Reddit mentions of So You Want to Start a Nursery

I read an excellent book on this subject, by Tony Avent, who is an excellent nurseryman. Basically, he said nurseries do well as mom and pop operations with $50,000 in annual revenue and minimal expenses, or as large operations with a dozen employees with over $1,000,000 in annual revenue.

Read Avent's book; he goes into marketing, employee management, irrigation, shipping really everything. I live near Tony Avent's nursery, he locates and breeds unusual new vareities, which sell for premium prices.

No, you're not alone. I was a sysadmin for a while but I went back to school for botany. I had always been into biology but I got into IT for the $$$. I still do a bit of IT work. I like to offset the IT sterility with my plants; works for me.

I've got a lot of ideas and doing the nursery thing is one of them. I read this book on running a nursery and I found it to be adequate. I mean, you're not going to learn everything you need to know from a book. I've heard good stuff about this book but I haven't read it (yet).

Get your hands in the dirt, sure, but don't forget that your computing skills can be a huge asset. Specifically automation if you decide to go the hydroponic food greenhouse/warehouse route that's going to be a lifesaver. They talk a little bit about computers in that first book I mentioned and (bless their hearts) it looks like the nursery industry is severely limited in their computer integration. Just spitballing here: I think that doing a few things Arduino controlled would be smart. I'm talking about cycle timers (for timed on/off operations), sensors (numerous things), irrigation controls. This sort of thing can give you a big leg up on the competition I would think. Don't throw out the baby with the bath water.

Much like a boat, or an airplane, the original purchase price is only the beginning of the expenses. You have a lot more research ahead of you. Depending on where you plan on going with this, I'd suggest either Building Your Own Greenhouse, or So You Want To Start a Nursery.

https://www.amazon.com/So-You-Want-Start-Nursery/dp/0881925845

I'm currently reading this now. Pretty good info on starting a nursery.

you will want to read this book https://www.amazon.com/So-You-Want-Start-Nursery/dp/0881925845, as well as vol 2 of the "Ball Red Book" . https://m.barnesandnoble.com/w/ball-redbook-volume-2-jim-nau/1100440834 Talk to your nearest agriculural school extension service for a crapton of free info on how to get started and contact your nearest farmers market to ask questions on what people have been buying and how to participate. START SMALL. DO NOT START INVESTING IN EXPENSIVE GIANT GREENHOUSES OR IRRIGATION SYSTEMS. The first book will give you lots of info on systems that can scale and how to kludge them together. I have worked with multimillion dollar growers who started out years ago with a cheap hoop greenhouse and a crop of 100 poinsettias. Slow and steady! GOOD LUCK!