Your garden is rich in an untapped natural resource: seeds.
Every tomato, eggplant and hot pepper you harvest is full of them.
Their gardening hobby grew into a seed business:Lilburn Peppershas racked up over2,000sales on Etsy.
Learn how to turn your backyard into a money-makingnursery.
That said, nobody is starting a backyard garden just for the money.
Its a labor of love.
At the very least, youll end up with free seeds!
No Interest Til Almost 2027?
Heres how to get started selling seeds.
Check Your Local Licensing Laws
Before you get started, research your states licensing requirements for seed dealers.
(Yep, thats what theyre called.)
A small-time Alabama seed dealer will have to pay a$15annual permit fee.
A Georgian must pay$100to apply for a license that covers up to three years of selling seeds.
cannabis), more paperwork will be in order.
Contact your localagricultural agencywith any questions.
Theyre there to help.
Choose Your Seeds
To get seeds, you need plants.
Whichever plants you choose, youll have to spend many hours tending to them.
It helps to like them.
The Nguyens certainly like growing peppers.
[They are] a wonderful fruit with so many varieties, Hoang said.
Breeding new varieties is also easy and the selection of each subsequent generation is extremely rewarding.
Check the prices of a variety before you roll growing it.
Some seeds are an easier and more lucrative sell.
People pay premium prices for piquante pepper seeds (say that three times fast).
Grow Your Plants
If youre reading this, you probably already have a green thumb.
But even the experienced gardener should do a little research before growing plants with seed sale in mind.
Luckily, there are plenty of resources available.
Here are a couple tips to get you started.
Birds and bees naturally increase our planets biodiversity by cross-pollinating plants.
Which is great for the planet, but not always great for seed sellers.
Open pollinated seeds have not been isolated from cross-pollination.
That means the plants might grow up a little funky.
The resulting seeds grow up true to throw in.
No (or fewer, anyway) surprises.
Its perfectly fine to sell open pollinated seeds plenty of successfulseed sellersdo!
It might be your first step to developing the next trendy pepper cultivar.
Just be up-front about it.
If a customer is expecting a habanero and they end up with ahabanada,they will not be happy.
When its time to harvest, dont behasty.Cucumbers should be yellow.
Okra pods should be hard.
Peppers should have ripened to their final color.
Harvest Your Seeds
How do you process seeds for sale?
The same is true of most other plants.
Here are five steps to harvesting your seeds.
If all these steps are making you nervous, consider a trial run.
There are volunteer seedexchangesaround the world.
Many seed companies dont grow all their seeds themselves.
They work with networks of seed savers.
You could be one of them.
How much money can you make?
Companies pay a wide range of prices.
Writer and homesteading expert Ida Livingstonreportedthat she earned $12 per ounce for her first tomato seed contract.
She grew between 50 and 100 tomato plants, resulting in ten to twelve ounces of seeds.
That means she earned at least $120.
Theres a simple answer to that question.
The middleman is doing an awful lot of work.
Marketing, shipping, customer service; the list goes on.
To figure out how much you’re able to earn, check how much your competitors are charging.
Lilburn Peppers charges $3-$4 for a packet of ten or more seeds.
Set up a storefront.
Instagram, Etsy and eBay all have thriving seed markets.
In the long run, building your own website can boost credibility and cut transaction fees.
you might also sell seeds in person.
you could find her on Substack (@camclaren).
