This is Part 3 of a 3-part series on buying plants online and also selling the plants you grow online:
- Part 1 – How to Sell Plants Online
- Part 2 – Where to Buy Plants (at Rock-Bottom Prices) Online
- Part 3 – [You Are Here] – How to Get Paid to Sell Sticks (Yes… STICKS!!)
(I lied to you in this video!)
I didn’t mean to lie to you, but when I told you how much people are willing to pay for some unrooted cuttings I greatly underestimated the value that some folks are willing to pay for certain kinds of hardwood cuttings.
I told you they can sell for 15 cents to 50 cents, but apparently they are worth a lot more than that.
I am told that some unrooted cuttings of certain kinds of grape plants are being sold for $3.50 or more per unrooted cutting!
That’s a bunch of money!
Why is it that people are so willing to buy unrooted cuttings? When you are growing plants for profit and you are constantly adding to the line of the plants that you grow, sell and propagate.
So it really doesn’t matter how much you pay for that batch of unrooted cuttings because once you have that first batch, chances are you’ll never have to buy that particular plant again.
Once you have those plants growing in your nursery you can take cuttings from them several times before you sell them. So 10 cuttings can turn into 100 plants. 100 plants can turn into 1,000 plants and on and on. That’s what Makes This Business So Special.
Questions? Comments? Post them below.
This is Part 3 of a 3-part series on buying plants online and also selling the plants you grow online:
- Part 1 – How to Sell Plants Online
- Part 2 – Where to Buy Plants (at Rock-Bottom Prices) Online
- Part 3 – [You Are Here] – How to Get Paid to Sell Sticks (Yes… STICKS!!)
Great article. Cheers
Would someone tell me three or four of the best selling Japanese maple trees please?
Bloodgood, Crimson Queen, Emporer 1, Waterfall, Inaba Shadaire.
Mike could you do a video on doing cuttings on crape myrtles. I am having problems getting mine to root.
Greg,
We don’t have Crape Myrtle around here but many of our members, http://backyardgrowers.com/join, do them as softwood cuttings in the summer under mist, http://mikesbackyardnursery.com/mikes-plant-propagation-kit/.
are there any Backyard growers in the north meaning in the Canadian side if so I’b like to get in touch, cause, I don’t think I can buy across the border( plants) ??
Mike, I can,t find the article you wrote about building things to use in the garden. It had adirondak chairs and a trailer you made with 1 axle centered under a piece of plywood. I can,t find it. I love the links (take a gander at these) that you include.
Cindy,
I’m guessing that the information you seek was in one of our Mondays with Mike series and I’m sorry to say that we did a poor job of listing those videos and now it’s really hard to find the content that you are looking for. We do have a Mondays with Mike category on this site, you can try searching that. But we should have listed some of the content in each video and we failed to do that. Live and learn.
hI mIKE,
like hard wood cutting video , here is my ??s
i have Magnolia tree (white flower) 18 year old ,grown to 45 feet tall3′ wide at bottom about 8′ half way up . about 10 stump grown out of the ground 1″ to 3″ in dia..
this tree is growing crazy give me a hint when is the right time to do hard wood cutting ?? is there any market for this tree cutting & how to store them properly.
I have collected some seeds (red in color) put in plastic bag in refrigerator last month, is this is the right way to store seeds.
hope u or any one can reply to this inquiry is appreciated , i am new to this & like to explore more.
ty,
kanu
Kanu,
Clean the seeds and store them in a cool dry place just like I do the Japanese maple seeds. http://mikesbackyardnursery.com/2015/10/how-to-grow-japanese-red-maple-trees-from-seed/
I think it’s unlikely that the Magnolia will grow from hardwood cuttings, but you can always try. Selling the cuttings would not be good for a couple of reasons. 1. You don’t know the variety, you have to know the exactly variety and the only way to know that is to have the original plant tag. 2. The chances of success of those cuttings rooting would be slim. I tell our members, http://backyardgrowers.com/join, that if you’ve never successfully grown a particular plant from hardwood cuttings you should not be offering them for sale. You need to sell from experience. First successfully root some cuttings, then you know for sure what works.
I WOULD LIKE INFORMATION FOR RED TIP PHOTINAS (NOT SURE HOW IT IS SPELLED). I LIVE IN NORTH CENTRAL TEXAS. INFORMATION ON HOW TO’S FOR CUTTINGS AND HOW TO’S FOR ROOTING THE CUTTINGS. I HAVE AROUND 20 MATURE BUSHES.
There are three basic ways to create a new photinia plant, using pieces that are three segments, or nodes, long:
1 Put cuttings into a mix of perlite and vermiculte in a ziplock bag, place in light.
2 Put cuttings directly into potting soil, let them root under light
3 Put cuttings in water, place on a window sill with plenty of light.
When you have new root growth, plant the new plants from the photinia pruning in pots till the roots are stronger. Then you are able to plant a new red tip photinia in an area where it has plenty of room and light to grow strong and healthy.
THANK YOU SHARON
SHARON NOT SURE IF THE OTHER MESSAGE WENT THROUGH BUT WANT TO THANK YOU FOR YOUR INFO.
Got it hun! You’re welcome!
Photonic are easy to root. Scar the cuttings by lightly scraping them on the bottom one third of the cutting. Use a heavy soil mix . This means using a coarse soil…not a pest based soil. You should start seeing stem scarring and the beginning of roots in a out 3 to 5 weeks.
Peat based soil.
Dontcha hate those pest based soils? Keep tryin to crawl away……
MIke,
You didn’t lie. $3.50 per cutting might be reasonable for a vinifera grape cutting to be used as a scion, but very excessive for a native grape such as an unrooted Concord or rootstock.
Scott
When you said “1. You must be licensed by your state before you can sell plants to anybody.” , does that apply to selling sticks and does that only apply to your site. Can I sell on Craigslist without a license?
Diana,
Legally you have to be licensed to sell any plant or part of a plant. It’s all about the dept of Agriculture s controlling the transfer of pests from one area to another. It truly protects all of us from ending up with unwanted pests in our yards.
Wondering sense you need to be licensed to sell plants online Mike, would it not be prudent starting out to only sell plants that are native to your zone or. plants that cover and that will grow in several zones ex. 5 6 7 ?
Most plants can be grown in multiple zones which gives you a wide range of choices of what to grow. Natives are okay, but that’s not really what the general buying public are looking for. Most are looking for pretty. The prettier the better. If natives were super hot sellers more of the big name growers would specialize in them, and they are not. They know what sells. I know what sells in my nursery. Nobody asks me for natives.
Mike
I have two 50 year old willow trees in the back yard that need to be cut down.
My dad planted them way back when to dry up a little swamp we had going back there.
They are still gowing for the most part but look like hell.
When would be the best time to cut them down to harvest the sticks?
-WayneV
Wayne,
During the winter for sure. But there are a lot of willow varieties, you really should know the variety if you want to sell them.
Hi Mike, loving your course.
Can you use vinegar or bleach diluted as pre-emergent herbacide???
Will these also kill what you have planted. I know commercial Herbacide
is very expensive. I knew you would know the answer.
My best to you, John wheat-one of your students
John,
I don’t think bleach is ever a good idea around plants. Vinegar is often used to kill weeds, but I don’t think it will work as a pre emergent. Mulch helps a great deal to control weeds, but you probably need to add more mulch each season which really helps to improve the soil.
mike 2 weeks ago my cuttings was doing good, all had few green leaves and looked healthy. went to check them last night they were brown and dead the roots were dead too.. I had about 50 forsythias and azaleas what happened to them. .
Thelma,
They probably froze. Don’t count them out yet. All of our cutting look dead right now.
Potting mix?? What do you use in these wooden flats in the dead of winter? Sand, perlite and peat moss? I have lots of ready to trim rose of sharon and possibly a couple of good sized dogwoods, firethorn. Wow, who knew.
Have a blessed day!
Terry,
We had a few warm days and were able to use our potting mix that was thawed on the top layer of the pile. You can buy bagged potting mix or any peat/perlite mix should work just fine.
I would like to know how to start a Pear & Peach & Apple tree.Can they be started by this stick method?
Also….What is a good liquid root starter and powder root starter?
M?,
Probably not. They are usually budded or grafted onto a root stock grown from seed. But if you want to try cuttings, do them in June with this http://www.freeplants.com/homemade-plant-propagation.htm
Hey Mike I jus recently purchased your deal for, 7.95 or whatever the pice was plus the freebie for 2 something for the shipping what I’m asking is that going to give me access to your sellers database and also are all the books going to come to me in mail in physical for and also how long is the wait?