Most Profitable Plants to Grow

[Buttsack]

Does anyone know which plants are most profitable after the shortest amount of time growing that are legal? I was thinking of starting a small nursery in a few years time so I'd like to grow some plants from seedling now to give myself the best start.

I'd like to grow some rare and interesting plants but I don't know where to start. I have a greenhouse and some spare property I could turn into a small tree farm. Something like a Japanese maple would work well in a small tree farm if it grows in my climate well. Ideally I'd like to help revive a rare species and make some money from my investment. The more money I make the more I can put back into the plants.

[IndianDreaming]

Really interested to see what ideas sprout here... Saffron?

When you do find your plant(s) - you could then look for companion plants to increase your yield, and hopefully sell the companions too...

[whitewind]

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Edited September 21, 2012 by whitewind

[Psylo]

There's always some good ideas come up on Mother Earth News. have a dig around, they mention microfarming for profit, things such as flowers, garlic and plenty more.

http://www.motherearthnews.com

[IndianDreaming]

 

http://www.hooverwebdesign.com/business/pages/backyard-cash.php - Interesting article on the topic.

[applesnail]

Erythroxlum coca & Cannabis indica!

there the most profitable but frowned upon!

Edited September 21, 2012 by applesnail

[Evil Genius]

Rare Bamboos, Ginseng, beautiful Flowers, Herbals, Mushrooms, Cacti & succulents outdoors but only very good and rare ones.

Have a look at this list!

http://www.cheapvegetablegardener.com/2009/01/most-profitable-plants-in-your.html

Edited September 21, 2012 by Evil Genius

[nabraxas]

if you mean for this community, then Sceletium tortuosum (Mesembryanthemaceae]) grows really fast, is super easy top grow & super easy to propagate w/cuttings.

chillies are also easy to grow, & if you look after them they will survive the frosts & live for a few years. they are also easy to value add by making pickles or sauces.

fruit trees are good, lemons, limes, finger limes, cherries. Again you can preserve lemons or make lemon curd, marmalade etc.

[Ethos]

I have heard of Xanthorrhoea (australian grass trees) can fetch a mean dollar when sold legally through nurseries.

I have an X. arborea out the front which I collect seed from every year and have thought about eventually propagating these plants individually as part of an eventual retirement plan.

Although to have a profitable business venture one must have time, patience. be willing to work hard and to part with plants that so much of your time, effort and hard work have gone in to.

[whitewind]

And remember, because its plants you can never go away for too long unless you are paying someone well to water them properly while you are away

[bogfrog]

Truffles grow on the roots of hazelnut trees - although both will take a while, they will fetch a pretty penny.

Multi-purpose crops always appeal to me.

There has been a spike in interest in heritage root crops like ulluco and yacorm.

Goji berries, almonds, tomatoes, cucumbers, definately saffron.. Geez even salad greens are pricey as.

Follow the latest health-freak fads.

Find out what the young, healthy, rich people are raving about and grow as much of it as quickly as you can.

Would your climate be appropriate for grape vines? Wine?

[santiago]

i often think frangepani and agave, there are literally thousands on roadside gardens everywhere...its not to hard to go ninja at night and fill your boot, possibly even legally if its situated in certain areas, i see bunnings sell 30cm frangi's at $30ish...agaves also seem to be expensive for what they are. they are everywhere too.

especially for perth but probably as a whole the waterwise garden is now niche, it will become bog standard in 10 years, australian natives and cacti succulents will become the garden of choice for most households, mind you...it sounds great to simply start a plant biz but you have giants like bunnings and benara for starters to contend with so lierally mayby ebay, garage and roadside might be your only real petty cash options....but who knows, cash is floating everywhere, buyers are generally stupid and where there is a will there is a way.

[DarkSpark]

I have heard of Xanthorrhoea (australian grass trees) can fetch a mean dollar when sold legally through nurseries.

I have an X. arborea out the front which I collect seed from every year and have thought about eventually propagating these plants individually as part of an eventual retirement plan.

Although to have a profitable business venture one must have time, patience. be willing to work hard and to part with plants that so much of your time, effort and hard work have gone in to.

 

Better hope you have your commercial harvesting of protected plants certification. As far as i am aware you wrent able to grow and sell Xanthorrhoea will likely require this. As they are natives, however getting this certification and getting natives tagged is a great way to make money.

Also rather than seeds another way to make good money quick is to loo karound your local area for large developments of housing estates. Have a search through the bushland on the site and log any natives that are of interest (gingers, grass trees, acacias etc. Then apply for your commercial harvesting licence as a plants 'salvager' you can then go through the area and dig ou, take cuttings or harvest virtually anything you want. On the gold coast near the new hospital i think they got something like 135 grass trees from in there.

Another one is rather than stealing frangipanis put up aflyer offering free garden maintenance and tidy ups. Prune the shit out of any valuables such as agaves and the like take them home and plant them. For a days work you can often get a few hundred new plants.

[Yavimaya]

Darkspark has the right idea!

[Buttsack]

Thanks everyone for all your ideas. So many plants to look into. I would love to grow truffles, if only I was in the right climate.

I like DarkSpark's idea about salvaging natives from future developments. Agaves and Xanthorrhoea seem like good plants to grow considering the price they fetch plus they are natives. Is the commercial harvesting of protected plants certification a one off this or do you have to get one each time you remove natives?

[DarkSpark]

Thanks everyone for all your ideas. So many plants to look into. I would love to grow truffles, if only I was in the right climate.

I like DarkSpark's idea about salvaging natives from future developments. Agaves and Xanthorrhoea seem like good plants to grow considering the price they fetch plus they are natives. Is the commercial harvesting of protected plants certification a one off this or do you have to get one each time you remove natives?

 

As far as i am aware you need to apply for the certification for a specific site and specific plants. You need to have a few things including a list of the plants you intend to remove, as well as those you would like to take cuttings and seeds from. There is a limit to the amount of plants, seeds and cuttings you can take per month i believe however i think that in the case of salvage this may be a bit flexible.

Here are a few good reads

Guideline: Completing a salvage plan to harvest whole protected plants

Commercial harvesting of protected plant parts

Application form: Commercial wildlife harvesting licence (protected plants) (Word, 330K)‡

sorry about all the typos in my first post i think i was in a rush i am going to clean it up now

[santiago]

edit-double post

Edited September 28, 2012 by santiago

[santiago]

by going ninja i dont mean out and out theft, only a matter of time before you will get busted....imagine having a wrap sheet that says 'plant thief', would be the petty criminal equivilant to getting busted drink driving on a push bike.

i suppose going for a walk, is not common law the apple hanging over the fence onto public property then the apple is legitimate fair property of the person in public, then i see no massive issue taking a cutting or two. i see massive piles of agave in public places, like neglected business type gardens, i dont see massive karma issues to taking a few selective pups, obviously a lawn mowing round would be easy peasy, offering discount for permission to take a few cuttings. my first cactus ever was a cereus....i knocked on the door and the old lady was wonderful, she could not have been more welcoming....it helps if you look decent and mayby have a kid or dog with you, as personally even i am suspicious of lone males.

i suppose slow and steady wins the race, 4 cuttings per week is basically 200 plants in a year, say 100 if you have half fail. i personally dont see it getting you rich, once again most people really would just go to bunnings, or a general supplier....but for an aged pensioner a few plants sold here and there is gold. but if you were dedicated, had steady property, patient, motivated to succeed, dropped leaflets, hit ebay, made cold calls to big business, even buy a cheap van and hire plants for parties and weddings, hit swap meets, get a hawkers permit and get near wineries and golf courses on a sunday, advertise, real estate agents need quick solutions all the time. go into a real estate agent building, give them some free display plants for the office in return for future work. hit the yellow pages and cold call landscapers. in this day and age of grey buildings, cheesburgers and rubbish, you are simply beautifying the world.....your not selling lies, you are selling green, living reality. thats def something to be proud of, more proud than window cleaning for a quick biz comparison.

in regards to waterwise, look for houses with solar panels....cold call the owners and explain they can have a garden that doesnt need typical watering, explain the benefits of cactus, acacia and so on, more time not watering saving money, saving time, helping the world.

grow carniverous plants, get a working with children check and hit up schools and do a presentation to the kids, kids go mental for carniverous plants....leave the forms with the p & c so that they can be purchased, donate a proportion back to the school. ring up channel 7 and sponsor telethon, for every carniverous plant adopted by someone, donate a dollar to telethon....something weird like that will get a minute of air time and that is advertising gold as well. set up in shopping centres, visit nursing homes and hospitals.

it CAN be done, the only limiting factor is you, your imagination, your courage and self confidence....they say that money doesnt grow on trees. the truth is money doesnt actually grow, it is created for people to take, the people that take it are the people that find it, the only thing that grows on trees is life, you can turn this marvellous thing the universe has richly gifted you for free, and turn it into dreams. your basically saying via growth, whatever that means to you....say growth of a leaf, into a tree, into a garden, for return of labour via money exchange you can then exchange that for a boat or a car, or a massage depending on your dreams.

but this is all feelgood psycho-babble, dreams are great but reality is the truth. the fact is we tell little johnny at school, or our pampered kids....''yes of course you can be an astronought, you can be anything you want" .....sound great but the harsh reality is that 99.9999999 percent of kids, adults and dreamers will not live their dreams, the harsh reality is the human psych is set up to fail. failure is safer and more predictable, than dreams. that is why people fail, usually with constant repetition over and over again.................at least we know where failure will take us, we know that path, we know where it goes, its predictable and comforting, plus as a added bonus you can always fantasise about 'what if', essentially a lifeboat for failure.

as a society, as a whole this is certain, that is why every successful empire, like the romans for example that has ever been has over time failed, that is why we still burn oil and destroy the amazon, we want to dream of a utopian green society, a world self sustained and perfect in the future, but history and human nature and our 99.999999 percent of human mass knowing that failure is the inevetable and predictable path, the world is already on a doomed path to failure. this is the reality.

but finally, having left growing plants sadly behind im sorry, failure is certain. failure is reality.....dreams are your escape from failure. neil armstrong......was he a failure? he once was a little boy, was it his dream to be an astronought? is he just like little kids dreaming now?

so ferkin stop feelin sorry for youself, admit that the world is doomed and your a failure, you will always be a failure...........yes you are a failure, but seriously........take a chance, turn that first cutting into a dollar, then ten, then 100, then 1000, ............but "what if'', its success that your afraid of........i know this because you know this.

WHAT IF hey peeps, WHAT IF?

[whitewind]

You can set yourself up for failure by aiming too high. Trouble is, if you're no good at selling an even a brilliant idea worked at passionately, it is doomed to failure in a world which is obsessed with selling. If you tell someone to follow their dream, but are clearly incapable of achieving it, you are setting them up for failure. I think we need to be more chilled about this idea of failure and success, our excessive drive to succeed is actually destroying the planet.

[Buttsack]

Thanks for all the ideas Santiago. The worst part about our society is that people think it's bad to fail or be wrong. If society was more accepting to failure people might actually learn from it. I'm minimizing my chance of failure by asking for help and sharing information with others. I might not be able to eliminate failure but I can definitely minimize the chances of it happening.

This is a good TED speech

Kathryn Schulz: On being wrong

 

I don't really want to make this a full time job to start with. For now I think slow growing plants that don't need much attention will be good. So agaves, cactus and grass trees will definitely be on my list. I want to grow the plants from seed so the plants have better genetics and are more appealing than cuttings. I can use the plants grown from seed as stock plants and take cuttings from them once I get the nursery started.

At the end of the day no matter what happens I can't lose anything but my time. I enjoy looking after plants and learning about them so to me my time is well spent.

[Stillman]

I grew chilli on a semi comercial level good money in the right climate. Any plant you yourself can Value add too is the good. Figs fresh and secondary crop into jams etc, depends what your looking into. If you got alot of land maybe a shit tonne of Sandle wood? Or if you want to make some serious freight poppies lots of poppies

[DarkSpark]

Stillman what type of chillis

I have looked at growing large scale chillis but wondering if it is worth growing the unique cultivars or if i should just go for standard harbaneros etc and other high yield varieties.

[Gollum]

Lemon myrtle( Backhousia citriodora) comes to mind as a little money maker. Dried leaf sell for around $35 a kilo and plants arent cheap either. If you could get a little myrtle farm happening the aromatherapists would be busting down your door i reckon.

[Stillman]

I grew Bhut Jolokia, Chocolate Habanero and some Fatalii Mainly Chocolate Habanero as the pods were big and heavy. I sold too Chilli factory, Chilli Willys Redback chilli and used alot myself. Theres still a market definitely. Theres a market for everything lol.

Just had a patch behind a Cafe I owned, I loved being a chilli farmer.

[BentoSpawn]

I wonder if vanilla pods are worth while growing, they are majorly expensive at the supermarkets. Id really like to try to grow some myself for personal use, i need some seeds though !