Certain fruit trees (a lot, actually), you can't really grow in the south because they won't produce fruit, or produce very little or don't do it reliably - pretty much every apple tree, cherry tree, plum tree, most peach trees, pear trees, the list is long. That is because most fruit trees need a certain number of "chill hours" during the winter (generally hours where temp is 45f or below). But to someone living in the south that likes to grow their own fruit and wants one of those fruit trees, I bet being able to get the chill hours would be a GADWSEND.
So, I was thinking about the numbers. You can buy a walk-in refrigerator relatively cheap. I looked. Let's call it $4,000.
And lets say it can hold 20 trees at any one time (these will have to be potted trees of course, which most home growers will be fine with as you don't need a freaking full size tree in the ground to produce more fruit that you want during the summer). And let's say that each tree requires 800 "chill hours".
So, from, call it September 1 through April 1, my refrigerator could offer up 7 months of chill hours, x20 (it could offer chill hours at other times of the year too, but as a practical matter those are the months that people will want their trees outside in the warm weather fruiting). So 7 months of chill hours let's say. 7 months equals 213 days. 213 x 24 hours in a day is 5,110 chill hours. Multiply that by 20 (the number of trees your refrigerator can hold at any one time), and you get 102,200 chill hours.
NOW. Let's say you just charged everyone 5 freaking cents per chill hour, and you could manage full capacity. That would be $5110 (102,200 chill hours total multiplied by 5 cents, or .05 for you slow ones) you earn EVERY YEAR. So, given that you only bought the walk-in refrigerator for $4,000, you are earning like a 127% return on your investment every. Freaking. Year. And for an 800 hour chill tree, that works out to only $40 per tree for the payor. And if you don't think some rich fuks that can afford to buy a bunch of fruit trees would be willing to shell out only $40 per fruit tree per year to make it have a marvelous fruiting result, I would beg to differ.
Thoughts? This seems like a license to print money...
So, I was thinking about the numbers. You can buy a walk-in refrigerator relatively cheap. I looked. Let's call it $4,000.
And lets say it can hold 20 trees at any one time (these will have to be potted trees of course, which most home growers will be fine with as you don't need a freaking full size tree in the ground to produce more fruit that you want during the summer). And let's say that each tree requires 800 "chill hours".
So, from, call it September 1 through April 1, my refrigerator could offer up 7 months of chill hours, x20 (it could offer chill hours at other times of the year too, but as a practical matter those are the months that people will want their trees outside in the warm weather fruiting). So 7 months of chill hours let's say. 7 months equals 213 days. 213 x 24 hours in a day is 5,110 chill hours. Multiply that by 20 (the number of trees your refrigerator can hold at any one time), and you get 102,200 chill hours.
NOW. Let's say you just charged everyone 5 freaking cents per chill hour, and you could manage full capacity. That would be $5110 (102,200 chill hours total multiplied by 5 cents, or .05 for you slow ones) you earn EVERY YEAR. So, given that you only bought the walk-in refrigerator for $4,000, you are earning like a 127% return on your investment every. Freaking. Year. And for an 800 hour chill tree, that works out to only $40 per tree for the payor. And if you don't think some rich fuks that can afford to buy a bunch of fruit trees would be willing to shell out only $40 per fruit tree per year to make it have a marvelous fruiting result, I would beg to differ.
Thoughts? This seems like a license to print money...
