Plants To Pay Off Debt?

[jdouthat]

Hello all, first time posting here so please forgive any errors. I recently graduated from high school and will be going to college in 7 months. In the meantime, I am trying to find ways to finance my tuition. One of the ideas that I have been dwelling on for a while is plating an acre of landscaping tree saplings such as Japanese maples to be harvested and sold when I graduate from college. This would allow me to pay off any debt that I acquire during school. My question is, in short, would this work? The land would be located in either east TN or western Virginia, and would be rather remote to avoid possible theft. I have a lot of questions so I will just list them out.
- Would Japanese maples be a good choice for this?
- Any specific type of Japanese maple?
- What kind of maintenance would the trees require?
- Would the trees survive from a sapling if they were not looked after for 4 years?
- Would theft be a concern?
- Are Japanese maples easy to sell in large quantities?
- Opinions?

Thank you in advance for your help.

 

[Chuck]

Are you going to graft or grow from seed? If you grow these trees in a container it will be a constant time consuming project, just like a real job. If you grow them in the ground you will have even more expense. Growing plants commercially such as trees is NOT something that is a part time or semi part time project. Growing plants commercially isn't just sticking something in the ground or a pot and coming back 4 years later expecting to just load them up and take them into town and selling them. Once you get past the expense of growing them and if you are successful at this, then you have to find a way to market them. You could set up a roadside stand and sell them for full retail but an acre of young small trees is a LOT of trees to sell. Do you have someone who is called a jobber? That is someone who buys at about 1/3 of retail and takes the entire lot off of your hands and then markets them. Is there really a market for what you are growing? If it were easy or profitable is anyone else doing it? If not, it isn't easy or profitable. You will have to research this yourself.

I don't mean to piss on your parade but I was in the commercial side of agriculture for too many years and I can promise you that your business plan will not pass go. There are much easier and cheaper ways to profit from an acre of land depending on where it is and what it is. Just a thought, but how about an acre of pick you own blackberries or raspberries or blue berries. Not nearly as much initial expense and you don't have to wait years for a little return. The secret to any business is to start your returns ASAP, not spend a bunch of money and wait and wait and while you are waiting spend even more money.

 

[jdouthat]

Thank you for your response Chuck. You did not "piss on my parade," I posted here to get opinions before I started and that is what you gave me. To answer your question, I was planning on growing in the ground from 12 inch saplings and selling to a jobber. I am open to new ideas. You mentioned that there are better ways to profit off of an acre of land. I would not be on the property but a couple of times per year, so a berry business would not work. Any other ideas?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Pat]

I read a business plan from a gentleman in Ohio that used his backyard to grow plants as a source of income. His plan did require constant care during the growing season. The plan looked good, I know this is not the information you are looking for but it may give you some ideas. Good luck!

 

[Esther Knapicius]

Christmas trees. plug in babies and go away. pick more the high end type.

 

[Chuck]

No matter what you grow you cannot visit it once or twice a year and expect anything except complete failure. Who is going to water and fertilize? What are you going to do about insects and animals eating them? How are you going to keep weeds from choking them to death? You said you were going to plant 12" seedlings. Where do they come from? And how many? And how much do they cost? If you plant trees in the ground how are you going to dig them up and sell as bare root trees without the proper equipment? There are severe time limits in doing this also. If you were talking about growing marijuana I might could see someone stealing them but even those weeds need care. If it were that easy to stick a bunch of tree seedlings, or anything else for that matter, into the ground and expect a windfall profit, then everyones uncle and his dog would do it. I think you better think of a plan B to fall back on.

 

[jdouthat]

Thank you for your responses. Looks like plan B will now become plan A. Thanks All!

 

[Corzhens]

Excuse me for this comment but in any business, there are only 2 things to bear in mind which you should give the most consideration - demand and supply. With your planned planting of Japanese maples, that may answer the supply but it seems that you are still groping for the answer to the demand. I guess you have to make a market research first if there will be buyers of your Japanese maple. It happened to a friend when he planted Noni trees in his vacant lot only to realize that there are no buyers.

 

[fuumarumota]

Yep, I suggest you to find out which plants require the least care and are still appealing for people to buy. I can think about some cacti that can grow some outstanding flowers. It also depends on what climatic conditions you'll have in your terrain.

 

[remnant]

Japanese maples are a good choice to pay off your debts. They have a unique beauty due to their rainbow of colours. They are easily grown in containers and this economizes on space. A backyard nursery can produce numerous trees. This tree is a dwarf variety and popular with landscapers. A good book to read about Japanese maples and other trees is Growing Trees for Profit by Craig Wallen.

 

[fuumarumota]

Good point about Japanese maples. I have bought a couple myself. Could be grown for profit.