Making Money on our Homestead

[rantinraven]

Hey everyone I wanted to run a plan by you and see what you all thought. I have been doing extensive container and vertical gardening this year. *I have also put in several fruit vines of different types to have a variety of fruit (and fruiting wood) in various stages or development on my fence lines.

I am excited because I am learning the art of espaliering fruit trees and have decided to go with a dwarf variety for here in our yard. I have some trees here already but I plant to take them out completely and replace them with fruit trees.

Now originally when the neighbors saw me doing this much work they approached me about a "pick your own" berry plot.

If designed well I could probably manage to grow enough to serve those needs but I would be severely pushing it here.

Over the last couple of days a variation on that plan has emerged. I have thought about pruning extensively and replanting while selling the excess of what comes from my stock. We are adding a sun room off the basement and I plan to winter plants in there but if I have to winter them in my living room that's no problem for me lol.

The ultimate goal would be to have trees and vines to sell to the public. We have a Tradio system here so advertisement would be easy.

I know that fruit trees will take 3-4 years to produce fruit but because of espaliering you must prune extensively. I am wondering if I can take those pruning's and have them root for separate plants.

Anyways this is what I have come up with so far. I imagine that once the trees are started in an espalier pattern I will have many more visitors here. *The variety's that I have and will have in a few more days are:

Blackberry
Raspberry
Grape
Black Currant
Dewberry
Peach
Plum
Nectarine
Apple
Cherry

I don't plan to make a killing as we don't have a lot of space. I am just hoping that I can sell enough excess to offset my expenses for the plants and have a way to make a little extra when those expenses are done.

Also I would like to have good stock to transplant to the new place (whenever we find it).

Other possible ways to make money on this endeavor are with my writing, to explain process and procedure, as well as a documented blog (that is long overdue).

Ok,let me know what you think, Raven

Edited to add:

Espaliering is the art of training fruit trees to grow in a 2 dimensional form. You can grow the trees up against a house, fence, or other support.

[momma_to_seven_chi]

Please don't hate me for saying this.........
If I were in your position, I would use my energy and time to focus on the kids and your own health. *You have a handful right now, and your own health must come first before looking into a cottage business. *I know from experience how much energy and time it takes to raise a young family of multiple children. Don't stress yourself with a lot of work and plans until you really have the extra time and energy to focus on that. *Life goes by so fast. *Don't miss the good parts by spreading yourself too thin. *In the future, your babies will be all grown, and have lives of their own. *Then you will have all sorts of time and energy to invest in botany.
Start your trees, and focus on your family. Don't put too much of your precious time into starting a cottage business while your babies are so young. Focus your time where so much energy is needed.

And I think your idea is wonderful. But the timing might not be right while you are so so young and busy with your babies. Don't overwork yourself. You can build a business tomorrow. Today just focus on the more prominent everyday needs in your life.
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Edited to add--
You are the lady with the fifth child on the way, aren't you? I just realized that I may have confused you with another poster. *I was concerned about her expelling too much energy and draining her health.
Your idea is great, I just worried about your health. If I confused you with another poster, I am sorry.

[Terri]

It is spring. Take cuttings from the trees you have just for practice, and see how many you can root.

Practice makes perfect!

[jonvee]

A couple of things come to mind -

1 - if you have the public roaming around your property you'll need liability insurance because the average person is clumsy and sue happy. And, if you rent, the primary owner may not allow this type of business because he would ultimately be pulled into any lawsuits.

We have a really nice pick your own/pumpkin patch/christmas tree farm in our town, but the owner also has a real nice insurance policy - multi-million dollar - which costs him a bundle.

The other thing to consider is do you really want to deal with the public, their children and their stupidity.

2 - most fruit trees available now are grafted onto disease resistent rootstock. If you take cuttings and start your own the trees will not have the benefit of that resistent rootstock. So, in essence you'd be selling trees that were not like the "parent" tree. Of course you wouldn't have this with the berries and other vines.

Also, starting trees from cutting will take years of growing time so that they will be big enough to appeal to the buyer. In that time you'll have added expenses of water, soil, fertilizer, growing containers, etc and no way to offset those new expenses.

Just food for thought.