Growing Trees

[Rob D]

Exactly what I'm thinking lee.

 

Trouble is growing things and grafting etc are totally alien and will be a whole new learning curve, unless of course we do as suggested and buy them as plugs and as they grow, so does your investment, its just time and space that is needed, I have plenty of space, it's the time that might be a problem

 

 

Alright Dean,

 

About 5 years ago I had the same idea. I'd just planted £2,000 worth of hedging and the customer had specified large plants. I couldn't believe the prices and so thought 'this gives me an idea.....'

 

Next door is a nursery and so I rented a polytunnel and started growing a mixture of mainly hedging plants i.e. aleagneus, escallonia, pittosporom, acuba, laurel, forsythia..... etc etc

 

My plan was to grow it big so that people could have an instant hedge and I could have lots of money!

 

However several things that I didn't take into consideration:

 

The market - what were people really after and was I growing the right things?

 

The job of potting plants from a smaller pot into a bigger pot gets tedious after the first 500.

 

The hire of polytunnels and cost of water adds a lot onto your plants after a few years.

 

There is a lot of maintenance to do i.e. weeding of pots and tidying up.

 

If doing it in any sort of numbers to make an income you'll have to employ people and this makes serious dents in your cash flow.

 

 

 

 

But hang on a sec!? When we want a large tree or shrub we go into a garden center and we say 'how much?' - my word they're making some money out of this!

 

The trouble is unless you have access to a market e.g. you are a landscaper and use a lot of plants, or you can produce enough to go down the wholesale route where are you to sell them? People only pay high prices for plants at a nursery. When they come over to you they expect to pay half the price they would at a nursery.

 

People love nurserys, they love the coffee shop, the browsing, the pushing round of those little two wheeled trolleys, buying gloves for £10 that would cost £1 at a market, the pleasurable wasting of a Sunday afternoon....!

 

So sell them to a nursery? Most of the big ones grow their plants themsleves or import from Holland (where they really do cost peanuts). Why sell yours when they need to sell their own? If they do buy them it will be for around 40% of what they sell them for.

 

And loading and delivering the things takes an age... To get 10 large plants out the field and onto the truck, take them to the customer unload and have a chat - you could have made the same money doing a tree job (NOT includig the growing!).

 

 

And the best thing is no matter what you grow they'll come round and say 'have you got any such and such'. Which of course you haven't.

 

 

 

I think I made my money back just (I tell myself that anyway) but the huge amount of time and energy that I put into it never returned!

 

I sold the remaining off cheap last year for £5-00 a plant (some were 8 foot tall) and have been breathing out a sigh of relief ever since!!

 

 

 

 

That was my experience anyway but please don't let it put you off!

 

 

 

[Dean Lofthouse]

I know what you mean Rob.

 

The polytunnel will be mine and water is free so no over heads.

 

I think what I was hoping was to pot a few "replacement " type trees and leave them so when one is required I can bill the customer (who thinks I have got it from a garden centre) the full amount, the rest of the space in the tunnel will be used for storing some logs and growing veg an stuff.

 

I replaced a tree the other day, which was a rowan I dug up from my wood, I charged the customer £45 which they were chuffed with and gave me an extra £20 because they had been quoted a lot more.

 

I'm getting a polytunnel anyways so will try out a few things, good to potter about in on rainy days ???

[renewablejohn]

Dean

 

Not to put you off but the market is flooded with cheap trees if you know where to go. Specimen trees are always in demand but you need to know what you are doing to end up with a tree which somebody will pay good money for.

 

Dean

 

I see you still not been put off yet so if your serious 3 things you must crack to be successful at growing trees.

 

You need an automatic watering system as trees in pots will not survive without a regular water supply

 

You must have a strong enough support to stop the trees from blowing over in the wind

 

You must repot every 3 years by at least 5 ltr in pot size.

 

Best of luck

[Dean Lofthouse]

Dean

 

I see you still not been put off yet so if your serious 3 things you must crack to be successful at growing trees.

 

You need an automatic watering system as trees in pots will not survive without a regular water supply

 

You must have a strong enough support to stop the trees from blowing over in the wind

 

You must repot every 3 years by at least 5 ltr in pot size.

 

Best of luck

 

Cheer John

 

It's a year or so off yet but everything taken on board.

 

On the watering side of things, the ground is quite wet so my plan is to dig a well and pull water up from the well. The only problem is no electric

[Mesterh]

Sounds like a good plan and tbh if you enjoy doing it but dont make a load of money out of it so wtf.

 

Could be a very good relaxing hobby.

 

At least your customers will be buying a local sourced and grow quality product.

[Dean Lofthouse]

To be honest, I would buy a polytunnel just to sit quietly in on rainy days, I find it the most relaxing thing ever for some reason, the sound of the rain hitting the roof

[Simon Rotheram]

I've considered planting some trees in my field a few times - normally after spending a small fortune on a planting job!

 

As Stevie said planting trees that may be in demand, I considered some Christmas trees (which variety is another issue) a load of Leylandii to sell as hedging, along with other hedging such as Laurel hawthorn etc then some commercial type shrubs Cornus, Viburnham etc.

 

At least there is an almost guaranteed market there, not much chance of getting 50 people wanting a Pyrus Chanticleer around December!!

[renewablejohn]

To be honest, I would buy a polytunnel just to sit quietly in on rainy days, I find it the most relaxing thing ever for some reason, the sound of the rain hitting the roof

 

It does get scary in a thunderstorm especially when the tunnel is the highest object in the field

[felixthelogchopper]

The only problem is no electric

 

Small wind turbine or solar an option?

[Dean Lofthouse]

Small wind turbine or solar an option?

 

I was thinking groundy with a hand pump