чтобы самому вырастить

I am reading a newspaper article, which is tough for me. Here I got a sentence:

«Экономика этого бизнеса будет в плюсе только в одном случае: сам вырастил, сам переработал, сам продал напрямую китайскому заводу без посредников. Но, чтобы самому вырастить, нужны большие инвестиции в технику, хорошие семена, удобрения», — рассказывает Максим.

"This business can make a profit only in one situation: I grow, process, and sell them to the Chinese factories all by myself, without any middlemen. But, in order to grow to itself ??, big investments in machinery, good seeds and in fertilizers are necessary," Maksim said.

What does самому mean? I think it belongs to сам, but I cannot figure out exactly how it means here.

means by your/her/his etc own or yourself, himself etc. In this case it is directed at anyone who'd try and grow by themselves.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by iCake

means by your/her/his etc own or yourself, himself etc. In this case it is directed at anyone who'd try and grow by themselves.

---

I will just say "чтобы сам вырастить", if I am to say "to grow by oneself". Here it is dative самому.
I don't know if самому respond to нужны (like мне нужны зти вещи) or to вырастить (like что мне делать).

Look at the sentence again:

сам вырастил, сам переработал, сам продал - Note the verbs, they're past tense first/third person singular. That's why you can use сам there.

самому вырастить - here the verb is in infinitive, therefore it's impersonal so you have to add this person there, by making сам dative. Think of it as "the action that the verb conveys goes to someone", so it has to be dative.

Same with нужны, it's impersonal as well

мне самому нужны вещи...

That's just grammar, don't worry about this too much.