If you currently are a farmer, then you already have a lot of the basic knowledge of the soil and what you can and can't do with it. Fruit growing can be a profitable addition to your enterprise as long as it fulfills a real need in your operation. Some needs may be:
So you want to be a fruit grower?
Start with a plan!
Many new enterprises start with an idea that has come about from necessity, invention, or just dreaming. Commercial fruit growing can be a very rewarding endeavor, but it should be developed with a real plan, because of its capital cost requirements, as well as the new knowledge that one needs to learn. It shouldn't be done on a lark.
- More or increased revenues and profits in order to stay in business.
- Expansion of existing products to sell in your existing market niche.
- Land not suitable for your existing crop base that you would like to use more productively.
- You have too much time on your hands, or you want to use your labor force more efficiently.
- Little growth potential in your existing operation if continuing with the same crops.
- Any number of reasons that you can identify, which make you want to expand your operation.
There are the many important things to take into consideration when looking at starting up an orchard. Most of these points will have additional web pages on the site to help fill in the details. Our goal is not to make the decisions for you, or lead you in a particular direction, but to identify "thinking points" for you to examine and develop into a long term plan to make your new fruit growing operation successful and profitable over the long run. A Long Term Plan should be developed, since it can take any where from about 3 to 5 growing seasons for production to start in an orchard, and a few more year for significant long-term production to manifest itself. It just makes sense to have a long term plan.
Following are some of the questions that you should ask yourself and answer as best you can, BEFORE you plant a tree. We've tried to list them in order of importance as we see them. If there is a web page devoted to the article, then look for the underlining or hyperlink to it for more detail.