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Glad you enjoyed it! Thanks for subscribing! More to come! 🌲🌲🌲

Yes, course sand is an option and inexpensive. The bark will make most mixes drain ok and still retain moisture. Sand and perlite drains really quickly and doesn’t retain much moisture. We prefer the look of the perlite in our mix and it lightens the mix. We have found sand mixes can become a little hard and compacted. Hope that helps, Larry 🌲🌲🌲

@Growing-Our-Retirement very helpful. Thank you. Wish you the best in all your works

Thank you and also for you! 🌲🌲🌲

@@Growing-Our-Retirement ❤️

Just occasionally. Check them once per month. The totes hold the moisture in.

Thanks for watching 🌲🌲🌲

Yes! Thanks for that 🌲🌲🌲

Thanks, glad to have you! More videos to come 🌲🌲🌲

Starting small is a good strategy. Our first year we potted up 300 spruce trees just to test. We tested containers, our ability to water, growing time, fertilizers, etc. it took 2 1/2 years to test how sales would go. The problem with small is it takes 1-5 years to grow out a plant and then you may not have grown enough. No perfect answer how to address this. In our large nursery area we now have growing hundreds of what we know will sell. Spruces, Arborvitae, Schip Laurels, Viburnums, Kousa Dogwoods, etc. Then we order in a variety of plants to grow out and see how we will do with them. We are getting to a point where we have a good selection. We do go very heavy on the staples. Nothing beats a 10-30 plant sale for a customer who wants to add a border. Some of those people buy other plants. People who want more specialized plants are often much harder to satisfy unless you have 100-200 varieties of plants. It’s even harder with perennials! So, grow a lot of what is popular and dabble in the less common. 🌲🌲🌲

We do use the assorted packs of plastic sticks to identify plants like White, Blue and Norway Spruce but we don’t write on them. I think we are going to just take the plunge and buy a proper printer and or spend some time this winter making some nice laminated ones. Good winter activity when things are a little slower. Thanks, Larry 🌲🌲🌲

Time certainly is precious.

Hi and thanks for the question. We keep the cuttings in the totes and they stay outside. No grow light needed. Check the tote monthly to make sure everything is staying moist. Add a little water as needed. We pot these up once well rooted. Some new growth may also occur and is a good sign that it is time pot them up. We slowly reduce humidity in the totes before we pot them up. Just open the lid by 25%, then 50% for a week or 2. Then pot them up and give them a little mist 1-2 a day. Keep the small plants in a shady area or a shade house. Thanks, Larry 🌲🌲🌲

We find one application in spring is enough. A fertilizer like Osmocote is going to take many months to break down and all that time will be providing nutrients to the plants. There may be some fast growing plants such as annuals or perennials that could benefit from a little extra fertilizer while they are in growth mode. Since we grow primarily woody trees and shrubs, the slow release is perfect. Thanks 🌲🌲🌲

@@Growing-Our-Retirement Thanks for the feedback. Much appreciated. For trees and shrubs in containers I'd much rather do a one-time spring feed of Osmocote and skip the weekly or biweekly liquid fertilizer additions. Based on your experience it sounds like the Osmocote CRF spring application is sufficient.

⁠Yes, once in the spring seems to be enough. Wanted to add that your spring fertilization should be done almost in the late winter. The slow release fertilizer takes time and water to start breaking down and providing nutrients for your plants. If you wanted to fertilize twice per year I would recommend something like January and June. Happy growing, Larry 🌲🌲🌲

@@Growing-Our-Retirement Thanks Larry, much appreciated. In years past I fertilized in late winter/early spring (March or early April) using CRF. Last year I tried using liquid fertilizer on a weekly basis since I have a very small number of trees and shrubs in containers. It seemed to work well but took significant amounts of time. This coming year I'm going back to using Osmocote CRF. I see why nurseries like yours use CRFs, as the time/labor savings is significant. Hope you and Martha had a successful growing season.

Thanks, I think as you start to scale up you will find the slow release is a must in terms of time spent. Once a year is enough in most cases. When we are doing 10,000 plants in the large nursery it’s an all day chore. We did have a good growing and selling season. Got a little side lined from making videos this summer. We did a renovation on a rental property we own and it took a lot of our time. We will be back at it soon. Best to you! Always enjoy talking backyard nursery. Larry

Yes, no question the bucket loaders is a big help around the nursery. That said a wheelbarrow can work just fine as well but you will get a bigger workout. Since we can lift the soil mix up onto the table we are able to work at a good height and then everything is down from there. Much less lifting. Fortunately the humus, bark and perlite mix is very light! Yes, we have noticed some of the perlite floats to the top of the pots. This is unavoidable but doesn’t cause a problem. We don’t do anything about this. On a limited basis we have been topping some pots with 1-2” of wood chips. Experimenting to see if we can reduce weeds a little. Thanks as always 🌲🌲🌲

Great for you, sounds like you doing well with lots of growth ahead! Wondered if you have tried growing in some type of bed instead of the Solo cups. Will save you some money and probably easier. When you ship, you might ship just bare root. That is how we receive most of our small plants. Wish you great success 🌲🌲🌲

@Growing-Our-Retirement I haven't tried that yet but certainly will , some plants I have just been digging out of my yard when I get a sale , but I had issues with the root systems being too big already and the heavy root pruning required for shipping made the plant go into shock and had some not soo happy customers and may even need to replace alot of those orders, SOME people were understanding that the plants will eventually recover, but the average customer wants a big heslthy plant for a bargin lol am thats what im trying to do ,thing was I hadn't sold any of those particular plants and then suddenly sold a dozen in 1 day so I didn't have the bugs worked out or even a system yet i just knew its a popularplant and i have hundreds of them growing wild, I've since rooted some cuttings so I can still offer the same size plant but with a MUCH smaller root system

@@agentbarron9768 Yes, understand and it really does take some time to get a system down. One way to reduce the shock from digging up the plants is to root prune the plants in advance. Just go around the plant and use a spade to prune the roots. Then just leave the plants in the ground. Or it may also make sense to transplant the plants into a bed in advance. Whatever you can do to deliver really healthy plants is of course always good. 🌲🌲🌲

@Growing-Our-Retirement Thanks for the great advice I'll definitely subscribe

Good question, for the most part we use a mix of about 50% screened humus (decomposed leaves and grass clippings) and 50% shredded hardwood bark. To this we add maybe 5% perlite. A little more perlite for a seed starting mix like this. This mix is easy to make/find in our area and very economical. With all we do each year we use about 20 cu yards. We are making this for under $25.00 per cu yard, delivered. You could certainly use a baled product like a Pro-mix. Just be sure it does not have any fertilizer in it. We do add fertilizer to small plants but only slow release. Hope that helps 🌲🌲🌲

Take the leap, even if just a small one!

Sure, the pots we use are called non-woven fabric pots. There are many offered in the marketplace. Some are better than others. The lower quality tend to be less substantial and floppy or the handles tear off. We have some links on our Resources Page. We buy our from Amazon or 24/7 garden. Here is the link to all the products we use. growingourretirement.com/backyard-nursery-resources-guide/ Thanks 🌲🌲🌲

These did root well and will be read for sale next spring. Generally we have to grow a plant for 18 months. If you don’t sell them all they will keep growing and you may be able to raise the price.

Hi, No need to do anything different. Hardwood cuttings are completely dormant once Fall arrives. The cuttings will callous over once they sit in the totes for several weeks. They likely wont root until the temperatures come back up in the spring. The totes keep the snow off and the moisture in. One warning, the totes can get pretty brittle in the cold. Just let them be until Spring has arrived.

@@Growing-Our-Retirement thanks so much! Subscribed.

⁠Glad you joined. Lots more videos to come. 🌲🌲🌲

Hi, Thanks for the comments. We actually do grow a lot of native plants. We can’t tell you everything we do in 1-2 videos. Perhaps we should do a video on the topic and share our experiences. There is a falsity that circulates that non-native plants don’t have a benefit to the environment. A tree like a Norway Spruce offers many benefits. It offers beauty, wind protection, converts C02 into oxygen, and eventually dies and improves the soil. Compare that to a tree that will never grow because the deer will munch it to the ground. Another point of confusion is invasive vs non-invasive. Obviously you risk your natives surviving if you introduce aggressively invasive plants. Not a good idea! Much of this also depends on where you live. The deer are so over populated in much of New Jersey that it is nearly impossible to grow some native plants. The deer will kill them all unless you install significant fencing. Good topic, appreciate your thoughts.

Yes! That’s great. A backyard nursery is an excellent way for a stay at home parent to make some extra money. In some cases a lot of extra money. The work flow is flexible, start with a small investment, as the children grow, they can even help. Love it 🌲🌲🌲

Yes, an excellent tip! For years we have blown all our leaves out of the beds, off the driveway, etc and mulched them back into the lawn. Some too get blown back into the woods. A couple years ago we started collecting some of these and topping of pots of the trees and shrubs we are growing. Helps hold moisture and slows the weeds down. As you mentioned it’s time consuming but 100% agree we should do more of this!

Great you are doing so well as to sell out! This is an issue for sure! You just have to hold back some plants for cutting stock. For this reason we have a separate area for growing and selling. We don’t want people trying to buy small plants or plants we use mostly for cuttings. You may have to create at least a small separate area. As you said, a good problem to have. Thanks! Keep in touch, Larry 🌲🌲🌲

Hi, Thanks for watching. We are limited to 110 volts so the pump we use is about 1,290 gallons per hour. We push to some areas that are uphill too so that reduces the volume. We can push 4-6 of the wiz head sprinkler heads at a time with this set up. It’s a little more work when you do your layout but adding heads doesn’t greatly reduce your flow. If you use more heads at say on 25 foot spacing you can run more heads and get good coverage. We have a page up showing the pump and more details on our website. It is here: growingourretirement.com/backyard-nursery-irrigation-diy/ We try to write a page with links and details for each video. We also have a resources page with almost everything we use around the nursery. We make a small affiliate fee on some links. Helps to keep us making more videos and webpages. Thanks! Larry 🌲🌲🌲

Thanks for watching. We have series on starting a nursery from scratch on a low budget. There is a video on getting plants for free. Yes, you might keep some large plants to take cuttings from. We have also asked friends, family and even our Church if we can take cuttings from their plants. Once you have rooted plants they will require some pruning so the plants branch out and be fuller. you can also root these cuttings. Once you get started you will never run out of cutting material.

@@Growing-Our-Retirement thanks very much. I’ll take a look. I watched bits of those earlier today. And while I was cycling home I was thinking would it be a good idea to call into a house if I like what I see and ask for a cutting 🤣 so that’s another question answered. And, I forgot that I actually have a house height pine tree in my garden. Couldn’t get good enough pictures (because it’s dark) so I can’t identify it yet. I found it in a forest 20 years ago (it was lying on the trail) and was definitely among a large batch of the same. So I assume it is some bit valuable. It has pine cones, and did for many years (but I have not seen any of them germinate, the ground is full of branches and small plants so it may not be easy for them to grow). That might be a good start for me, and it’s definitely in need of a good pruning. I also have some other medium size trees with purple leaves (possibly plumb trees, but I don’t recall ever seeing any plumbs worth getting excited about, but nice trees nonetheless.

⁠ We have not successfully propagated pine or spruce trees but in theory it can be done. We go after what we like but also what we think we can sell. Arborvitae’s, Azalea, Holly, Andromeda, Hydrangeas, Rhododendrons, Dogwoods are all no brainers. Beyond a basic 20 or so plants it’s all experiment and see how it goes. Give some plants a try and ask around! Good luck!

@@Growing-Our-Retirement thanks very much for that list. I know of most of them, and there’s a very nice man living nearby who loves anything gardening related. He’s the one who got me excited about this. So I’d say he’ll be happy to share some more knowledge. But yeah, lots of experimenting will be ahead id say

​​⁠Great! The experimenting is fun! Good to start with some easy ones like arborvitae and hydrangea. These root easily and it will encourage you to more and more

Thanks for watching! Yes all deciduous. We have great success using the clear totes and highly recommend a similar set up for softwood and hardwood Azalea cuttings.

Hi, Thanks for the question. We use about a teaspoon for a one gallon pot and a tablespoon for a 3 gallon pot. A little goes a long way. We don’t mix it in but sprinkle it on top. We rub it in a little so it doesn’t get washed away. It’s best to let it slowly dissolve and work downward into the roots. We buy larger bags and it’s fairly economical. Smaller bags might be less economical but you only use a little bit on each plant. Going without would not be recommended, plants need a good balanced but slowly released bit of fertilizer. Don’t substitute anything that is a faster release. You just want slow fertilization to enhance already good soil. Hope that helps. 🌲🌲🌲

Glad you joined us. We up north are jealous of you down south who can propagate all year long. Thanks, Larry 🌲🌲🌲

Yes, the plants we grow are all dormant in the winter so they are not growing and don’t need much water. They do get natural rain which tends to be plenty to keep them from completely drying out. Thanks!

@@Growing-Our-Retirement awesome thanks

@@Growing-Our-Retirement just one more question comes to mind. I know you have a pond with lots of suply but for the area bere in the video what amount of water a day could go for watering 2 000 l or maybe 4 ? I am going to Dig a pond or a well aswell

⁠@@KusiuEDithard to estimate the amount of gallons we use. The pump we use is rated at around 1,500 gallons per hour. We run the irrigation in the area shown in two sections, each with 4 sprinkler heads. The heads restrict the flow so I am guessing only 1,000 gallons per hour. To water this entire area takes 1 1/2 to 2 hours per section. So, 2 sections x 2 hours is 4 hours x 1,000 gallons would be around 4,000 gallons total. We use the same pump to also water 2 other areas so it could be we use up to 8,000 gallons for a full watering. Hope that helps.

@@Growing-Our-Retirement its very helpfull , thanks alot

Thanks for watching! Maybe too much for some but we like to make sure we cover anything anyone would need to know. 13 1/2 minutes isn’t a big investment to learn to propagate possibly thousands of plants.

@@Growing-Our-Retirement 6 minutes would have been ample leaving 6 minutes to learn something else. That's what I would call a sensible investment.

Thanks again, we will try and speed it up a bit. Thank you for watching!

@@Growing-Our-Retirement Thank you. I took 9 cuttings yesterday as shown by you. Fingers crossed.

⁠Wish you well!

Thank you so much! So great you started your own plant side hustle! It’s an excellent business! More to come, Larry 🌲🌲🌲

Hi and welcome! Jason has an excellent channel and we learn from him all the time. Glad you found us, lots more videos to come! Larry and Martha 🌲🌲🌲

Hi Paul, thanks for asking. We prefer that the lids be clear or opaque. We have also used ones with a white top, they work just fine. Can’t recommend totes with a darker color, might absorb heat and cook the plants. That should not happen if you are keeping the totes in a mostly shaded spot but clear or white is best. Thank you! Larry 🌲🌲🌲

Thank you! More to come, Larry 🌲🌲🌲

We use fabric for a few reasons. We use a lot of # 3 and 5 trade gallon size which are a little heavy thus we like the handles. We also like the cost, less expensive than plastic pots. Finally we like the look, customers like them and we like to present a professional looking finished product. Thanks! 🌲🌲🌲

Thanks for watching! Many more videos to come!

Hi James, thanks for your comment. We did a video on making soil mixes and covered CoCo Coir. We also did a considerable amount of research on CoCo Coir. A lot of misinformation floating around the web. We can’t cover it all here but it’s well worth researching. We continue to use Canadian Sphagnum Peat as it is a growing, self regenerating plant material that is very responsibly and sustainably produced. That may be different in places like Europe but in Canada the peat replenishes itself far faster than it is being used. The Coconut Choir works well but has issues. One is it is shipped across the world and requires a lot of fuel to transport. It’s a waste product which is great but the transportation costs and environmental impact are high. Peat is grown much closer. The Coir is fine for a lower volume application. Would be difficult and very expensive to use in a larger nursery. That said we use locally produced humus as of 45% of our main potting mix. Another 45% is ground hardwood bark that is also produced locally. Thank you! Larry

Hi,That is excellent! We wish you the best! We only take cuttings from known plants. We have many on our property that have been here for decades. Some we have purchased so we know what they are. Cuttings take on other people properties have been limited to known plants such as Arborvitae’s, Holly, Dogwood, etc. There are hundreds of cultivars that have not been hybridized and thus not patented. We have gone after some plants that have come off patent once the patent expires. For example the Limelight Hydrangia. We bought 4 at 50% a couple weeks ago. Those will get cut up for maximum cutting material. We can propagate and sell them. Let us know how you are doing with your nursery! Thanks Larry 🌲🌲🌲

Thanks and good for you! It is definitely a marathon not a sprint. It took us a good 5 years to get our larger nursery really going well.

Great question. The softwood cutting root in about 6-8 weeks. Hardwood cuttings do very well but take longer. Up to 6 months depending on how early you start. We live PJM’s!

Hi Again, Thanks! We just filmed part 7 which is the 0ne year mark for the start of the Low Cost Plant Nursery start up. Coming out soon! A lot has happened in a year. Thanks, Larry

Hi Paul, Hard to say what to do. Hydrangeas grow pretty fast. If they sprout quickly it is likely you can get them potted this Fall. Or leave them in the totes is fine too. If you pot them up you may want to try and protect them from wind over the winter or cut them way back. They will come back quickly in the spring. Thanks, Larry 🌲🌲🌲

Hi thanks for the comment. We are always able to identify plants before we sell them. And we tag or put signs up explaining the plant and care. We have a video about that worth watching. Thanks! Best to you, Larry 🌲🌲🌲

Yes! Thank you!

For cuttings that are rooting lots of shade is fine. A little filtered sunlight is ok. Be sure you have the small holes in the sides. You should be fine where you described. Thanks, Larry 🌲🌲🌲

Thanks again! We have a 6 part and ongoing series on how to get started. Step by step. Starting a nursery is not for everyone but you can start small and see how you do and if you like it. We started with just 100 plants. We would encourage you to give it a try. Thanks, Larry 🌲🌲🌲

@@Growing-Our-Retirement Larry: I like the idea of a backyard nursery, and growing plants is a great hobby that could potentially be a good retirement job for sure. However, my concern is that I'm not a very good salesperson (I'd be a terrible used car salesman) so being able to sell what is grown in the nursery would be the big issue. Lots to consider without question. I grow mainly woody plants that are native to my area.

⁠This is a great topic and we are working on a video for this. There are 2 sides to selling plants, growing plants people want to buy and getting the word out. You can look at what others are selling and probably do well selling similar. If you are growing native plants, this is in demand and you could specialize. Getting the word out can be as easy placing some good ads on Marketplace. People are always looking for plants at reasonable prices. No used car sales techniques required. Being helpful and knowledgeable is far more important than anything else. We do find having some nice signs, tags, availability sheets, etc are helpful. It also takes some time to build up repeat customers. Treat people fairly and they will come back.

Thanks! Glad it was helpful!

Great question and we didn’t get into what happens over the winter in this video. We drain everything and have an air compressor to blow it all out. Last winter even after draining we had one section of pipe that didn’t get drained. It did freeze and a small section and a fitting did crack. Cut it out and replaced in. Shouldn’t have happened but it did, easy fix. Thanks, Larry.

Agree about the brass water manifolds, they really do restrict water flow. We replaced all our hoses with full 3/4” id hoses, much better water flow and volume. Collecting water would be ideal. Would love to do the same. 2 large IBC totes, or rain barrels, some hose, and a way to collect would be ideal. We haven’t fully explored collecting water but our house and thus the roofs are uphill from our nursery areas. Might be something we look in to as time allows. Of course the pond is a giant rainwater collector and so we pump that water. Keep at it, wish you the best, Larry 🌲🌲🌲

Hi Dick, Hope all is well! Yes the pond is an amazing resource. I think we would also be ok if we had city water with lots of pressure. We went about 3 years using our house well pump but it really wasn’t up to the task.

Hi Charles, Great idea, a check valve on the supply/pond side would probably do the trick. I was using the log you see in the video to trap a little supply of water against the pump. It worked OK but not great. Have to pick up a 1” check valve and see how that works. I am pleased how it came out and glad to not be changing hoses and hand priming. I am sure in a year or two I will want to do some upgrades again. Thanks, Larry 🌲🌲🌲