I don't think people are realizing how much work this is going to be
This is the mistake people have when they try to raise koi on their own. One adult female koi can spawn 300,000 eggs. There is almost no way to effectively and profitably raise that many koi - particularly when only 1% might be decent quality. Even if you throw them in a pond you end up having to waste 99% of your food, and the fish don't grow as fast and are far more prone to disease due to crowding. One of the keys to raising koi successfully is to be able to tell at a very early age (1/2") which fish are worth keeping and which ones you cull. First pass you might cull 50%. Then each time you sort them you cull another 50%. If you know what you're doing, you quickly go from 100,000's to 10,000's to 1,000's...
The key for this pine contest (at least for me) is to cull early, and cull often any trees that are weak or don't have the right characteristics. If I have ten relatively decent trees going into the last year, I feel I will be able to care for them down the home stretch. In general I am thinking:
(1) 1,000 seeds
(2) 500 survive germination and cutting
(3) Cull down to 250 best at the start of Year 2
(4) 100 start of Year 3
(5) 50 start of Year 4
(6) 25 start of Year 5
(7) 10 start of Year 6 (final year)
No way am I planning to try to raise 1000 pines for 6 years, LOL!
