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Home » Growing » How Much is One Rooted Cutting Worth?

How Much is One Rooted Cutting Worth?

Updated : May 29, 2020

5 Comments

Is it really possible that one lonely rooted cutting could change your life forever?

I suppose it could.

I decided to write this because this morning I was giving some advice to one of our Canadian members about getting started selling small plants.

I felt that he was thinking way too small and taking way too long to get to the goal line so I kinda laid out a bit of scenario for him that had to do with investing his money and the exchange rate between the U.S. dollar and the Canadian dollar.

In short, he was allowing that small difference in value alter his thinking way too much.

Then somebody else asked me where they could buy some unrooted cuttings of Purple Sandcherry.

That really got me to thinking!

Did you know that you can actually sell a cutting with no roots, no leaves and no branches?  You sure can and I just ordered almost $300 worth of unrooted cuttings just a few days ago.  I’ve got a few members that sell a lot of unrooted cuttings and they make pretty good money doing so.

Okay.  Back to the Value of that One Lonely Rooted Cutting.

I’m fixin’ to tell you a story and at the same time I’m sharing something that I will be doing in the future.  Last winter I rooted some cuttings of Purple Sandcherry.

I did them as hardwood cuttings during the winter, just as I will be doing here in the next few weeks.  So let’s say that I sold you one of my Purple Sandcherry rooted cuttings for 75 cents.  Great price, right?

These are my question to you.  Actually two questions.

How much is that rooted cutting really worth to you?

and . . .

Is there any way in the world that buying a single rooted
cutting could be a life changing even for you?

Those are my two questions.  Give them some thought.  Seriously, think this over before you dismiss this idea.

Is it possible to take 3 Quarters, 75 cents and grow that tiny investment into a part-time income?

I say it is.  Follow along.

If I take one rooted cutting, could be of almost anything but I’m going to use Purple Sandcherry in this example.  If I take that one cutting and plant it in my garden what is going to happen?  It’s going to grow of course!  And as it does I am going to take more cuttings from that plant.  Take a look at these numbers.

I plant my rooted cutting in April.  Before the end of the growing season I can conservatively get 5 cuttings from that plant.

When I take cuttings from that plant what it does is actually forces the plant to grow fuller and bushier.

So in the second season I will say that I can conservatively get 15 cuttings from that plant.

In the third growing season?  I can easily get 30 cuttings.

A small bundle of Purple Sandcherry Hardwood Cuttings.
A small bundle of Purple Sandcherry Hardwood Cuttings.

So in three years time one rooted cutting can yield 50 cuttings.

But here’s where it gets crazy!

Each one of those cuttings will also produce cuttings at the same rate as the first.  So from one rooted cutting you can easily get to 500 plants pretty quickly.

But what if you started with 100 rooted cuttings instead of just one?  The numbers get crazy and this idea grows exponentially.

So what do you do with all of those cuttings.  Some, or all of them, you can sell as rooted cuttings for 75 cents each.  Or you can grow them on for one season and sell them in a small pot for $4.97 each.  You can put them into a 3 gallon container and sell them for $15.00 each.

Or you can sell them as just sticks.  That’s right, just a stick no roots at all.

A finished Purple Sandcherry hardwood cutting.
A finished Purple Sandcherry hardwood cutting.

I know it works, so I’m just going to do it.

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Comments

  1. Bob Davis says

    April 16, 2022 at 10:54 pm

    I WANT TO BUY ROOTED CUTTINGS ,wHERE CAN I GET THEM

    Reply
    • Mike says

      April 17, 2022 at 8:24 am

      Bob,

      There are a lot of wholesale nurseries that sell small plants but one, you have to be a member of the trade to buy from them, and two, most have minimum orders that can be quite large. But in our members area you can buy all kinds of properly labeled rooted cuttings and other small plants at wholesale prices and the minimums are very low. It only costs $7 to test drive the members area for 30 days. http://backyardgrowers.com/join

      Reply
  2. Joe Manausa says

    June 28, 2015 at 5:33 pm

    Hey Mike, great site. Just an FYI … your links are not working on freeplants.com … an error saying “Bandwidth Limit Exceeded

    The server is temporarily unable to service your request due to the site owner reaching his/her bandwidth limit. Please try again later.”

    I love what you’re doing, thanks Mike.

    Reply
  3. Lindy says

    May 31, 2015 at 6:48 pm

    I tried to root magnolias a few years ago and they did not take. I used the stuff to assist it to root made a vee in the twig and surrounded it with soil. I left it on for 3-4 months and nothing happened. Is it better to just cut the twigs off and plant them in the soil? I also tried to root yew and holly they both produced roots but did not survive for long.

    Reply
    • Mike says

      June 1, 2015 at 8:27 am

      Lindy,

      Do them during the summer using softwood cuttings, like this http://www.freeplants.com/homemade-plant-propagation.htm

      Reply

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