Business on coniferous crops attracts many with its simplicity and small initial investment. Without beautiful evergreen trees and shrubs, it is impossible to imagine a city alley or a backyard area. Even on the windowsills and balconies of city apartments, these perennial plants are grown.
If you are interested in the concept of a coniferous seedling nursery , start by drawing up a business plan that includes:
- analysis of market demand and competition;
- choice of landing site;
- purchase of tools and equipment;
- choice of assortment;
- paperwork;
- financial calculations;
- search for distribution channels.
Let’s analyze each stage in detail. And let’s start with the pros and cons of the business.
- Low level of competition
- Minimum initial investment
- Good profitability
- Does not require a large area
- Ease of business organization
- Ability to grow in any region
- Home business
- Growing demand for culture
- Long payback for some species
- Having certain knowledge
- Regular care
- Influence of weather conditions
To grow a beautiful healthy tree, you need to understand the intricacies of organizing a seedling nursery.
Features and nuances of business
For business on coniferous plants, a characteristic feature is the lack of competition or its insignificant level. This is explained by the long payback and the expectation of profit for about two to three years . Therefore, in some regions of the country there are simply no such nurseries, but there is consumer demand.
In addition, the nuances of the activity will be:
- Buying seedlings and seeds from another nursery to create your own garden
- The choice of culture depending on the composition of the soil and the climate of the area
- Year-round care of seedlings and painstaking work on their reproduction
That is, one desire to create a business is not enough, you also need to make some efforts in conjunction with special knowledge.
How to organize a business growing conifers
When planning steps, it is necessary to outline an item of expenditure. To organize a business on 1 hectare of land, about 490 thousand rubles will be required. , of which:
- 300 thousand rubles are needed for seed material.
- For rent and site preparation – 100 thousand rubles.
- For the purchase of fertilizers – 20 thousand rubles.
- For inventory – 10 thousand rubles.
- For paperwork – 10 thousand rubles.
- For a well – 50 thousand rubles.
In the case of buying land and building a greenhouse , the costs will increase to 800 thousand rubles . rub. For lack of funds and having your own site, you can start with a smaller amount.
Growing conifers at home, entrepreneurship may not be registered or limited to private household plots. With a large scale of activity, IP, LLC, KFK are issued.
To do this, they apply to the tax service with a passport, an application and paid state duty. Choose the form of taxation:
- For individual entrepreneurs and LLCs – simplified tax system with a deduction of 6% from profits or 15% from the difference between income and expenses
- For KFK – single agricultural tax
Indicate OKVED codes: 02.10. – on other forestry activities, 02.10.1 – on the activities of forest nurseries, 01.29 – on growing Christmas trees and other perennial crops.
Special licenses for the sale of plants are not required, you need:
- The act of phytosanitary examination to confirm the health of seedlings
- Quarantine certificate of the absence of diseases in the region
There are three ways to set up a business:
- open cultivation: suitable for areas with a mild warm climate
- growing in a greenhouse: allows you to place a nursery in any region
- intermediary resale of seedlings
Analyzing demand and competition
Before deciding which types of conifers to grow , it is worth studying the market supply and demand. The interest of owners of private houses and cottages, dachas and estates in evergreen crops has grown markedly. Yes, and the New Year holidays are not complete without a magnificent prickly beauty of the Christmas tree.
And if you take into account the fact that there are more than 650 species of conifers, it will not be difficult to choose a free competitive niche.
Define your range
When choosing crops for cultivation, the following properties of plants are taken into account: demanding on the composition of the soil and sunlight, cold resistance, drought resistance. Therefore, it is better to focus on popular species that can grow in temperate climates:
- Spruce, representatives of which are about 40 species.
It has small needles and a pyramidal shape of the crown. - Larch, shedding leaves for the winter
Differs in rapid growth and spreading loose crown. - Pine, numbering more than 130 varieties
. It has long needles and a dense crown. - Cypress, more than 130 species
Suitable for growing in warm climates. - Fir, also used as a Christmas plant
. The branches are arranged horizontally, forming a dense crown. - Yew with flat soft needles and berries
Dwarf species up to 100 cm tall are popular. - Hemlock, whose representatives grow both up to 30 m and up to 80 cm
. Its branches hang down, forming a conical crown. - Araucaria, numbering 40 species.
It has needles of a flat shape and a dense spherical crown.
You can grow several varieties of coniferous crops or stop at one species, for example, spruce. You can also divide plants according to the method of reproduction:
- seed, vegetative, with a closed root system
- Age of seedlings: 6-28 months, 30 months to 7 years, 7-15 years and more
The cultivation technology will depend on the type of crop and the desired result:
- Seeds are sown in boxes with prepared soil and kept for about a year in a greenhouse. After that, they are transplanted into the ground on the site. It will be possible to sell seedlings in a year.
- Plants are grafted from a grown stock and a mother tree, from which scion branches are taken.
- One-year-old shoots of a young plant are cut and germinated for about three months in a greenhouse. The method is not suitable for fir and pine.
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Renting or buying land
The plot for the nursery can be bought or rented. For a business in the future, the first option is preferable, so you secure the business and additionally invest in land. The purchase will cost 200-300 thousand rubles, and long-term hiring 20-70 thousand rubles. The required area is 4-5 hectares. In doing so, the following conditions are met:
- Moderate light and wind protection
- The occurrence of groundwater at least one and a half meters
- Non-acidic soil with a pH of 4.5 to 5.5
- Loose soil consisting of fertile loams and sandy loams
- Distance from busy highways and large settlements
The soil is prepared by plowing to a depth of 30-40 cm, milling, cultivating and destroying weeds.
The territory is divided into several zones:
- rootstock zone
- growing grafted seedlings
- mother tree zone
- seed storage
In addition to the main areas, there are also decorative and trading areas for buyers.
Procurement of inventory and equipment
For a small business, special equipment is not required . All you need is ordinary agricultural equipment: shovels, choppers, boxes, buckets, etc.
For larger scales you will need:
- greenhouse: ordinary 50 sq. m. – 25 thousand rubles, all-weather for 120 square meters. m. – 450 thousand rubles.
- well – 50 thousand rubles.
- equipment with a plow and hiller – 190 thousand rubles.
- sprayer – 67 thousand rubles.
- fertilizers, pest and disease control agents – 30 thousand rubles.
Equipment can not be bought, but rented. Then the costs will be lower. The main amount will go to the purchase of planting material. These will be seeds or seedlings purchased from another nursery for growing. The latter option is more expensive, but it also allows you to start selling earlier. Seeds can be collected independently from dried cones plucked from a tree.
Staff
With a family business organization, all the work can be done on your own. Having a large plot for a nursery, you can not do without outside help. Personnel to be hired:
workers for planting and caring for plants with special knowledge in the field of crop production
- agronomist-technologist
- outsourced accountant
The cost of paying wages will range from 50-70 thousand rubles.
Sales markets for seedlings
The products of the nursery are in demand among:
- owners of country houses, cottages, dachas
- Christmas tree growers
- landscape design professionals
- forestries, plant nurseries and botanical gardens
- municipal and construction organizations engaged in street improvement
Advertising plays an important role in marketing . The easiest way is to create your own website to promote products and a group in social networks. Also used: advertising in the media and on transport, bulletin boards, participation in agricultural fairs.
You can sell seedlings:
- to private buyers by selling from the nursery
- gardening centers, construction supermarkets, large flower shops
- through tender platforms and public procurement
- point in the market
- through intermediaries
The more distribution channels you use, the more profitable your business will be.
Business risks
The activities of the seedling nursery are exposed to the following types of risks:
- low-quality seed material that can affect future plants
- adverse weather conditions: frost, heat, hail, rain, which can harm seedlings
- diseases of coniferous crops: rust of needles and cones, gray mold, pine spinner, schütte, resin cancer, vascular bacteriosis
- pests: spider mites, bark beetles, spruce aphids, sawflies, scale insects, hermes, winter needles
To minimize risks, they carefully approach the choice of planting material, crop care and timely control of diseases and pests.
Having learned about all the nuances of the coniferous plant growing business, it will not be difficult to choose the right concept.
Prospects for development promise both a large-scale nursery format and a family business. The choice is yours.
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