How to start a nursery business in your backyard for under $1,000 NOW!! // Step By Step 

What is your best tip for starting a nursery?

I'm 14 and I love plants. I'm currently starting to sell houseplants and roses outside my local mall. currently I'm just seeding, but I'm super excited

I've been gardening since I was about eight years old. I'm 56 now. Since being married to my Indonesian wife, 20+ years ago, I've learned a lot about the spices and herbs she uses in her Traditional Indonesian cooking. She likes Asian pears. She once spent $4.00 for one piece of fruit ! 🤦🏻‍♂️ So, halfway joking, I told her I'd plant the seeds and grow her her own tree. That was about Ten years ago. The last few years have yielded some very nice, and very sweet, asian pears. I also grow two Kaffir lime trees that she uses the leaves for her cooking. One I grew from a cutting. Now I have 16 key lime tree seedlings because she wanted to grow some for herself and to sell some to her Indonesian friends. So now, without planning it, I've started a mini nursery. I also grow A LOT of chili peppers for her every year for making hot chili oil.

A "Liner" is a plant that has been grown big enough to be planted directly into the ground, in a line, so they can grow bigger so you can re dig and sell later. It's called" "lining out stock". That's why they're called "liners".

Great video, here's what I've got to add: 1) Look at your local market, go to places around you and see what they've got and take pictures, especially of pricing. Talk to the people that run your local nurseries, talk to customers, see what people want that they can't already get. This is called market research and if you skip this step, go ahead and skip all the rest of them too because you aren't serious enough about this to operate a business. 2) Make yourself an expert in something, don't be a generalist. Everyone will come to you for your expertise and quality and knowledge. 3) Come up with a theme that is practical and easy to understand (and easy to market), for example: sell all peppers: hot peppers, bell peppers, sweet peppers. Or sell plants used for lacto-fermentation/pickling like pickling cucumbers, cabbage for sauerkraut, carrots (kimchi), etc. Make yourself into the "must-go" place in your region for a very specific thing. Part of this process is choosing whether you want to focus on produce plants, ornamental flowers, herbs, trees, bushes, etc. Marketing is simply a conversation. If you make it easy for people to describe what you do, they will recommend you to others. If you are "the hot pepper guy," that's easy to understand and talk about. If you're the "Guy who grows a little bit of this, a little bit of that. Sometimes you have heirloom tomatoes, sometimes you have squash, also you have ornamental plants and a smattering of random herbs," no one can tell what you're doing and you are very difficult to talk about. If you don't have a specific specialty, your customers will find it hard to recommend you unless you have every single thing they could possibly want, or close to it. Then they can describe you as the "one-stop shop," but that's extremely difficult to do as a small business owner. It's far easier to specialize. Make it easy to understand what you're doing, and easy to talk about and your customers will do a lot of your marketing for you. If you want to be a generalist, just know that you have to beat everyone else in your area for the same customers. Most nurseries are generalists, therefore it's nearly impossible to stand out if you become a generalist as well, although it can be done. It's a lot more difficult than having everyone come to you because you're the "hot pepper guy/gal." 4) Make your own soil, create your own worm farm, make your own compost, get a wood chipper and make your own mulch/bark chips. The quality will be very high as long as you learn what you're doing and the price will be very low. Your neighbors will give you free bags of leaves and yard waste, grass clippings, etc. You can compost all of that, feed it to worms, and then use the compost and worm castings to make your own soil. 5) Go to a local feed store and buy alfalfa pellets, kelp meal, and also find a local source of rock dust (ideally basalt or granite). That's all the nutrients you'll need and if you buy alfalfa at the feed store it's far less expensive than getting it elsewhere.

In case anyone is wondering, the nursery license is very important. Do not try to save money by not getting your license. If you do not have that, and the state finds out (and they do have active searches just for this) they will come and confiscate your plants. There are fines as well, but if you get into compliance they don't fine you. Even if you are selling a few plants at a garage sale, if you do not have a license bye bye plants. This was told to me by a friend who works for my states Department of Agriculture. They are serious about this.

I learned the "rooting into the ground" lesson the hard way. I had a bunch of vegetable plants in pots that were doing really well but I hadn't moved them in weeks. I picked them up off the ground to move them and it sounded like velcro. 😂🥴

I have always been a plant nut, and plan to do this in my retirement but have been planning in advance, and getting started slowly before I retire. A mix of house plants and annuals so far, with all being started myself by seed, or cuttings. I started building my stock of mother plants to take my cuttings from several yrs ago. Currently have over 1,500 potted plants started at less than.25 cents each by doing my own cuttings.

For used pots, we post every 3 months on our city's facebook group page & people let us know that they have them. Some throw them over our fence. We go picking on trash night and pick up 5 gal buckets constantly...

Seen several comments talking about starting fruit trees from seed. If you want the same variety with the same traits your better option is to clone. It is also faster to bear fruit if done correctly. It is not hard it just takes patience. I just successfully cloned a Meyer Lemmon after about 8 weeks of misting and covering a red solo cup with a sandwich bag.

As someone who sells lots of propagated plants and would like to scale up the legal section is a great start on what I'm looking for. Another great option for the ground cover is wood pallets stacked on cinder blocks. I have my nursery on a large concrete patio, but this allows me to hose things down and wash away dead leaves, debris, bugs etc. Plus being higher keeps the plants more accessible to people and less accessible to pests. Plus it adds clear, visual grouping for different plants/varieties. Go to some local businesses or contractors and ask if they have any pallets they need disposed and offer to pick it up for them. Ask for bricks/ blocks at demolition sites. This also means I can offer pallet pricing and pickup for landscapers. Two people lift and load 30 plants at once into a pickup. Wood pallets are also fantastic trellises, raised bed material and can make sellable succulent walls with some modification.

I just had this thought to start a nursery 10 min ago😂 this is my first video and it was AMAZINGGGG! So thorough and encouraging thank you! ❤️

That was FABULOUS! I've dabbled but didn't have the "to-do" list. Now I do. THANK YOU!

Excellent advice. Thanks!

This was a really great video. Thanks for all the effort you put into it!

This is so cool, I literally work at a plant nursery

THANK YOU!!! Thank you so much for all of this! This is wonderful information!

I started doing bonsai a few years ago. A floral store by my job throws away nursery pots and told me I’m welcome to take one or all at my leisure as well as trays they throw away. Started propagating some juniper and boxwood cuttings over the winter. Took the last week off in April for repotting my bonsai and potting my cuttings. These cuttings won’t be proper mame bonsai for 6 years but also have some Japanese false cypress and others I’m working on to sell to introduce others into the hobby and support my hobby. I’d love to scale it next year as my gf and hopefully future fiancé loves plants and would love to propagate if she had room in her apt.

Great video,thank you for sharing.

I'll be back to watch this later. I have almost an acre of back yard and have been wanting to do a real nursery. I have a good start and I'm hoping to be motivated to continue.

Thank you for this video. I found your RU-vid videos about a week ago. I have been wanting to start a small backyard nursery for a long time but never knew where to start. It is good to hear that I can start small. I am in zone 7. Can’t wait to start.

I like plants, we've been growing plants 13 yrs till now, plants and flowers are anti stress🤗 I feel fresh everytime I look at my plants just outside home and at our farm

Awesome video !! Thanks for sharing ❤

Thank you much for sharing this video

Thanks for the video! I love the way you explain, is fast and easy to understand.

Outstanding video thanks

Thank you so much for all the info. I've been flirting with this idea for the past couple years. I appreciate the work you put into this to help others achieve. Best of luck to you!

Very informative, useful tips. Thanks for your advices

Great starter idea/source video. I'd also follow up with companion videos of what to grow and what not to. Knowing the local nursery market is critical. Specialization in a handful of profitable plants trees or shrubs at the start is crucial.

Thanks for sharing this information

Thanks for the excellent information, pondering a retirement business. ALL the best!

Thank you! Your enthusiasm is contagious!

Great video!

That was an excellent and very helpful video. Thank you very much.

Down to the point video. Very helpful. No junk talk or bs. Wonderful. I enjoyed watching it.

We just bought some undeveloped land in the country and this is the business I want to start out there. Thank you so much for sharing this knowledge.

Ohio only charges $125 per year for the certification. Glad I watched your video and found out about this certificate.

This is helpful to me! Thank you for the info and thoughts.

Thank you man.

Thank you for putting this out there!

This is such a great video!!! Thank you for sharing

Thank you so much for your videos. They have really encouraged me and helped me kick start my business. I had been selling flowers and this past season I expanded to plants and did wonderfully

God bless you, Brother! Thanks for sharing this information.

Best video that can be made on the topic, immediate sub.

You earned my subscription today, at a time when I recently unsubscribed from several channels that lost it's appeal and it was just too much stuff to keep up with and swipe all the time.

Fantastic information. Thank you !

Very informative, thank you very much.

Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge and expertise with all of us!! Much appreciated!!

Thank you so much for what you do. Time to turn my passion in to a real business in 2022.

Superb video. Loads of little nuggets of wisdom to glean here. Subscribed.

This has been extremely informative. Thanks so much for taking the time, man!

this video has been the most helpful thing

Thank you so much for this!

Absolutely brilliant video. Exactly what I was trying to find. AWESOME work, thank you so much for sharing. This helped a ton! Greatly appreciated and keep up the great work. Subscribed :D

Can’t wait to get started! Will definitely be small but I love it

This was awesome. Start of covid we built a food forest in the front a mini orchard in the back, and a citrus hedge. I practiced last winter grafting cuttings onto rootstocks. Had thought of finding a cheap source of rootstocks and go to town. I have at least 8 different apples, 10 citrus and a ton of stone fruit trees to grab free scion wood from.

Thank you so much for this video. I just retired and I thought I would like to start a nursery, but didn't have a clue on how to start one. Your short video was packed with so much great information, wow!! I can't wait to start my nursery. Thank you again!!

Super great video

That was a great video …thank you

Thanks for sharing this information. It will be useful for us.

Wow! First time watching ANY of your videos. Subbed right away! Good job, man!!!

Very nice and informative video thank you for taking the time to do it! Wish you all the success!

You can also get ‘reverse’ ground rooting, if you have fast growing trees or whatever nearby (I get wild blackberries growing up into potted plants). I have had an oak tree take advantage of a stationary potted plant with a couple roots.

Great advice sir. I am planning on getting started next year. I'm going to start making compost this year

Really informative video. I appreciate you sharing your knowledge. I look forward to learning more from you. Subscribed 💪

Another banger of a video

thank you this is my dream job

Very useful information thank you

Thanks

I want to start a cactus nursery. That’s my dream but cactus plants need well draining soil. I buy pumice and other rocks in bulk to add to my cactus soil. It’s not cheap but I love my cacti so much, it’s worth every penny

What a great video and great guy.

videos loaded with good info ty

Great info thank you

Thanks for the information! I needed that.

AWESOME VIDEO!

First i want to say great content. Second, it looks like you have answered or replied every comment. That is awesome!

Good video.. Great information... Thanks

I know how to grow and enjoy doing it but I wasn't sure where exactly to start. Thank you.

honestly thanking you very much for your information and explanation good job done by youjanaka from sri lanka

Thank you

Thanks again

Thanks for the encouragement about the nursery inspection, I have been thinking about going for it... but, that part intimidated me. lol

AWESOME

I learned the hard way not to use cheap, quick release fertilizer... I nearly killed everything I started this year thinking I was being clever saving a bit of money. Managed to save a few summer squash, and ended up putting together a hodge-podge of several other plants I hadn't planned on growing so late in the season just so I had something to garden. I won't be making the same mistake twice!

Amazing informational video, definitely had to become a subscriber

Nice

Very nice I really like your video

Thank you so much

Nice thank you for sharing and this is what I want to do also.

Craig!! I’m starting a tree farm and I just stumbled across your video! We knew each other from Tolar. Great video, I’m subscribed! Hope you guys are doing well

Great :)

Definately look around. Last year I got a bunch someone had sitting by road free!

Thanks for making such a detailed and informative video!! It would be great if you could do a video on how to sell your plants. How do you compete with bigger nurseries? How to reach private /retail consumers? So happy to have just found you! Subscribed!🌞🪴🌺🌈❤

New sub! Great video 👍🏽 Thanks for sharing

thank you

Even though I am in the UK, so the $ don't directly make sense, it is still a useful guide for what to consider and the kind of ratio of how to split my first chunk of capital to buy certain things. Very helpful, thanks

my search for pots and plugs came up very different results than this video LMFAO

I am a plants and nature lover , currently working as a teacher , this morning I was thinking about different income sources, and its should be related to plants, thinking as this I was just stared to research on utube , wow… I found this channel , very impressive, I subscribed and excited to learn every important tips, thank you so much- from Florida

Wow great content yeee

Trying to start my mini backyard tree farm. Hadnt thought about the legal aspects or how "ez" it should be to get licensed. Def the way to go as I will have well over 100 young trees to sell at the end of summer hopefully