Can you make a living farming?

[EddieWalker]

Allot of people are selling plants and seeds on ebay. I've bought a few myself. They come wrapped in wet newspaper, bare root, and inside of zip lock bags. They always arrive in a few days and have done well when planted. Of curse, when summer hits, everything that I've planted dies, but for a few months, I'm always hopeful.

I think that in winter, most plants are dormant and should be easy to ship. It's during the early growing season when you take the most risk.

You might want to spend some time on ebay and see what others are doing.

Eddie

 

[Uncle Doug]

More good posts, thanks.

Does anyone know how to ship live plants in Canada or the colder US states? Sure, I can ship plants by UPS or whetever all summer with no worries, but how in the winter?

I got me an i-d!

State trooper pulls over a hillbilly, comes to the car window and says "boy, you got any ID? Hillbilly says "bout what?"

I would check regulations before shipping live plants or seeds into and out of the US. Import of plants into the US is highly regulated.

 

[jdbower]

Before shipping plants you may also want to check out some of the competition, even ordering some stuff to see how it gets packed. As mentioned above, international shipments may be even more complex but even domestically individual states have different restrictions you need to keep track of. For example, currents can carry a disease that affects certain pine trees so some states have prohibited bringing them in. Some of the places my wife has been sending our money to (mostly for fruit trees/plants and a few vegetables):

Raintree Nursery
Miller Nurseries
Territorial Seed

I can look up others if you're interested, those just popped up on the most recent credit card bill.

The best way to make money farming here in the North East is to have a backhoe, a wood chipper and make some Italian friends in NY/NJ. For some reason they're very interested in disposing of rolled up carpets in the middle of the night and pay handsomely to use your equipment to do so.

 

[jimmyj]

I would only do this within Ontario Canada. There would be enough sales to "retire" in short order. There are a couple of firms in the US now doing what I have in mind so how they ship and packaging and so on is not the issue.

The difference is that no one is servicing this niche in a big way up here year round. The cold winter seems to be an issue. Some folks are shipping to large grocers but only in summer.

Hmmm, a challenge!!!

 

[jdbower]

It sounds like your issue is that you want to ship fresh herbs and such in winter without having them freeze.

If you want to go after the premium market you could look into shipping in Styrofoam chests like the frozen steak places do. Some experimentation would be in order, if you pack them at room temperature and put the chest in a freezer at whatever temperature you want how long until they reach a "bad" temperature? Just having a wireless BBQ meat probe could do the trick but if you want to create a fancy graph to show potential buyers I'd invest in something like this.

If the plants stay at a good temperature for a few days you should be able to ship them without any issues. If the chest doesn't keep things warm long enough, you can look at tossing in some disposable hand warmers as well. Then you can do a cost analysis of recovering the Styrofoam (pitch it as an "eco-friendly recovery system" and you can charge for it ), adding warmers vs. overnight shipping, etc. If it's all local you can also look into getting a heated vehicle and offering delivery service yourself.

 

[MossRoad]

Before selling plants I would also look to make sure no one owns that type of plant species. For example, there are raspberry plants with a specific name that one nursery company owns. If they catch you selling them by that name, they sue you. Also, if they catch you selling them by another name, they sue you. Same goes for many varieties of hostas, tulips and other bulb plants, etc...

I read some stories about genetically modified corn. With some species, if you buy it and plant it, you are not allowed to keep some of the seeds to plant again next year. You have to buy it again and again each year.

There was a farmer that had kept his own seed for decades. A family tradition. He never bought seed, ever. Well, his neighbor was using the genetically modified seed. Apparently, the GM seed pollen was drifting onto the neighbor's fields and cross pollinated his decades old line of family seed. The GM seed company did a test and enough of his corn had cross bred with the GM seed that the GM seed company sued him in court tp force him to buy seed from them. There are bunches of stories similar to this regarding many different crops.

Just another pit-fall of farming, I guess.

Plus, I never knew that you cannot just go out, buy seed, plant it and sell the crop to whoever you want. There are all kinds of rules and regulations as to what you can plant, where you can plant it, what soils cannot be planted on at what times of year, where you can till soil in relation to watersheds, etc... you also need chemical training, licensing, etc... unless you pay someone else to do it that has the credentials. Farming is complicated business.

 

[Uncle Doug]

We also toured this flower seed farm in the Texas hill country a couple of years ago. They selected a place of about 200 acres along a rural but busy Texas highway. Planted some of the most popular wildflowers then harvest the seeds for local sales and mail order sales. The colorful flowers will draw in the passing cars. We were there for about 2 hours and they were packed with customers the entire time.

Wildseed Farms - Fredericksburg, Texas - The World's Largest Working Wildflower Farm - Home

 

[EddieWalker]

We also toured this flower seed farm in the Texas hill country a couple of years ago. They selected a place of about 200 acres along a rural but busy Texas highway. Planted some of the most popular wildflowers then harvest the seeds for local sales and mail order sales. The colorful flowers will draw in the passing cars. We were there for about 2 hours and they were packed with customers the entire time.

Wildseed Farms - Fredericksburg, Texas - The World's Largest Working Wildflower Farm - Home

That place is awesome. I found it by accident a few years ago while driving down to Kerrville. You just come upon these fields planted in all one type of flower, next to another field of a different type of flower. They must be five acres of just the one flower, and it's simply amazing!!!! The buildings are also VERY IMPRESSIVE. I didn't buy anything there, but spent a few hours just exploring and admiring the place. From the wood work to the pond and of course, the fields of color, it's a must see location.

They are kind of in the middle of nowhere, but because it's so over the top, tour buses stop there and it's a huge draw for tourists to come out and see the place. It is definitely an excellent example of "if you build it,they will come" type of business.

I forgot about it, but now I'm thinking that Steph and I should take a run out there this weekend. The spring flowers are in full bloom here and it's beautiful. I wonder what the flowers are like there right now?

Thanks for the link.

Eddie

 

[charlz]

The difference is that no one is servicing this niche in a big way up here year round. The cold winter seems to be an issue. Some folks are shipping to large grocers but only in summer.

Hmmm, a challenge!!!

The problem with live plants in the winter is where do you grow them? Are you talking about just running an import business or actually trying to provide enough heat and light to grow plants in the winter months?

 

[Uncle Doug]

I forgot about it, but now I'm thinking that Steph and I should take a run out there this weekend. The spring flowers are in full bloom here and it's beautiful. I wonder what the flowers are like there right now?

Thanks for the link.

Eddie

The native wildflowers like the Blue Bonnet were at its peak last month but I as sure there are still lots of them around. We have not made a hill country trip this spring. I was to be in Austin in April for a board meeting but was under the weather and did not make the trip. We took out grandson on a camping trip out that way a couple of years ago and stopped at all the off the beaten path stops.