Where to find cheapest plants and seeds

So, I'm interested in growing a lot, but I don't have the money to spend $15 per plant in my food forest to be.

I want to learn what options I can take to cut costs dramatically through resourcefulness, the internet, and w/e else.

So far, I've already started an  air prune seedling bed which has about 1,000 seeds of siberian pine, hazelnut, and chesnut. Whatever I don't plant I plan to sell for a nursery side business.

I also think I will get an orchid started by collecting branches from apple trees from a nearby orchard and then putting that root grow stuff on them, however, I don't have a lot of experience with either method.

Right now,  what I really want are a few acres worth of flowers, like Iris and dafodil,  and berries, like boysen berry, salmonberry, thimbleberry, hawthorn, elderberry, and Service berry.


I'm not sure what the cheapest way to start them is however. Any recommendations or resources from the community? I live in mid-Minnesota so any tips with starting the plants with the cycles of the seasons would be helpful as well.

I don't like paying $3.00 for a packet of seed when I can get the same results or better from the seeds that I buy at the Dollar General Store.

When I am looking for something that it is hard to find seeds for like Walking Egyptian Onions I buy mine on eBay.

I have had really a good experience with plants.

Buying seeds on eBay can be a really good deal if you can find a really reliable seller.

Until I found a really good vegetable seed seller it was like 50/50 some good and some ...

Last year I got some good plants from a swap I went to. I got:
four sun chokes to plant
some elderberry cuttings and currant cuttings that didn't make it because we had such a hot, dry spring and also probably because I didn't know what I was doing
herbs like anise hyssop, arnica
some walking onions
flower bulbs
I don't remember what else, but there were tons of plants. I brought perennial flowers I dug up / divided from my garden.

I also got some free plants (flowers) from other gardeners who needs to thin them. I gave away plants I either didn't want or needed to thin.

For this year, I got lots of free seeds by collecting them. This includes lots of wildflowers (some of which are edible, like sochan, milkweed and evening primrose) but also some fruits (like plum and chokeberry) and nuts (walnut and chestnut). I might get some free seeds from my seed library but mainly I am planning to contribute to it, since I already have the veggie seeds I plan to grow this year and don't really need more. If you don't have a seed library, maybe you can find people to swap with, since many people do not grow a whole packet of seeds in one year.

There is also a leaf dump at the edge of town where people can unload their raked up leaves, grass clippings, pine needles etc if they don't want to compost them at home. That is a great place to find free plants. Like, amazing plants. Maybe you have a similar spot nearby.

Are you looking for specific iris and daffodil varieties?  If not, you could probably find gardeners willing to part with divisions.

I've also grown lots from the 20/25/50 cent packs at the dollar stores.  Sometimes you have to feel around to judge the amount of seeds in a pack though. I ended up with an empty pack of snapdragon seeds last year and noticed a pack of gourd seed in the display the other day which had exactly one seed in it.

Seeds are pretty cheap and can also be foraged for free, but it'll be a couple more years before you have fruit than buying those $15 plants from a nursery. I'd be surprised to find a wild stand of thimbleberry but you can surely dig up raspberry and blackberry canes to transplant back at home. They'll spread on their own if you give them a little time. I can't imagine how you'd get acres(!) of iris and daffodil for very cheap without a substantial time investment.

If you want some affordable shrubs for a few key locations, check out Abe's post on $5 trees: https://permies.com/t/173967/Dollar-Fruit-Nut-Trees

Thanks! I'm looking forward to order some $5 berry shrubs! Yay! So excited for growing this year ! !

You can sometimes find good deals on etsy. Another source is state sales. They often focus on native plants but sometimes have non natives too. NY state has a fantastic one. A lot of them produce good food--walnuts, cherries, paw paws, etc. Elderberries.


https://www.dec.ny.gov/animals/9395.html

My friends with gardens have all been happy to give me propogates, cuttings, seeds, etc. And I am more than happy to give away mine as well.

I don't know if you have that network, but maybe by offering some of your seedlings to interested parties you might find that they return the sentiment with something you were looking for?

Deer plot plants and seeds are seasonally cheap at hunting fish and farm stores.
Seed and seed stores near me sell seeds by the ounce at great prices.

I've grown beans,sweet potatoes, white potatoes, garlic and buckwheat from the grocery store food items.
I plan on trying this with true yams this year.
I've grown squash from the seeds of grocery squash,  they never breed true, but they are edible.

I've kidnapped seedlings from  roadsides along public land.

This is an idea: My Hobby: Rescuing plants from the clearance section

The maxim "Time = Money" is so very true.  The faster you want it done, the more it's going to cost you.  But if you are patient, you can get a lot of stuff for cheap or free.

Learning how to propagate and save seeds is the the best way to save money. That takes the most time of anything though.

Make friends who like to garden, join garden clubs and garden facebook groups or on places like NextDoor and Craigslist.  People like to share what they love.  I've traded of my abundance with local people who also had lots of something different.  I've also given away extra plants to people in the area by posting online and I've seen plenty of people posting free plants to people who are willing to drive over and dig them up.  Last fall I met someone who has a seed addiction as great as mine and we brought all our seeds and swapped in a local parking lot.  Probably looked very weird to people passing by, these ladies passing little baggies and envelopes back and forth! LOL

I've gotten great plants for cheap at the clearance section of Home Depot and Walmart. The trick is to go after holidays and on Mondays after the weekend and at the end of the season.  Sometimes the plants just need a few days of babying and they are perfectly fine.  Focus on perennials.  You can get great perennials just because they are past its bloom season for the year.  I got a bunch of roses for just a few dollars the day after Mother's Day and some fun red, white, and blue pots of flowers the Monday after the 4th of July. My raspberries were $5 at the end of the season.  I even found beautiful huge lime, lemon, and orange trees for $15 once, trees that are normally at least $40. I ended up killing those trees after a year or two because I don't know what I'm doing with citrus but at least I was only out $45, instead of $120.

Friendly advice from one Minnesotan to another...

1.)  Have a plan, prioritize the time, energy, and investment budgets.  Spending time, energy, and money planting willy nilly will only cost you down the road.  You do not need to be moving or removing stuff later, two steps forward one step back is not a wise strategy.
2.)  I will say this once again but nobody ever listens:  Expect to lose most of what you plant to predation if you make no effort at protecting seedlings.  You should plan on spending at least an equal amount of time and money, usually significantly more, protecting what you plant.  This is the number one mistake people make as far as I am concerned.  I have seen it happen over and over, I have seen spirits crushed as countless hours and dollars go right down the drain, and it was always 100% avoidable.
3.)  Get to work, get those trees planted.  The one inescapable fact is nobody can get the years back, trees exist on a different timescale than humans and if you want to enjoy the fruits of your labor later in life then you have to get trees in the ground ASAP.  Never forget that the best time to plant a tree was yesterday.
4.)  Invest in good garden tools, have spares.  Budget for and acquire these tools before spending a penny on plant materials.
5.)  Have a reliable water source.  If you do not then I question even starting this project.
6.)  Learn how to propagate plant materials.  It is very expensive to spend $20 on nursery potted currant, for example, but every time you successfully propagate a new plant off that original you are amortizing down that initial expense.  If you successfully propagate say nine new plants that means your cost per plant is brought down to a much more reasonable $2.
7.)  Network with others to save big money.  I might get together with a friend of mine and we will each agree to purchase a different gooseberry cultivar, for example.  When the plants have grown enough we will swap cuttings with each other so we can acquire each other's cultivars.  I have saved thousands of dollars doing this over the decades but I had to learn how to root cuttings and do grafting, critical low-investment skills I wanted to learn how to do anyway.  Always good to learn new things...
8.)  Network with friends and neighbors for free or volunteer stock.  I have given away thousands of volunteer seedlings, transplants, and divisions over the decades to neighbors, friends, and family who just asked.  I have received many back by keeping my eyes and ears open and requesting to the right people when an opportunity arises.
9.)  Swap labor for plant materials.  One year I helped a neighbor harvest grapes in return for cuttings next time they pruned.  Got 15 varieties of grapes from the deal, so many successful cuttings I ended up tossing most of them.
10.)  Seek inexpensive bulk source opportunities.  In Minnesota many of the Soil and Water Conservation Districts (SWCDs) offer spring bulk bareroot tree and shrub programs.  Prices at least used to be cheap but I have not made any such purchases in 20 years so I have no idea what the currant status is of such programs.  Isanti County SWCD used to have one of the best programs in the state but no idea of currant status.
11.)  Minnesota DNR used to have an excellent reforestation program, do not know currant status.  They would sell bareroot tree seedlings bulk, 500 seedlings minimum.  Seedling quality was always over the top back when I participated but that was a long time ago.

Lastly, watch out for invasives.  Know what you are planting.  Be informed about the invasive jumping worms and hammerhead worms.  Because of these worms I have quarantined my land and I never allow foreign soil onto it.  That means absolutely no commercial/retail bagged garbage potting soil mixes, no soil in retail nursery pots, no soil with any free plants from friends, no soil from any landscaping companies, no free compost or wood chips from outside sources.  I am just delaying the inevitable but at least I will be able to say I made an effort.  These days that is about all a person can do.

The prices of plants and seeds are skyrocketing in the past few years. I just checked on some plant I bought from the same seller, it is now three times as much. From $5 to $15 for a 4" starter, and the mature bush would be over $100. So I jumped in and bought more tiny fruit trees on my wanted list. The earlier I get them, the faster I will get the harvest and get my money's worth. Trying to stay ahead of inflation.

I also grow fruit trees out of seeds and propagate them by cuttings. Plants on clearance rack at the end of the season would be a bargain too, if you take good care of them.