Selling Your Extras: Getting Licensed Is Easier Than You Think

If the only thing standing between you and selling your extra tubers is a vague worry about “needing a license,” here's the good news: it's far smaller than it sounds. In most places, selling a modest amount is either exempt outright or covered by a simple, low-cost permit that anyone can get. You don't need to be a farm. You don't need a storefront. You need a little paperwork and, often, a friendly garden visit — and then you're free to sell.

Do you even need one?

It comes down to two things: your state, and how much you sell. Most states don't require anything until you cross a small sales threshold — and even above it, the requirement is usually a cheap nursery or plant-seller endorsement, not some onerous license. Every state draws the line differently, so the honest answer is: check yours. We keep a plain-language rundown in our FAQ, and your state's Department of Agriculture is the source of truth.

Here's exactly how it works in Washington

Since a lot of us are in Washington, here's the whole thing, start to finish — and notice how ordinary it is:

• Selling under $100 of plant material a year? You don't need a license at all. (Cut flowers are exempt entirely.)
• Above that, you add a Nursery Plant Seller-Installer endorsement to a standard Washington business license. It's not a scary separate document — it's a checkbox on a form.
• The cost is low and scales with your sales: roughly $63–81 a year at the smallest tier (up to $2,500 in sales), climbing only if you're selling a lot (about $138–177 up to $15,000, $274–350 beyond). A small surcharge goes straight into a nursery research fund.
• You apply online through the Department of Revenue's Business Licensing Service and select the nursery endorsement.
• Then a friendly visit: a WSDA inspector contacts you to schedule a look at your plants — usually while they're in bloom — to check for visible pests or disease.

But the inspection…

If the word “inspection” makes you tense up — don't let it. It's a free annual visit, it exists to help you, and honestly it's one of the best parts of doing this the official way. Someone who knows exactly what gall and virus look like, walking your beds once a year? That's a gift, not a gotcha.

Here's the honest part, because we don't do hype: an inspection checks for what's visible. It can't catch everything — dahlia viruses like TSWV and TSV are often invisible — so an ag-reviewed garden means healthier, reviewed stock, not a guarantee of clean. But more growers with eyes-on, reviewed gardens is exactly how our whole community raises the bar on what gets traded. That's good for every one of us.

Why bother, when Facebook is right there?

Plenty of people stay in the Facebook groups because going “official” feels intimidating — like being watched, or like a club you're not fancy enough to join. We get it. But there's genuinely nothing to be afraid of, and the payoff is real freedom: you can sell your extras out in the open, build a reputation that follows you, get paid securely, and never once wonder if you're allowed to.

A small fee and a yearly garden visit, in exchange for turning your surplus into next season's seed money — openly, and for real. That math is hard to beat.

If you ship out of state

Being licensed also opens the door to the inspections and certificates that make interstate shipping legal — and licensed growers get free inspection hours each year that help with exactly that. The moment you're set up, a whole lot more becomes possible.

This is general, plain-language info — not legal advice. Rules change and vary by state, so confirm your current requirements with your state's Department of Agriculture before you sell. More in our FAQ.