5 ms·

Seeds, saplings, etc. Small houseplants and barely sprouted houseplants sell for a lot on Etsy and other sites and require very moderate amounts space and money

by soared 4y ago

Seeds, saplings, etc. Small houseplants and barely sprouted houseplants sell for a lot on Etsy and other sites and require very moderate amounts space and money. The difficulty is skill. Plants can be hard to grow and it’s easy to make a mistake that ruins lots of your crop!

zafka 4y ago
Plus 1 on this! I use my back yard in this way, but plan to set up some indoor areas also. So far I have not been trying to sell things, just playing and seeing what works best. There are some plants that are very easy to propogate that people enjoy such as rosemary.
ethbr0 4y ago
Or, you know, marijuana. > ...not particularly interested in the legality of this...
- aaaaaaaaata 4y ago
  Selling cannbis clones and support etc could be very lucrative. And potentially legal, depending on locale.
  - asdff 4y ago
    The issue is that business teaches people how to fish. People can take their own clones from the first clone. If you sell fancy fertilizer eventually people will realize they can get away with regular cheap dry amendments once they realize what they are actually doing with fertilizing.
    - jamiek88 4y ago
      Yep, you start off buying obscure soils and obsessing about ph levels and light and moisture and years later I use the cheapest 4-4-4 fertilizer I can find and water when I stick my finger in and it’s dry. I get better product now than I used to. Mostly it’s about genetics anyway. The number one bit of advice I give to new gardeners (my garden is pretty well developed) is ‘less is more’. Basically leave the plant alone as much as you can. Water deeply instead of frequently and use many seeds to start with whittling down to the best genetics. For example for my 5 pumpkin plants I planted around 50 seeds from last year. Waited a couple weeks and then pulled the smaller plants. Do the same again a couple weeks later. Then when transplanting cull once more. Plant three in every hole. Two weeks later cull until there’s one plant in each spot. Then for advanced mode you use the seeds from this selection process next year, and they get more and more adapted to your micro climate.
      - cq493 4y ago
        Is your view on this unique to marijuana or pretty much all plants? I'm looking to grow some berries but would love to avoid some rabbit holes that lead to nowhere. The 'less is more' concept is definitely appealing, but does that mean the latest wave of agtech startups optimizing every part of growth fall under the hype umbrella?
        kelnos 4y ago
        > Is your view on this unique to marijuana or pretty much all plants? >> for my 5 pumpkin plants Is this some sort of code-speak, or marijuana variety, or are they really just talking about pumpkins?
        jamiek88 4y ago
        I’m really talking about pumpkins and gardening in general. Sorry I live in Oregon thus I don’t really think of cannabis as any different to other crop plants. I deffo could have made that more clear though!!
    - primax 4y ago
      I want to say something between "There's a new sucker born every day" and "In a gold rush, sell shovels" to this comment. There will always be new customers
- vturner 4y ago
  A couple years ago I became quite interested in building my own grow lights for starting garden veggie seedlings. The YouTube recommendations surrounding such videos were quite interesting... It turns out another plant needs high power as well.
Wistar 4y ago
I had an acquaintance who made a very handsome living cultivating apple tree starts. I don't know how much exactly but he lived very well.
mythrwy 4y ago
That's a good suggestion. Check out this guy, he has a way to root ornamental shrubs in garbage bags. One could go around town with pair or pruning shears and get cuttings of many different plants and trees to root. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WyXSNzywqvw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WyXSNzywqvw The only problem with living things though is then you have to care for them. Even if you don't feel like it that day. And if they don't sell you still have to water them or throw them out. There are people who breed specialty plants also and make a (modest) living from their backyard. I know a retired guy who does this and sells his developed cultivars (ships once a year) on Facebook marketplace. He does like 20-30K in sales a year from his yard but it took him years of growing to start developing the cultivars.
jonah 4y ago
Do note that commercial nurseries are generally licensed and inspected by your state agriculture department or some agency. Not spreading plant diseases around ends up being a big deal. However, the inspection and license is not very hard or expensive. (My dad grows and sells seedlings of a particular and somewhat obscure native fruit as a side business.)

by soared 4y ago

zafka 4y ago

Plus 1 on this! I use my back yard in this way, but plan to set up some indoor areas also. So far I have not been trying to sell things, just playing and seeing what works best. There are some plants that are very easy to propogate that people enjoy such as rosemary.

ethbr0 4y ago

Or, you know, marijuana. > ...not particularly interested in the legality of this...

aaaaaaaaata 4y ago
Selling cannbis clones and support etc could be very lucrative. And potentially legal, depending on locale.
- asdff 4y ago
  The issue is that business teaches people how to fish. People can take their own clones from the first clone. If you sell fancy fertilizer eventually people will realize they can get away with regular cheap dry amendments once they realize what they are actually doing with fertilizing.
  - jamiek88 4y ago
    Yep, you start off buying obscure soils and obsessing about ph levels and light and moisture and years later I use the cheapest 4-4-4 fertilizer I can find and water when I stick my finger in and it’s dry. I get better product now than I used to. Mostly it’s about genetics anyway. The number one bit of advice I give to new gardeners (my garden is pretty well developed) is ‘less is more’. Basically leave the plant alone as much as you can. Water deeply instead of frequently and use many seeds to start with whittling down to the best genetics. For example for my 5 pumpkin plants I planted around 50 seeds from last year. Waited a couple weeks and then pulled the smaller plants. Do the same again a couple weeks later. Then when transplanting cull once more. Plant three in every hole. Two weeks later cull until there’s one plant in each spot. Then for advanced mode you use the seeds from this selection process next year, and they get more and more adapted to your micro climate.
    - cq493 4y ago
      Is your view on this unique to marijuana or pretty much all plants? I'm looking to grow some berries but would love to avoid some rabbit holes that lead to nowhere. The 'less is more' concept is definitely appealing, but does that mean the latest wave of agtech startups optimizing every part of growth fall under the hype umbrella?
      - kelnos 4y ago
        > Is your view on this unique to marijuana or pretty much all plants? >> for my 5 pumpkin plants Is this some sort of code-speak, or marijuana variety, or are they really just talking about pumpkins?
        jamiek88 4y ago
        I’m really talking about pumpkins and gardening in general. Sorry I live in Oregon thus I don’t really think of cannabis as any different to other crop plants. I deffo could have made that more clear though!!
  - primax 4y ago
    I want to say something between "There's a new sucker born every day" and "In a gold rush, sell shovels" to this comment. There will always be new customers
vturner 4y ago
A couple years ago I became quite interested in building my own grow lights for starting garden veggie seedlings. The YouTube recommendations surrounding such videos were quite interesting... It turns out another plant needs high power as well.

Wistar 4y ago

I had an acquaintance who made a very handsome living cultivating apple tree starts. I don't know how much exactly but he lived very well.

mythrwy 4y ago

That's a good suggestion. Check out this guy, he has a way to root ornamental shrubs in garbage bags. One could go around town with pair or pruning shears and get cuttings of many different plants and trees to root. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WyXSNzywqvw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WyXSNzywqvw The only problem with living things though is then you have to care for them. Even if you don't feel like it that day. And if they don't sell you still have to water them or throw them out. There are people who breed specialty plants also and make a (modest) living from their backyard. I know a retired guy who does this and sells his developed cultivars (ships once a year) on Facebook marketplace. He does like 20-30K in sales a year from his yard but it took him years of growing to start developing the cultivars.

jonah 4y ago

Do note that commercial nurseries are generally licensed and inspected by your state agriculture department or some agency. Not spreading plant diseases around ends up being a big deal. However, the inspection and license is not very hard or expensive. (My dad grows and sells seedlings of a particular and somewhat obscure native fruit as a side business.)