Alpine Fir Seedlings
Seedling sales
If I bring them in for me, why not sell a bunch too?
In 2016 we bought about 14,000 seedlings and 2 yr old bare root trees. We sold 7000 of them right away. In 2017 we ordered 19,000. In 2020 we ordered 22,000 seedlings, used about 4000 internally and sold 18,000.
The internal ones are potted up either in styroblocks or in #1 or #2 pots.
The seedling market is difficult to predict. Two years ago I brought in 700 lilac seedlings, sold them all, and had calls for 700 more. In 2016 I ordered a thousand, and had 400 leftover to pot up. In 2017 I ordered 900 and ran out. In 2020 year I ordered 1200 and ran out.
Two things are needed to increase these sales: More effective marketing, and a cold room for longer storage. At this point we are moving to the paid ads on Kijiji, coupled with frequent posts on Facebook buy and sell groups. And we are rewriting target landing pages on our web site for seedlings. Stay tuned.
The cold room is a more expensive proposition. I have an insulated shed that that has barrels of water that freeze over winter. This, coupled with a winter of cold sinking into the foundation give me about 2 weeks extra time in spring. 2016 was the first year of operation of this, and we had ice until the first of June. This year I have another thousand pounds of ice in the shed (2 more barrels, and 3 more inches of water in all the barrels). A better solution would be a purpose built building for this task. An actual walk in cooler would be ideal, but the expense is heavy for something that gets used for only a few weeks a year. An insulated building with a deck flooring over a 3 foot deep water pit may be a cheaper alternative.
Economics of seedling sales
Seedlings typically range in price from 20-60 cents per tree (reforestation surplus conifers) to $1.50 per tree (2-3 year old black walnut 18" tall) They are sold at prices ranging from $2.00 to $4.00 each depending on both species and quantity. This puts us at about 60% to 75% of the price that Tree Time costs.
This money stream is mostly work from January through June, posting on Kijiji and Facebook. The goal is to presell as much of it as possible. As trees come in, they are sorted, packaged, and shipped out. In 2017 our total seedling sales were around $15,000 which more than paid for the seedlings we pot up internally.
The markup is large enough that this stream would be profitable even if we discarded all surplus.
Let’s work through with three lots
The table above ignores discounts. We give discounts of 20% on a full box of trees, and often we lose a bit more on the shipping. On the other hand, we don’t have to package them, but rather just put a label on the box.
It also doesn’t take into account the time to pack them for shipping. Last year about half were shipped. It typically takes 10 minutes (simple order of asparagus crowns) to 30 minutes (complex order with several items) to package trees. We charge $25 to $40 for shipping. We used to ship by bus. Every few days during the shipping season Laura would takein 1 to 10 shipments to the local bus depot. Since Greyhound abandoned the freight business, we've resorted to mail. We are currently experimenting with a logistics company to find alternative methods.
We try to ship on Monday as it prevents them being in a depot over the weekend. Note that Canada Post is erratic. Many shipments get there in only two days, but currently anything routed through Calgary has a real problem, with delays over a week. So far we haven't had to issue many refunds over this.
We are shipping further afield, having orders going as far as the Maritimes this year. Most, however are Alberta and Saskatachewan, with a few in Manitoba and northern BC.
A large number of seedlings are picked up. This gives us a chance to upsell. Packing for pickup is easier, and takes about half as much time. Generally I pull trees from the coldroom for that day's pickups (one reason for appointments...) and put them on the porch for Laura to handle.
Cold room speculations.
The present cold room is on a 12x12 slab, giving an interior space of just over 11 feet square. This is too small. A better design would be a 24 x 32 building with two rooms, one 24 x 22 and one 24 x 10. The larger room is entered from the smaller one. In the larger room there is a pit roughly 4 feet deep, with sloping sides lined with plastic. The pit is filled with water. 1" plastic pipe is laid in the bottom, and is run outside. Walls are 6" PU foam giving an insulation value of R40. Ceiling is also R40.
The north side roof of the building also has several hundred feet of 1" pipe. A thermostat and a small pump circulated antifreeze through the roof and pond bottom whenever the temperature is below freezing. This freezes the pond solid from the bottom up.
In use the pond is covered with a grid of floor joists with some form of duck board spanning it. A ceiling fan keeps the room air mixed at the same temp. When the temp gets warm, a second fan circulates air from above the pond through the duck boards. There may be an advantage to having the cold reservoir colder than 0 C. The addition of salt to the water to make brine would lower the freezing point. Caution is needed here, as the last thing you want is for trees to be refrozen.
The outer room is used for packing and for holding orders until pickup or shipping.. This allows several boxes to be open at once, and reduces the air exchange between the cold room and the outside. Since we want this room to be cold, but not as cold, it may be sufficient just to have a vinyl curtain between the two rooms.
Alpine Fir Seedlings
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