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applestar
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Selling seedlings, etc. any advice welcome

...I just sent a vendor application in for a table at a tiny Garden “Expo” at the community agricultural center on May 5.

A bit nervous about doing this, but hoping to sell extra tomato seedlings — I’m going to have lots of extra dwarfs — maybe some seeds. I could put together a reference binder for the varieties maybe.....

Maybe find homes for the extra 2nd year coffee and sell some of the coffee seeds? Maybe make up some posters/handouts about hand pollinating corn and squash, demonstrating using electric toothbrush on tomatoes, etc. I’d like to have a display on raising/saving Monarchs if I can manage to make it.

...was thinking I have time to pre-germinate corn and squash — maybe sell some started corn — do you think people will buy Glass Gem, Japanese Striped, and Pink/Purple Mexican giant? I could sell warm weather crop seeds that would be planted in the ground like corn, squash, beans.

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digitS'
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Opportunities to sell products at a market depends a lot on the number of customers coming through. If you are at a small market with 300 customers, you cannot expect many of them to have specialized interests. I knew a lady with a very special Italian oregano. She had propagated a good number of plants. She carried those and sweet onions to the nearest city and a farmer's market with about that size customer base. It was a good thing that she had the onions and she continued as a vendor for several marketdays. She sold very few oregano plants but many people eat onions often so it was profitable enterprise for awhile. If there had been 3,000 customers there on a marketday, her oregano plants might have sold well.

It surprises me how many people will buy plants that they could have - almost as easily - started from seed in their gardens. The Cucurbits at about 3 week old transplants work fairly well. So does sweet corn ...

The market where we show up is a little late for cool season plants but starts for eggplant, peppers and tomatoes are good choices as products. Some varieties, of course, sell better than others. Customers are a little fickle and may want what they or their parents grew before. I swear, variety names make a difference. Example: Kellogg's Breakfast tomatoes sell fairly well. For people buying them for the first time, I bet the familiar name encourages their choice ;).

If there are many vendors, having something unique can be a plus. We have never sold seeds and don't know of those who do. I really don't know why they wouldn't sell. Maybe it is an overlooked niche.

Steve

imafan26
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It takes awhile to build up a clientele so don't expect a lot in the beginning. Novices tend to stick to what is familiar but need a lot of education on how to grow the plants to be successful. Information on cards or handouts are helpful for that. Stick to varieties that they know bell peppers, bush tomatoes, bush beans, herbs, jalapeno peppers. Most people are not adventurous to try a different color tomato, pepper or eggplant. If you add something new you have to sell it with a sample or recipes. It may take a while to sell exotic plants. I would bring small quantities, but a variety of old standbys that everyone would be familiar with. Go with market varieties that everyone recognizes and samples if you have them. Bell peppers, jalapeno, butterhead or romaine lettuce, corn, bush beans, kale, round red tomatoes, and common culinary herbs. Bring only a few exotics but you will have to have handouts and something in writing to sell them.

We sell plants at the monthly open house at the garden. It took a year to develop a loyal following and some months we did not make enough to be worth the effort. Once word of mouth spread and we had a loyal following that came almost every month. Last year the garden exceeded their goals so much that they decided to cut back on the sales to every other month.

Do some market research. Ask people what they want. I try to bring something different every couple of months. Sometimes it works and sometimes it is a dud. If I don't sell a lot of mint or rosemary, I take it off the list for awhile and replace it with something else and bring it back later when there is more demand. I have limited space so I have to keep product moving.

Things that sell well for me
sweet basil, cilantro, thyme, shiso (perilla), garlic chives, lemon grass
cucumber (Japanese only. The customers do not like American cucumbers). Tomato ( I do a different variety every time.)
Flat podded bush beans (customer preference), papaya, passion fruit (in season)
Peppers - a variety of hot and sweet, but customers prefer bells, Hawaiian chili, Jalapeno, shishito peppers (long sweet pepper)
Peppers sell better with fruit on and a heat rating. I can never tell if customers want sweet, hot, or super hot.
Kale has been selling well for the last two years because it is a food trend. I do have curly vates, russian, and dino kale. Vates sells the best because it is the one people are most familiar with.
Fruit trees: lemons, limes, Washington navel, tangelo, mango, calamondin, avocado, papaya. The grafting hui grafts many of the fruit trees we sell. Citrus trees are good pot plants. You might do better with berries like blueberries, blackberries that take colder weather.
Flowering ornamentals: Yours will be different from ours. Pudica var. Bridal Bouquet, arctic snow, hibiscus cultivars, gardenia, mosquito plants
We have more people asking now for pollinator and butterfly plants
Succulents sell well and it is trending now.

I don't sell a lot of vegetables as they don't keep for a month and I would have to plant them out in the garden or recycle them. I only bring about 10 of each veggie. Cucumbers and tomatoes are the best sellers. Eggplant, papaya, beans and community pots of lettuce sell ok. Eggplant have to be either long purple, black beauty, or Thai green eggplants. White eggplant can sell but it needs to be featured with a recipe. People prefer the low bearing papaya, and flat podded beans. Squash and melons are the worst, probably because they take up so much space. Ethnic vegetables and herbs depends a lot on what the customers are familiar with. Shiso, culantro, pandan are multiethnic while Indian curry tree has a limited audience. Moringa is popular now for its medicinal properties.

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applestar
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Thank you so much for the ideas and advice! Wow this is going to be an interesting experiment.

Some of what you said kind of made me chuckle because you know I hardly ever grow much of what everybody else does. My eyes ever wander towards the unusual. So of course, the verities I have extras of are not your run of the mill :roll:

Good thing (maybe) is the location is at the county Ag center where they have community garden plots/beds, and more than likely, folks who rent gardening space there will be looking for things to plant. Also, this event is hosted by the local Master Gardeners, so maybe they will show more interest than an average gardener in the specialty varieties I have.

This is a one day event, and then they open farmer’s market there starting in June. So if there is interest in my garden and harvest, and the cost/terms are reasonable, I might try to get a table during the season... or maybe there’s is some kind of shared table arrangement that can be made? Hmmm....

Anyway, no sooner said than done. I started pre-germinating corn and two more varieties of micro dwarf tomatoes, sunflower, squash, etc. on 4/17. And you know what? The sunflowers and two kinds of corn (Glass Gem and Pink•Purple Mexican giant) as well as Yellow Canary micro dwarf tomato seeds have already started to germinate. :shock: :D (The other micro dwarf variety I’m starting is Birdie Rouge.) ...Practically all of the Korean melon seeds germinated already, so I sowed them in Kcups to start (the melon seeds were coated with this bright pink nail polish like thing that comes off in water.)

Image

I sowed some of the PPM corn — with corn, you really need to sow the seeds as soon as the roots break through — otherwise the roots seek “down” and can get all twisted up.... I’ve Uppotted some more peppers and transplanted two of the 2016 Coffee seedlings to sell.

My Cow Pots arrived — I’m thinking of trying a “CowPot transplanting service” for + $1 — I bought matching square plastic nursery seed starter pots so they will slip out easily and could be slipped into moistened CowPots. If it doesn’t sell, then no biggie, but if it does, then I can keep my square pots.... heh.

With a friend pitching in gift packets of micro dwarf tomato varieties with growing instructions, and a few other attractions, hopefully people will at least stop to look.... :-()

...here are the micro-dwarfs I’m growing... Pinocchio Orange and Jochalos. I’ll uppot some of these to special containers. They have 4 sets of true leaves already, though they are tiny (see the small Rx bottle to the left?), and the Pinocchio Orange in a BBQ sauce cup on the right has first floral truss showing.

Image


:idea:)
...would you pay $1 for a Kcup started tiny seedling...? —- what if it’s a seedling of Barker’s Hot or Numex Jalamundo or NuMex Lemon Spice pepper... or Helsing Junction Blues cherry tomato? Or one of the micro-dwarfs?

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applestar
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These are the tomato and pepper varieties I expect to have extras of —

Yellow/Orange or Bicolor medium to large Slicer type
Dwarf Blazing Beauty (frosty orange)
Dwarf Lemon Ice (ivory yellow heart)
Gold Medal (yellow/red bicolor beefsteak)
Northern Lights (yellow/red bicolor)
Uluru Ochre (dwarf) (mustard yellow beefsteak with green gel)
The Witz (banana yellow globe - stable Woodle Orange outcross)

Red (yellow epi) or Pink (clear epi) Piriform Dry/Hollow Sauce type
Canestrino Della Garfagnana
Ernie’s Plump

Pink or Purple (clear epi) or Brown.Black (Yellow epi) large beefsteak
Dwarf Chocolate (not sure if this is striped)
Dwarf Chocolate Lightning (striped)
FFS or Bear Creek — 2017 excellent fruit was not labeled (oops) but I will be able to tell by the time 2nd or 3rd set of true leaves grow since FFS has variegated leaves (purple)
Faelan’s First Snow (variegated foliage + Cherokee Purple fruits)
King Aramis (dwarf) (purple)
Maralinga (dwarf) (brown skin/crimson flesh — a Cherokee Purple cross)
Pruden’s Black (stabilized Pruden’s Purple x Bedouin)

Red (yellow epi) or Pink (clear epi) extra-large oxheart fruit XTV 7-8 ft
Goat Bag (3# fruit) (red)
Wes (14 oz fruit) (red)
Zena’s Gift (1# plus) (pink)

Cherry varieties - extra tall vines 7-8ft
Helsing Junction Blues (antho)
Japanese Golden Pear
Napa Rosé (antho foliage)
Sweet Aperitif

Micro Dwarf cherries (12-24” extra compact plants) $8 bowl, $1 Kcup
Jochalos (micro)
Pinocchio Orange (micro)
Canary Yellow (micro)
Birdie Rouge (micro)

PEPPER VARIETIES (so far)
Giant Sweet Devil’s Horn
Oxhorn of Carmagnola

SPECIALTY CORN starchy, fresh soup or grind into corn meal• flour
Black Aztec
Glass Gem (multi-colored shiny translucent kernels)
Japanese Striped (variegated, red kernels)
Pink/Purple Mexican (giant; late maturing)

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digitS'
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One pepper = $1 looks reasonable to me. I don't really know about the size. Mine quickly suffer from being root-bound but at 4-pack/$3, sell.

My efforts are directed towards success locally and our tastes. I absolutely hate to offer a veggie for sale that we don't like! What can we say about it if someone has never eaten it? I want the customers to be happy they made the purchases. And, Big Boxes selling perennials that cannot survive the local winter is unconscionable!

I hope that there are lots of people coming through, AppleStar. Put up a sign indicating that they will find something different in your booth! You want the customer who arrives excited. Shoo away the people who mill about and look confused and likely leave with nothing. You want the person with an actual pulse, a smile on her face, and who rolls his eyes at the offerings displayed in many of the other booths.

Steve

imafan26
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Location: Hawaii, zone 12a 587 ft elev.

Your list sounds amazing and I think the price is right. It all depends on what price your competition sells theirs. Here the stores sell 3.5 inch vegetable starts for $1.98 and 4 inch starts for $2.49. Organic veggies are popular and they sell for $2.98 for a 3 inch pot. Your local prices are probably much lower than mine. It does help to have uniform sizes for the same price. It might help to have pictures of what the tomatoes should look like. If your customers are gardeners and not novices, your products might entice better. Unless there are a lot of people coming through the market it is hard to know what people will want. You will have to distinguish yourself from the other sellers. If everyone is selling tomatoes and peppers you will have to compete and make what you have look more enticing. I am glad you are using a marking system for your pots. I usually only put out 10 tomatoes of a single variety a month because if I have multiple varieties they customers will mix them up and take my labels unless I can mark the pots as well. I have to mark the peppers because I can have 4-5 varieties of sweet and hot peppers and I cannot tell what they are until the peppers show. Sometimes they still get mislabeled.

If you are selling to the community garden and they allow visits, you might take a gander look around and talk to them about the things they like to grow and want. Market research is always a good thing before making an investment. Check out your competition at other markets and see what they are offering and what is in demand. You might have to go to a few of them since the customer base will be different and some things are in demand and others are not.

If you can qualify with "Made with organic" it usually sells better. There are exemptions to the organic rules for certification if you sell less than $5000, but there are still rules to comply with in terms of record keeping. You also would have to separate your organic from non-organic plants. You can list if you are using organic certified media, fertilizer, seeds and any OMRI listed pesticide on your information sheet. Most cannot legally call their products organic unless they are certified and use the USDA organic label.
https://www.ams.usda.gov/grades-standar ... -standards

My regular customers have been trained to select strong thick stemmed young seedlings, but the new people think bigger is better.

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applestar
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I am exhausted but had a lot of fun today. I have to admit I couldn’t have done it without my two DDs’ help. Image

I priced my stuff a lot higher than you said after checking out some local garden center prices — so I may have sabotaged myself, but there was also another, regular vendor who had an outside location right by the visitor’s parking lot selling veg starts and I saw quite a few people walk by with armload of tomato plants, etc. already. So it probably wouldn’t have mattered. Either they would want these unique varieties or they were looking for regular red tomatoes with recognizable hybrid names. I suspect mine weren’t as dark green as those conventionally grown ones.

I was alternately swamped with hardly a chance to talk and then a few times had time to offer advice on planting a new planter, new garden, different gardening situations, ...one person wanted the really unusual tomatoes and his first pick was Uluru Ochre — I was so surprised. 8)

Often, I was able to direct customers who said they didn’t have enough room or only had a balcony/patio container garden and had failed too often with tomatoes to try the dwarf varieties. My stock of micro-dwarfs flew off the table and everybody wanted the ones in big udon bowls which were highest priced item on my list.

Image

We had three empty totes on the way home... :()

...I was invited to join the Farmer’s Market which starts in 2 weeks... still haven’t decided yet.



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