Most Profitable Plants to Grow

[Psylo]

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

 

I'm interested to know who your customers were... did you supply directly to the gourmet sauce industry, and how ma y acres did you run, for what yeild? I would guess at around 1000kg of fruits per acre?

edit, I see you answered some of my queries already in a post following.

Edited September 27, 2012 by Psylo Dread

[Stillman]

200 hundred Chocolate habanero produced about 300kg fist grade fruit and then another 300kg of secondary pulping chillis. over 9 months. I supplied direct to the sauce makers and made alot of my own sauce. I also sold kilos direct to people who would come to the cafe. I sold about 3000 jars od Magma blast which was basically a chocolate habanero sambal.

[Stillman]

That was all done in a standard back yard. The Cafe was on a normal house block. It sloped the back third I turned into Chilli. Used gravity fed irrigation bleeders. ANd folior sprayed with organic three in one fertilisers. Some of the plants were bigger then me in the end. If you are on face book look up Old Man Stillmanz chilli sauce there are some good photos and stuff on it. I don't make the sauce any more but.

[Psylo]

Fortunately, the page is public, so I can view it. Outstanding work and a brilliant little crop, and thanks for sharing.

I love the wax sealed tops on the Quadraphonic. Tried to do this with some barley wine was ageing for five years, the results were poor. Tried wax, wax with melted glue sticks, not a great outcome, or poor results when trying to open.

[Stillman]

Did you buy the proper wax I can't remember where I got it but its cheap and has a nice effect? It is a bitch to get the heat right for consistency. I was going to put a few acres down with an acre of Tomatillo and other mexican cooking herbs. Had the land leased etc. Then it rained and rained and rained. ANd didn't stop until I lost my nerve. lol I'm due for a new business but, I hate working for other people.

Edited September 27, 2012 by Stillman

[mutant]

Very interesting topic thanks for all input, what a great place sab is!

[DarkSpark]

200 hundred Chocolate habanero produced about 300kg fist grade fruit and then another 300kg of secondary pulping chillis. over 9 months. I supplied direct to the sauce makers and made alot of my own sauce. I also sold kilos direct to people who would come to the cafe. I sold about 3000 jars od Magma blast which was basically a chocolate habanero sambal.

 

cool good to know, yeah i found the choc habaneros to be a very high yield fruit and normally quite hot maybe i should dedicate more of my crop land to chillis. I have approximately 70 plants at the moment. Roughly 40 Choc habaneros and 30 yellow scotch bonnetts. Good to know there is a market that was all that was holding me back from growing large scale chillis was that i doubt i could sell enough locally. I will be oing heaps of onons etc as well so i should have all the ingredients for sauces hmoegrown

That was all done in a standard back yard. The Cafe was on a normal house block. It sloped the back third I turned into Chilli. Used gravity fed irrigation bleeders. ANd folior sprayed with organic three in one fertilisers. Some of the plants were bigger then me in the end. If you are on face book look up Old Man Stillmanz chilli sauce there are some good photos and stuff on it. I don't make the sauce any more but.

 

Cool, the packaging looks great. I might send you a private message to get a bit of extra info out of you stillman. I have the space and just need the inside knowlege ;) After watching a show about the boutique crops around sunny coast i had to do something for myself.

[Stillman]

Pm me for sure. I am currently in the process of running at a few ideas myself, The trick I believe is not to be too niche and have passion for your crop. ANd self promote Talk your shit up. Bluff them if you have too. If they want 300 kg and you got 200 tell them you can or they will look elsewhere. I was THE bullshit Ninja lol.

Edit

Grow herbs if you want to make money. Parsley is a weed and it has an endless demand. Also Corriander. And if you have alot of cheap labour a man could grow rich growing Green Anise For the gourmet restaurant market.

Edited September 27, 2012 by Stillman

[DarkSpark]

hey stillman i thiink i got my chilli seeds off you originally a season or two ago now i accidentally dropped my seedling trays and they all got jumbled i could never ID this one can you please help out. It ripens red and has the appearance of a bell pepper kind of. Any suggestions?

Edited September 28, 2012 by DarkSpark

[Gollum]

Scotch bonnet maybe? or Bishops crown.

Edited September 28, 2012 by Gollum

[gtarman]

Wow, impressive stuff,

I'd suggest anything you can do that's niche - that yuppies and hispters and gourmet restaurateurs go nuts for, but is something you just can't get at most markets. Stuff like finger lime, regular lime ($30 a kilo atm?), obscure chilli's and tropical fruits (banana paasionfruit etc), good quality figs...proper "peppery kick" rocket, colourful heirloom varieties of just about anything, nasturtium leaves and flowers etc.

If you can do anything fresh, offbeat, quality, locally grown, organic and heirloom...almost any eco-chef will wet themselves I'd say. But don't start a business based on what I say. I'm just riffin' haha.

Edited September 28, 2012 by gtarman

[Psylo]

I'd suggest anything you can do that's niche - that yuppies and hispters and gourmet restaurateurs go nuts for, but is something you just can't get at most markets.

 

100% agree with you, however there needs to be more considerations than sowing an acre of seeds, and watching them grow. That's only part of the process. regardless of how good your product is, you need to have the 'salesman' hat on to get them into the niche market, and sustain the supply/demand cycle, which is a whole other ball game. You also need to consider continued supply. Let's say I sell oyster mushrooms to my local restaurants - they might want to incorporate them into one of their signature dishes, and I'll be expected to supply them every single week, indefinately. If I were to be an 'occasional' supplier, and they love the produce, the restaurants would quickly find a bigger operation that can guarantee a constant delivery stream. WIth the example of chillis, if (lets say) a Victorian grower has a limited window in which he can provide, so the smart move would be to team up with a far North QLD grower who can cover the bases when your plants have finished fruiting, supply you with chillis, so you can maintain 'your' customers for a lot longer than local seasons allow. Conversly, such an arrangement could be made with winter crops, where the agreement is reversed.

This is just speculation, mind you. I have no experience in such matters, but have been thinking about these things for some time.

Edited September 28, 2012 by Psylo Dread

[Stillman]

All ways have your Sales man hat on and trust me ALL chefs are cheap mean spirited bastards looking to pay as little as possible for your produce while making the greatest amount of margin. I know I do. Do your research and tell your products story so they can see them selves telling it as they sell it.

[Psylo]

Did you find that the owners of cafe's, restauarants were always often the chefs though?

I like your approach to it all, it's like the old marketing saying "sell the sizzle, not the steak".

[Stillman]

Good restaurants are often Chef run. Which ever way whoever holds the purse strings won't be a soft touch, so arm your self ANd know what your closest competitor is selling his ware for too.

[waterboy 2.0]

I make a bit of coin selling premium garlic to only one top end restaurant , they pay more cause I sell it only to them.

If its premium they WILL pay a decent dollar.

[Psylo]

Sure, but there's only one restaurant on the whole Island that you live on, isn't there ?

Is it an unusual garlic variety?

[waterboy 2.0]

Three if you include the fish n chip chop and maccas.

I grow a variety gifted to me from an italian family that has grown it since it was smuggled in by their kin that came here

to build hydro dams in the heyday.

My lesson: premium product and the best genetics you can find.

Also having a crack at the true shallot, but they take some time to really get to multiply

[BentoSpawn]

I looked up how to grow vanilla beans .... lets just say its not very feasible unless you got ALOT of $$$ to throw at them, you need a rather massive greenhouse and will need to hand pollinate the flowers which only stay open for a day.

Someone sums up the experience rather well here: http://answers.yahoo...05220249AAjGpqH

So my recommendation would not be to grow vanilla beans !

Water boy, interesting you mention garlic - i was just having a discussion the other day with my brother about how i should grow some.

Edited September 29, 2012 by BentoSpawn

[Yeti101]

Lemon myrtle is worth growing, specially if you can make it organic - I've heard that is hard at the moment as the myrtle rust is hitting it pretty hard.

[poisonshroom]

Myrtle rust is quickly becoming a problem in australia - If you were considering Lemon myrtle (or any other native or non-native myrtaceae) I would be seriously careful of where the plants come from and would NOT allow visitors onto the growing area and use clothes that dont leave the site, as well as those feet sterilizing things you see at a lot of zoo's and things like that. Apparently the myrtle rust identified in cairns came from plants brought from bunnings (in townsville I believe) and is already starting to spread around the area - I think less than a year after it was identified up there. Im pretty sure its also been reported at Cape Tribulation. Most of our iconic trees (eucalypts, malaleuca, syzygium etc) are in the family myrtaceae and are at serious risk of this pathogen, which once spread is almost impossible to contain and even more difficult (if not impossible) to eradicate completely. I personally would avoid trying to farm any mytraceae in the interests of our ecology and also because if the rust spreads to your area it could destroy your entire crop very quickly.

Ginger would be a good one - besides selling the raw product you could value add by making ginger beer (especially if you live somewhere hot - nice and refreshing), ginger lollies, travel sickness preparations, even drying it and selling it ground up ready to use would be a good way to make more from it. Its easy to grow, cheap to start off and thrives in conditions that normal crops dont (boggy, shady places)