Nusery Owner Proves It Can Be Done
Black Walnuts, Conifers Find Home Together
FARM WEEK, Wed., Oct. 14, 1987
Reprinted from Black Walnut Tree Topics, volume 4 number 1, winter 1996
Thus read the headline of an article published in FARM WEEK over eight years ago.
The article begins: "Ingredients for success: Start with 3 1/2 acres of well-drained soil. Add fertilizer and mulch. Plant 600 black walnut trees and 300 blue spruce trees. Water and care for them. Sell the conifers to home-owners. Count Profits."
Greenman's Plantation as it looked in 1995.
What Fritz Greenman of West Lafayette, Indiana, actually did was to plant 1,200 conifers, 750 intercropped with the black walnut trees and the remainder by themselves. He started in 1980 by planting the black walnut trees; a year later he planted the conifers.
In the third year, Greenman began harvesting and selling the conifers.By 1987 he'd grossed $103,359 from the conifers. At that time he estimated he would make an additional $30,000 on the conifers that remained in the ground. That comes to $111 per tree, which is an excellent return.
GREENMAN'S INCOME STATEMENT |
|
| Gross Revenue |
$133,359 |
| Costs | |
|
Trees (both varieties) |
15,500 |
|
Maintenance (1980 - 1982) |
18,000 |
|
Maintenance (1983 - 1986) |
19,200 |
|
Overhead (insurance, machinery, advertising, fertilizer, supplies |
8,400 |
| Before Tax Income |
72,259 |
| Notes: This statement includes an estimated $30,000 worth of conifers not yet sold as of the publication of the original article. The author included the black walnut trees in computing costs. | |