Cash Crop

[ardorlan]

with a limited amount of land, and equipment, what is the best thing to grow for trade?

Tabacoo leaves?
Carrots?
Wheat that you turn into bread
Sunflowers for Oil?

[Rodebaugh]

Few questions:

What state, cleared, sloped, ect?

[ardorlan]

Wyoming, Cheyenne. 80 feet by 20 feet (total outdoor space) cleared

[thaler]

Don't know about there, but here in GA. corn has always been good, right on back to the time when settlers first came to America here on the east coast. Hell they're even putting in our gas now(ethanol). When it gets ready to shuck, you can have corn on the cob, or cream it. Grind it up for corn meal, and also use as chicken feed.

[68Camaro]

Treetop's the man to consult with on this...

[Rodebaugh]

Cash Wise:
Looks like you can grow ginseng. Do your research. Takes 4-10 years to get a crop and you need shade (natural or artificial). But a nice profit could be turned

Other Wise:
Grow what you like to eat.

[beauanderos]

Cash crop? Poppies?

[Oakair]

Cash crop? Poppies?

I would be careful with large plots of them...Ive heard of some unknowing gardeners being raided for their ornamental flowers...

The ginseng is an interesting idea!

Has anyone thought about growing mushrooms? They are quite the hot commodity at high end restaurants (among other places), and with various types available, its easy to diversify...Im not sure if you have the climate for an outdoor plot, but they are mighty easy to grow inside...

[ardorlan]

I've grown mushrooms before and I would like to do it again, as long as you don't get anything other then the mushrooms growing on your media(sub-stain) they turn out really good. You can grow them in doors with LED lighting, you have to keep the humidity high, and they do not take up much space. Mushrooms is for sure something I want to grow with my kids once they get older, Its very good way to teach them about micro life. When I grew mushrooms I was very CLEAN and careful with my first batch, and 90% of my jars were good.

With my 2nd much larger batch I was allot careful and 80% of my jars got over ran with other micros then the mushrooms.

in regards to growing poppies I would never grow anything that would put my family at risk, ginseng is interesting idea.

[frugi]

grow indoor saffron. sell that to local resteraunts; really good money for that.

in missouri for this growing season i grow/grew this year in my yard blueberries, edible cactus, edible flowers including roses, lavender, sage, cucumbers, onion, green onion, thornless blackberries, brocolli, cauliflower, chocolate peppers, green peppers, habanero peppers, jalapeno peppers, cayenne peppers, raspberries, brussel sprouts, tomatillo's, kale, arugula, mustard greens, corn, sunflower, spearmint, peppermint, lemon balm, tarragon, stevia, yellow squash, zuchinni squash, strawberries, watermelon, and last but not least pumpkins. In addition there at least 40 non-edible plants I have growing in my yard, anything from bamboo to pine trees, and firs, or bushes/shrubs etc. mostly all planted from seed or sapling. It is mostly trial and error, but if you can: avoid commercially steril seeds, buy organic seeds, start indoors, after a few weeks put outside during spring to harden in sunlight, than plant and cross your fingers. Rodents are my biggest enemy, especially squirells and rabbits. Also fluorescent beetles are a bitch!, they eat indiscrimintly, everything from grass to blueberries to trees, shrubs, everything.

I would google what can grow in your area, or grow indoors. A good product is topsy turvy for tomatoes or other vinelike plants such as tomatillos. Totally indoors, hang from ceiling, no rodents, perfect, no mess, no waste, easy to water.

If you want a recommendation I would say become an expert at growing saffron,
I think it sells for hundreds of dollars per ounce.

Grow anything else you can grow for your area, that you are willing to eat. Myself I am mainly 100% vegan, and eat what I grow.

[ardorlan]

" It takes 75,000 blossoms to produce just a pound of dried saffron threads that wholesale for $70 per ounce."
from http://www.vegetablegardener.com/item/2 ... ow-saffron
16 ounces to the pound, means a pound is worth $1,120(if sold in ounces)
75,000 blossoms / $1,120 = 66.9 Blossoms per dollar.

not including trading, and processing time. (its on my grow list though)

[Mossy]

Cash Wise:
Looks like you can grow ginseng. Do your research. Takes 4-10 years to get a crop and you need shade (natural or artificial). But a nice profit could be turned

Other Wise:
Grow what you like to eat.

Needs to be a hardwood forest?

[Rodebaugh]

Cash Wise:
Looks like you can grow ginseng. Do your research. Takes 4-10 years to get a crop and you need shade (natural or artificial). But a nice profit could be turned

Other Wise:
Grow what you like to eat.

Needs to be a hardwood forest?

I have some growning under artificial shade in a corner of a field.

Here is a great site to check out. http://www.wildgrown.com/index.php/Gins ... iness.html

[Morsecode]

I had a woodlot in the Canadian maritimes a few years back. After clearing around 25 acres I started to think about planting blue spruce Xmas trees, but the new fad was mushrooms. Shitake mushrooms (spelling?)

Ended up selling the property on ebay a year later, so that was that.

[TXTim]

Wyoming?
Not easy to grow much at all there if you're on the high plains.
The small plot would probably yield a decent crop of intensly cultivated medical marijuana!

[Delawhere Jack]

A bit too cold to grow tobacco there, although they do grow it in New England. Root crops and cereal grains are probably best suited to the climate. Check with the state university extension agency, or that of a neighboring -- same latitude state.

[Thogey]

I can grow $4K in a 16 square foot area, pays every 4 months. Man I was good!

Please don't ask how ha ha ha ha. Those days are long gone.

[AGgressive Metal]

Wyoming is too far north for tobacco. Also, tobacco is a lot of hard work - not to be un-PC, but there is a reason why people wanted slaves to harvest the tobacco.

[AGgressive Metal]

Corn sounds like a good idea, but maybe you could check the nearest farmer's market and find out what is popular to get ideas.

[Mossy]

Wyoming is too far north for tobacco. Also, tobacco is a lot of hard work - not to be un-PC, but there is a reason why people wanted slaves to harvest the tobacco.

I detest the stuff, but there are a lot of different varieties, and some grow fairly far north. "Flowering nicontania" is fairly common.

[psi]

Ginseng seems to be catching on in parts of Ontario formerly known for tobacco farming, you see huge fields covered over with shade cloths. Ontario has extremely high taxes on cigarettes so I guess the margins are very slim now. A lot of people just buy black market cigarettes which are generally made from tobacco imported from places like Vietnam from what I've heard.

Personally I am growing some cacti that are fairly slow growing but tend to sell for quite a bit. You can speed them up by grafting and I've been doing some experimenting with that. There are a couple of species of fast growing, small diameter cacti that can be used as rootstocks for grafting seedlings. Sterile technique is pretty important to avoid losses to contamination, as with mushrooms I guess.