How To Start A Business Growing Plants

[nattydread]

my g/f father grows some rice and longan but him and his wife are getting on a bit and need to find something a bit easier to make a few baht

they have 1rai of garden behind their house and the house sits on a main road with thousands of cars a day passing

i know very little about gardening but had an idea of getting a couple of poly tunnels and they could grow house and garden plants

they have a pond in the garden and have access to another pond from which water could be drawn

these could then be sold out on the main road in the layby near their house

i reckon it would cost little to start up but where and what books in thai are available to guide them in this venture

any thoughts or information most welcome......thanks

[mr78]

Plenty of information on the web, just have your mrs google it in Thai and you should be all set.

[IsaanAussie]

The OP's idea is admireable to assist the family improve its lot. However there are two questions I would suggest you ask yourself.

First are they folks interested and prepared to do the work?

Secondly is there sufficient traffic passing to allow the business to succeed?

Oh, and I suppose the third question should be is there a market at all and are the volumes and prices sufficient to justify them spending their time and effort?

IMHO too many good ideas are not supported by even a quick drive around and some time in the existing marketplace to evaluate the changes of success.

IA

[loong]

Many Thais are of the opinion that if you can't eat it, what's the point of growing it?

I have visited many roadside places that sell house/garden plants and they appear to be busy. Mind you most seem to have very little actually flowering plants.

If you want to go ahead, I would suggest that you start relatively small to test the market. Also make it attractive. Let the prospective customers see the colourful flowers from their vehicles, not just a sea of drab green and brown.

Another mistake that many make is leaving plants in place when they are looking sad or dying. Makes me suspect that the plants are not well cared for.

From what I see the most popular plants with Thais are roses and desert rose (adenium obesum). Bougainvillea seem quite popular as well, but I think most people will grow these themselves from cuttings.

Good luck

Heres a strange plant that I have, a bougainvillea grew out of the root stem of a desert rose

[Foreverford]

just had about 20 minutes of typing gobbled up and so i am going to make this short and to the point. You have a great opportunity as you have the roadside avility to selll you stuff and I g feel it is a necessity for now day farmers to be able to make it financially. You also have water so the only thing you need to get together is the ability to make good soikls to for your varying needs for cuttings and seeds and then transplanting into larger bags. For example it will cost next to nothing to fgo fiond beautiful abandoned bouganvillas everywhere around and you can go andf take cuttings and put themin good draining (sdandy) soil and keep them moist for a WHILE AND BINGO THEY WILL ROOT AND SOMEONE WILL BUY THEM AND THEY WILL BECOME THEIR NEW SECURITY FENCE OR A BEAUTIFUL hanging WINDOW BOX. I planted a few hundred papaya seeds and then transplanted them into bags and eventually told the family it was time to put these hundreds of trees into the ground and they griped and complained that where how and why and what and they don't grow and died and and and but it appears that we have hendreds of papaya trees growing around the house and some have dozens of fruit hanging and ahave had some that in the past produced welll over 50. Many iof the seeds were from purchased fruit and saved and others were local store bought seeds. Total cost couldn't have been over a few hundred bsaht bags included. Again your secret will be in making soil for all the different cuttings and seeeds that you will plant. Your products will be based on what people in your area want to buy and visiting others in the same business will help you understand this. start small and hopefully you will be able to expand in a logical and profitable way. remember everything you don't sell doesn't get thrown away it can either be planted at your place and consumed (food) later or you can put it in a bigger bag and create a larger and more valuable specimen. Issan Aussie has a good source of worm castings and composts that are essentials to starting to crate good soils and comoposts and uyou would love to be able to find a source of good clean sand whereever you are located. Most of this stuff isn't about growing different plants and seeds it is about creating the correct soils ffor the plants and seeds so they can thrive in their early stages so you have good specimens.

a lot of the pumpkins we transplanted this year duidn't do good because the chicken "compost" was no good my f-i-l said. I told him he was nmistaken as the chicken compost wasn't compost at all it was kee (that is pure chicken manure and some rice husks). I told him to transpalnat them in issan Aussie real "compost" mixed with the natural soil and amazingly those are doing just fine oh well maybe they'll get it some time as e all know "a little is very good so a lot alot has to be so much better" Chioke Dee PS there are a few pinned subjuects in the beginning of this forum that will help you with all this such as composts and trees etc lots of good informative reading you can use to make it start happening. Farming Fords forever

Edited March 8, 2012 by Foreverford

[nattydread]

just had about 20 minutes of typing gobbled up and so i am going to make this short and to the point. You have a great opportunity as you have the roadside avility to selll you stuff and I g feel it is a necessity for now day farmers to be able to make it financially. You also have water so the only thing you need to get together is the ability to make good soikls to for your varying needs for cuttings and seeds and then transplanting into larger bags. For example it will cost next to nothing to fgo fiond beautiful abandoned bouganvillas everywhere around and you can go andf take cuttings and put themin good draining (sdandy) soil and keep them moist for a WHILE AND BINGO THEY WILL ROOT AND SOMEONE WILL BUY THEM AND THEY WILL BECOME THEIR NEW SECURITY FENCE OR A BEAUTIFUL hanging WINDOW BOX. I planted a few hundred papaya seeds and then transplanted them into bags and eventually told the family it was time to put these hundreds of trees into the ground and they griped and complained that where how and why and what and they don't grow and died and and and but it appears that we have hendreds of papaya trees growing around the house and some have dozens of fruit hanging and ahave had some that in the past produced welll over 50. Many iof the seeds were from purchased fruit and saved and others were local store bought seeds. Total cost couldn't have been over a few hundred bsaht bags included. Again your secret will be in making soil for all the different cuttings and seeeds that you will plant. Your products will be based on what people in your area want to buy and visiting others in the same business will help you understand this. start small and hopefully you will be able to expand in a logical and profitable way. remember everything you don't sell doesn't get thrown away it can either be planted at your place and consumed (food) later or you can put it in a bigger bag and create a larger and more valuable specimen. Issan Aussie has a good source of worm castings and composts that are essentials to starting to crate good soils and comoposts and uyou would love to be able to find a source of good clean sand whereever you are located. Most of this stuff isn't about growing different plants and seeds it is about creating the correct soils ffor the plants and seeds so they can thrive in their early stages so you have good specimens.

a lot of the pumpkins we transplanted this year duidn't do good because the chicken "compost" was no good my f-i-l said. I told him he was nmistaken as the chicken compost wasn't compost at all it was kee (that is pure chicken manure and some rice husks). I told him to transpalnat them in issan Aussie real "compost" mixed with the natural soil and amazingly those are doing just fine oh well maybe they'll get it some time as e all know "a little is very good so a lot alot has to be so much better" Chioke Dee PS there are a few pinned subjuects in the beginning of this forum that will help you with all this such as composts and trees etc lots of good informative reading you can use to make it start happening. Farming Fords forever

thanks for an informative post

[loong]

Hi Nattydread,

did you follow through with this idea?

If you did, how's it going?

[nattydread]

Hi Nattydread,

did you follow through with this idea?

If you did, how's it going?

my g/f thinks its a good idea but it hasnt got off the ground yet.......obviously waiting for the farang to sort it all out LOL

[jamescollister]

Hi Nattydread,

did you follow through with this idea?

If you did, how's it going?

my g/f thinks its a good idea but it hasnt got off the ground yet.......obviously waiting for the farang to sort it all out LOL

That's all that will happen, if you are not there money may pass but nothing will develop. TIT Jim

[RidersCorner]

You seem pretty smart - shouldn't be a problem.

Hi Nattydread,

did you follow through with this idea?

If you did, how's it going?

my g/f thinks its a good idea but it hasnt got off the ground yet.......obviously waiting for the farang to sort it all out LOL