedlings and grow till they are around 5 to 6 feet tall.... then dig up and sell.

Does anyone do this? It seems like a good way to make a little money off my land with minimum effort on my behalf.

Tree's I'm considering are apple, white pine, pear, etc.

Thanks for any feedback... positive or not. :laughing:

 

[Stick895]

Don't see why not, although I'm not sure about white pine, but the rest apple, pear, cherry, oak, hickory at least absorb a lot of CO2. I'm doing the same sort of thing when I finally build my place, I'm going to landscape it with the small trees growing elsewhere on the property.

 

[TripleR]

Not the same, but maybe similar. We reforested about 45 acres on a couple of farms and it was actually quite a bit of work. While our sons planted several acres, we hired a crew to do most of it with hand tools. My brother owned and used a tree mover mounted on one of our tractors to get free trees out of fence rows and move others. Our experience was unless you have the right equipment, it is pretty labor intensive.

Our experience might not be typical though, we did not invest in a tree planter which would speed things up.

 

[dave1949]

This is obviously location dependent, but there are nurseries that have growers to produce their stock. FedCo in Maine is one example. Also, look for specialty food/medicinal producers. A few years back, a company was looking for people to grow elderberries for their products here in Maine.

You would have tech support, a known market, etc. if you get involved in this way. Staying below the retail level can avoid a lot of hassles.

 

[forgeblast]

If deer are around you will need to tube or fence them in. If you have voles you will need to tube them. I would also think that planting on a grid that lets you get in to dig them out would be a good plan too. My crep land is planted on a 15x15' grid, but if you were going to dig out with a tractor you might want to go a big larger.
Also like dave said can you make a profit on a 16.oo apple tree? thats what hd/lowes will sell them for. Unless you decide to specialize and go herloom variety/cider variety. Shrubs around outside of your trees might be a good idea too.

 

[Cranky]

Do you have enough water to irrigate the trees?

Don’t know what part of the country you are in, but in Texas many people got into the tree farm business a few years ago. The industry was not heavily regulated and it was relatively inexpensive to do so.

Fast forward a few years to the drought, bad economy, housing bust, etc. The market is over saturated with failing tree farms. People are closing their tree farms and selling their trees for 40 – 60 cents on the dollar just to recoup as much money as possible.

I might consider a cut your own Christmas tree type operation.

 

[greasemonkeyok]

Education and long-term planning are obviously important to success. An interesting story to read relative to the success of transplanting trees using Root Control Tree Bags is:

About Smart Pots - Container Growing, Container Gardening, Hydroponic Gardening

Alex got the idea of using tree bags from watching a road crew lay down Phillips PetroMat, a porous road fabric.

 

[forgeblast]

Cranky is right, I get a newsletter from Lawyer nursery and they often report on the state of the industry. For the last few years it has not been good.
Now if you were just going to do seedlings, contact your local ag dept, have them put you on a list for crep(conservation plantings) stock provider you could get some business that way.

 

[Misfire]

Thinking about growing trees on my land. Would start from seedlings and grow till they are around 5 to 6 feet tall.... then dig up and sell.

Does anyone do this? It seems like a good way to make a little money off my land with minimum effort on my behalf.

Tree's I'm considering are apple, white pine, pear, etc.

Thanks for any feedback... positive or not. :laughing:

OK, that got a good laugh here, especially the minimum effort part. You are describing a nursery operation. They are a labor intensive agricultural business, not something that provides a fast buck for little effort. For additional laughs, price a tree spade for your tractor.

If you want good advice on how to put your property work, you will have to describe it in some detail, including your geographic and political locations. Then folks can offer advice based on local knowledge, not speculation.

 

[Mark Page]

Digging them out is a chore, then you need to ball them in burlap which is a bit of an art. In these parts it's cut your own Christmas trees that will turn the best profit with the least input. A 6'-7' Doug Fir brings $60.00 and you can get ag zoning on your land. You'll put in some long hours during the Holidays and get to see some great family arguements over which tree to buy.