How To Start A Plant Nursery

Learn how you can you start a plant nursery or tree nursery business with really low start up costs? What do we mean by really low start up costs? Start a plant business for free? Start for $100, $500 or $1,000? Read along and see how! As of the writing of this article we are actually starting a small nursery within our larger nursery to show exactly how to start your plant business for as little money as possible. We will take you every step of the way to a low cost, start up, plant business that can make you extra money.

In this article we will show you how to start a:

• Backyard Plant Nursery
• Small tree nursery
• Perennial plant nursery
• Specialized Plant Nursery

Watch How to start a plant nursery on YouTube, Part 1:

 

How can you start business with as little money up front as possible.

Our own nursery was always a larger scale plant nursery and we had some money to invest in it. We wanted to reach some specific income goals in 2-4 years. What if you don’t want to make a larger investment or want to test the waters first.

Then this series is for you: How To Start A Plant Nursery with super low start up costs. We will take you step by step.

Here is what we show you and explain to help you get your plant nursery started while minimizing expenses.

• Select and find plants for a very low cost for free and grow to resell.
• Learn to propagate plants from cuttings.
• How to minimize the cost of pots/containers.
• Obtain a good potting soil at a low cost.
• What fertilizer to buy.
• Obtain a state license to sell plants.
• How to rapidly increase your inventory of plants.
• How to get some plants sold.
• What you need to do about paying taxes.
• How to grow your nursery by 2, 3, 4 X per year.
• Where to buy or how to make low cost Plant Tags

Spend some time learning to start a Tree or Shrub Nursery.

We of course recommend for you to subscribe to our videos! Having started a small nursery and having dedicated this series to starting on a shoestring, we are a good place to start learning. We also recommend a few other channels on YouTube who we watch and have learn a lot from. You can learn a lot just from YouTube videos, in fact you really don’t have to look beyond YouTube. It is also interesting to see what others do with different plants and in different parts of the country.

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Here is a list of our favorite Plant Propagators on YouTube.

Our Channel – Growing Our Retirement on YouTube We grow rooted liners and plants we propagate from cuttings. Much to learn about starting a very small backyard nursery business up to a larger operation.

Mike Kincaid on YouTube – Mike is a master of plant propagation, enjoyable to watch and shows you his successes and failures. Great tips on rooting cuttings including Rhododendrons and Figs.

Craig Odem The Savvy Dirt Farmer on YouTube Craig has successfully started a backyard nursery and then transitioned into a much larger, full time nursery. Excellent content for the complete beginner on up to becoming a pro.

Jason of Fraser Valley Rose Farm – Another who went from a side hustle to a full time operation.

You don’t have to invest a lot of money in a plant nursery business start up

If you have a million dollars to start, then read no further. This article is for those who want to take very little money and start a plant business that actually makes them an income. When we started our website and YouTube Channel we heard loud and clear that many want to start a plant nursery but did not want to invest a lot to start. We did write about Starting a Backyard Plant Nursery and starting a Plant Nursery Side Hustle that makes $10,000 per year. We didn’t write about starting a nursery with a very small investment so this series is just for that.

Here is how we started a new Plant and Tree nursery with very little money.

Just as an learning tool for our readers we started essentially a brand new new nursery. It is in a small area just 25 x 50 on a little terrace in our backyard. It is a nursery within a nursery. In this space we can fairly easily fit about 1,000 plants, some walkways and some totes for rooting cuttings. The area is partially shaded by some large trees so we do not need a shade house. We have some adjacent space in case we need it.

To sell 500 plants per year and assuming they grow out and can be sold in the second year, we thus need room for 1,000 plants.

We do have some extra room in case we need it as we get to and over 1,000 plants. We might not sell all the plant in 2 years, some may be around for up to 3 years.

First Year Plant or Tree Nursery Start Up Investment

Here is a list of our initial purchases to get started and the costs. This is for the first year before you sell any plants. In year 1,  you are just starting to build some inventory and get plants rooted and growing. Our goals are to keep the costs way down, grow and sell about 500 plants per year, and expand as some money starts coming back in from plant sales. Since these are in trade gallon pots we estimate our selling prices will be $8 to 12.00 per plant. If you get very good at propagation, and have the room, you may wish to hold some plants for 3 to 5 years so you can sell them for more.

 

Understanding start-up nursery costs

You can find many of the items below and other useful items in our Backyard Nursery Resources Guide

Pots – While we do recommend selling your plants in new pots you can certainly shop around or even see if you can find some used pots for free or at low cost. Often times landscapers throw away a lot of pots or you can source some inexpensively. We prefer to buy new pots as they make a better presentation to the  customer.

Totes – or some type of cold frame for rooting cuttings. You may have a few clear plastic totes, find some at a garage sale or buy them new.

Rooting hormone – Yes, you will need this to get your cuttings to root. It helps and we recommend Hormodin as a trusted product.

Slow release fertilizer – Refer to our Backyard Nursery Resources Guide but just buy a small bag of one of our recommended fertilizers.

What soil mix you use will be hurdle

Soil and amendments – This going to depend on where you live, if you can find and move bulk materials, or if you need to buy bagged products. First read our page on how to make your own potting mix to source and formulate a low cost, and ideal mix for your area. The sooner you can source and buy bulk materials the better. If you have a truck or utility trailer you might find you can get finely ground pine bark inexpensively or humus from your municipality or county.

At present we are buying 10 yards of humus delivered, 10 yards of ground up hardwood bark, and adding about 20, 4 cubic feet bags of perlite. This makes about 21 yards of soil mix. This would be enough soil mix for several thousand pots and it is economical per pot. At first, you may have to resort to buying some bagged humus or soil, bags of sand, and bags of perlite. That is a little more expensive and a bit of work but don’t let it slow you down. The cost per plant will still be less than $0.50. Don’t buy bags of soil mix or anything with fertilizer in it. These are expensive and if fertilized, may burn your plants.

Year One – How to Start A Plant Nursery and keep your costs down.

Step 1 – Gather the items you need to purchase – scrounge, beg or borrow all you can, especially pots.

Step 2 -Determine what plants you want to grow. Initially, we suggest you pick 5 and probably not more than 10 popular plants to grow. In our area Arborvitae, Azalea, Lilac, Andromeda, Dogwood, Forsythia, Euonymus, Holly, Juniper, and Rhododendron are popular sellers and easy to find plants to take cuttings from. If your budget allows you might also add some bought in liners/transplants like spruce trees.

Step 3 – Get some cuttings. You are going to need to find parent plants for cuttings. Try your property, from friends, or maybe even your Church has some plants to take cuttings from. You can even ask some strangers if they would let you take some cuttings or even cut down some scraggly plants. Be creative! See this article How to get free plants

Step 4 – Start rooting plants. Follow our general Plant Propagation page and some even more specific pages to learn how to get cuttings to root. The techniques vary a little depending on if you are starting in the winter or summer. You should attempt to root at least twice what you hope to grow when you first start. You rooting rate will improve but at first you might not do better than 50%. Shoot high!

Year one if you can get 500 cutting to root you have done well. Then you are right on target to be growing and selling 500 or more plants per year.

Our Plant Nursery Start Up Series

How to Get Free Plants – Your secret start up advantage
Propagate Plants All Year – Always be propagating
Make Your Own Potting mix – Inexpensively for your nursery
Propagate plants by Dividing A Great Way to Increase your Nursery Plant Inventory
Plant Nursery Side Hustle