My two cents worth
- Thread starter ehanes7612
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ehanes7612
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total cost for heat.. five years
i would like to see one of our commercial members tell us the cost to produce a plant from flask to flower given a conservative flowering time of 5 years for a multi or complex in a 4" pot. i'm sure they have it down to a science and can tell you exactly what the cost per year breakdown is in terms of heat, electric, media, pots, water, fertilizer and initial costs from flask. I'd be very interested in those numbers but I bet no one will share...
How much will all the other costs add up to per plant for 5 years?
ehanes7612
Well-Known Member
agree(depending on area,favourable seasons and labour cost).
ehanes7612
Well-Known Member
heating costs for my 12 x 15 GH is 600 a year...plus 300 a year for materials (pots and media)and water/sewage...thats 4500 in five years..i have 1000 compotted seedlings...300 medium sized and 200 nbs to bs plants..with this ratio ..it costs 3.5 dollars per plant per five years...i will probably increase ratio of BS to twice as much...so figure twice as much costs.. seven per plant.of course i dont have any other significant overhead costs like labor and marketing etc..but i wont be doing this for income
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I need to move to your area,because on a nasty winter here it probably costs that for just Dec. & Jan.
ya but you can't get them all to blooming size in that size gh, so another major capital investment there, plus increases in heat and so forth with larger size gh. plus you're not counting your own labor. if you work for free i bet there's alot of members here who would need repotting done as well. lol...
ehanes7612
Well-Known Member
seattle average temps in winter high 30's..yeah
ehanes7612
Well-Known Member
this is why i presented a calculation based on proportions, the cost per plant would be the same no matter how big the GH (actually, heating would be less per cubic foot for larger GH's because of lower Surface area to volume ratios)..and simply because what grower brings all their plants to BS (some get sold, some die off )...and im not counting other overhead costs, just those that are 'required' for maintenance...all those other costs (labor , marketing, wholesale purchase) are less important to hobbyists. (i am not trying to make the point that commercial gh's can lower their costs, i am sure most of them do the best they can)
ehanes7612
Well-Known Member
that is why slippertalk.com exists ..to bring together people who have exceptional plants and to breed from them...i am not planning on keeping all my plants from my own breeding (well, their are certain crosses i want to be stingy about to see bloom in vast numbers, but these are only a couple), it will just have to be a cooperative growing effort to advance the hybrids
If someone want to do serious breeding must flower hundreads of plants of the same cross and have them in his place to be shure to have fresh flowers and pollen to go on and dont loose the opportunities...flower 10 or 20 plants each is not breeding...so its better to go buy flowered plnts and cross them just for fun and produce some more seedlings to save on future purchases and have the pleasure to see flwering a cross done by yourself...fun...nice...passionate....but not real breeding.
emydura
Well-Known Member
It is funny as orchid nurseries in Australia are now moving to eBay to sell there plants as they realise they can make much more money selling them this way. I guess they have a bigger market on eBay. I'm astonished at what plants sell for on eBay. Certainly way more than what I use to pay direct from a nursery. Today a small Gloria Naugle seedling sold for over $100.
David
Crazy prices, but the general lack of supply is the problem here, I think. Its especially a problem for larger plants. Many have probably tried flasks to find that the years of waiting and loss of seedlings over time makes buying a few flowering size plants worth the extra cost.
I certainly wish I could buy NFS multiflorals for $40!
The other advantage of eBay is that its immediate and up to date. WYSIWYGet is a powerful marketing tool. If nursery's (in Oz) had up to date lists on-line things might be different, especially if the niche plants like paphs were included.
paphioboy
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I noticed
Not just paphs, a plant of sophronitis coccinea (not awarded) sold for $200 once..ehanes7612
Well-Known Member
there was a time when i would buy a sandy hybrid for hundreds of dollars too...but given the market here..i wont do that anymore...i wont pay more than forty a growth,,,unless its a known flower ( awarded, etc)...obviously the markets are different in other countries
It was that way here as well 2 or 3 years ago. But not now. Before when almost every plant would sell for at least a minimum bid amount the averages for the seller worked in their favor. But now the majority of plants pass through unsold most times of the yeaar. Now Ebay collects fees for these unsold listings. Now ebay charges the seller the sales commission on shipping costs as well and shipping costs are very high now.
For hobbyists ebay is a good way to sell plants but if you are trying to be a quality small nursery and abide by all the laws and rules and do what it takes to keep customers satisfied and provide quality plants you can't afford to sell on ebay. If you do efficient cost accounting and track and include all of the actual expenses at the end of the year you will see that you loose money selling on ebay in the USA.
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