Following are a few examples of the most frequently asked Email questions
I have been getting and my answers. I do welcome your inquiries. I will try and add to this page every month or so.
Q. How do you propagate herb cuttings and how long does it take?
A. Take cuttings when the plants are growing very well; cut tender stems 4" to 6" long; take off any leaves on the lower stem; dip the bottom stem tip in rooting powder; place about half the stem length in a soilless medium (perlite, vermiculite etc.) Water them, then place the pots or flats in the shade for the first week. Water them frequently and keep the air around them humid. (You can use a clear plastic bag over the top.) You can also improve on this with a cold frame or greenhouse, bottom heat, misting etc., but this simple method will get you started. Start checking (by pulling gently on the stems) after a couple of weeks, and let the roots develop at least an inch or better before transplanting.
Q. I have hundreds of pounds of dried echinacea root. Where can I sell it?
A. First of all, any buyers I would recommend would want to know where and how the echinacea was grown -- and dried. Was it wild crafted, and from where? Was it organically grown? I would advise anyone with that much crop to arrange their marketing ahead of time. The harvesting and drying of medicinal herbs is often at least as important as the growing. Many large tincture makers are interested in purchasing good, organically grown medicinal herbs like this, and pay quite well for high quality crops. For a new book on growing and marketing medicinal herbs, I am in the process of surveying tea and tincture companies around the U. S. and Canada right now to determine their crop needs. Meanwhile, I suggest you contact tincture makers in your area. Go to your local health food store to get names and addresses.
Q. I want to sell house plants from my home. Are there any special laws or licenses I need?
A. The laws you will have to be concerned with first will be those about zoning, signs, and the possible need of a business license. Do you live in a residential area with strict laws against home businesses? Those laws are being challenged and changed in many places now, but the primary concern is about traffic: that you will not be drawing a lot of commercial traffic to your neighborhood. A small plant business would probably not be a problem in that respect. Would you be needing a sign out front? Once you put up a sign, you usually come under stricter rules. Does your town or county have a business license requirement for home businesses? I pay one in my town of $42 per year. Call your town or county to find out about these issues. If your business should grow a lot, you might need to look into nursery license requirements and you'll need to meet state retail tax requirements. But to start out, the requirements should be pretty modest. One reason Farmers Markets are so successful, is that they give small growers like yourself a chance to take their products legally to market once or twice a week and see if there is a demand in their area. Maybe you'll even want to consider helping start a Farmers Market in your area if there isn't one already.
Q. My husband and I plan to retire in Florida (or Arkansas, New Mexico, etc. etc.) in a couple of years and want to learn to grow herbs. What should we grow and how much can we earn?
A. It's good to start planning now for such a possibility. First of all, make sure you know how to grow well. You don't have to be an experienced farmer to make money growing herbs or flowers, but you do need to be an experienced plant grower. Master Gardener programs are available all around the country, and will give you all the experience and knowledge you'll need to get started. To learn what will grow well in an area you're moving to, contact either the County Cooperative Extension Agent in your new area or the Horticulture or Agriculture Dept. at the closest college or university. They will know what has been successful in that area, the soil types, rainfall, etc., all the things that matter for the success of any crop. As far as earnings are concerned, there are ways to earn a decent income growing herbs, (or flowers or vegetables etc.) but successful commercial growing requires both local knowledge and some hard physical work. While you are learning to grow, start learning the value of the products; a fairly time consuming effort that should begin with both reading all you can about the crops you are interested in growing, and contacting buyers of those products to see what their interest and prices are. For flowers, attend early morning flower markets in the region. For herbs, check out the retail prices of fresh cut herbs, the nursery prices of potted herb plants, and the prices of added value added herbal products. (Those are almost always the best pay.) I'll be able to help with specific information on medicinal herb markets a little later on.
Q. Can American Ginseng be grown in the colder regions of Canada?
A. Actually, Canada is becoming one of the prime areas in North America for American Ginseng (Panax quinquefolium). Growers in both Ontario and British Columbia are now major Ginseng suppliers, and Agriculture Canada is starting to promote Ginseng growing as a potential crop for other provinces, too. I suggest you contact them for information about your particular area.
Q. How long does it take to harvest goldenseal and echinacea?
A. The flowers, leaves and stems of echinacea (E. purpurea) can be harvested and used in tincture making during the second year of growth, but the root is usually harvested in the third or fourth year. Goldenseal, according to herbalist Steven Foster, can be harvested in as little as three years, although others say good roots require seven years to maturity.
Q. I am looking for a supplier of chrysanthemum seeds in many different varieties. I wish to sell mums from my garden & most catalogs only offer one or two varieties.
A. Try the following:
Thompson & Morgan: PO Box 1308, Jackson NJ 08527
Park Seed Catalog (ask for the largest catalog) Cokesbury Rd. Greenwood, SC 29647
Huff's Garden Mums, PO Box 187, Burlington, KS 66839
Kings Mums, PO Box 368, Clements CA 95227
Mums by Paschke, 12286 East Main Rd, North East, PA 16428
Q. I want to find plain packets for seeds. Any ideas?
A. Try Twinholly's, 3633 NE 19th Ave, Portland, OR 97212, or just look at any well stocked office supply store as they often have very small brown envelopes the size of regular seed packets.
Q. I am a massage therapist looking to buy bulk herbs to make my own products. Where can I find good herbs?
A. I always recommend that you talk first with any local herb growers in your area or region to see if they can satisfy your crop needs. This could guarantee you the freshest herbs possible, and help your local economy. Secondly, I would suggest that you use only organically grown, non-irradiated herbs, thus helping to keep down the demand for pesticides, herbicides and nuclear power -- and that will also give you a much more powerful product. While you are trying to make contacts with local or regional growers, here are two large wholesale herb companies with good reputations: Frontier Herbs, a grower's co-op in Norway, Iowa, 319-227-7966; San Francisco Herb & Natural Food Co., 510-547-6345.
Q. I grew lots of lavender this year. Any ideas about how to sell some of it?
A. Lavender is a good crop to have too much of because it can be sold both fresh and dried and also made into many products. In fresh bunches it sells easily in supermarkets or to florists. In my area, it sells for around four dollars for a 1" (stem diameter) bunch, fresh or dried. Check with your local florist for a price, or call the regional flower wholesaler to get the current price and bunch size in your area.
Sell it directly to the customer for the most money - at your Farmer's Market, roadside stand or even going office to office with it. It will also sell in all sorts of shops in dried bunches: interior decorating, drug stores, gift shops etc. Use it also to make products: soap, lotion, sachets, potpourris, wands, etc. In other words, lavender is very popular and easy to sell.
You should pick lavender for fresh use when about half the flowers are open. For drying, cut long stems when most of the flowers are open, put a rubber band around the bunch and hang upside down to air dry in a dark, dry room with plenty of air circulation.
For further information on growing and marketing cut flowers, see our newsletter and the pages on Flowers For Sale.
Q. Can you direct me to a web site that gives information on how to start up a business growing organic vegetables and selling them to restaurants and food stores?
Why don't you try www.openair.org. It leads to so many interesting sites on the subject.
Q. What s the easiest way to start an herb business with my gardening?
A. Learn to grow culinary herbs, and then sell them fresh to your local grocer or restaurant, or sell starts from your garden or to garden centers. See the newsletter or Profits From Your Backyard Herb Garden. I also write about many different kinds of herb businesses in Herbs For Sale. You can ask for these books at your library.
Q. Where can I learn more about growing ginseng?
A. This is the medicinal herb (Panax quinquefolium) with so much excitement around it because of the endless stories of great profits to be made by finding or growing American ginseng. Most of the ginseng crop is sold through Hong Kong, but selling well grown ginseng has apparently never been a problem. The problems come because of the great expense encountered in growing ginseng along with the plant diseases and pests that apparently love it. Ginseng needs total shading, has major fungal problems, and takes four years of very careful care before harvest. I am closely following the efforts of a ginseng grower near me, and I can tell you it's almost scary watching him -- so much has he invested already -- and so touchy are the plants.
Here are two books about growing the crop that you may want to take a look at: American Ginseng: Green Gold, by Scott Persons, Bright Mountain Books, which covers woods grown ginseng, and Ginseng: How to Find, Grow, and Use America's Forest Gold, by Kim Derek Pritts, Stockpole Books.
There is an American Ginseng Society at 15370 Taylor Road, Brooklyn, MI 49230. In the western U. S., you can contact the Northwest Ginseng Growers Assoc. at 1504 NE 234th St. Ridgefield, WA 98642. In Western Canada, contact the British Columbia Ministry of Agriculture in Kamloops.
Q. How can I get started making and selling herbal teas?
A. Herbal teas are a nice product for a small home based business. I give some details in Herbs For Sale about medicinal herb tea making, but herb teas of all kinds grow more popular every year. First of all, you need to come up with recipes that are tasty and can be made the same way all the time. That means careful preparation and keeping track of what you are doing. If you can grow and use your own herbs, all the better, although you may well have to add purchased herbs at least part of the year. You can sell loose tea in little bags or tins, or purchase tea bags to fill. Locally made teas make great souvenirs if you live in an area visited by tourists. I would make sure your family and friends like your tea blends first, and then try selling them at the Farmers Market near you. That will give you direct feed back from your customers. After that, you can probably place them in your local market or gift shops as a proven product.
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