It is an interesting chart, not sure how much I agree with it.

I agree that tomatos are high value veggies, but not so sure I agree about the misc greens/lettuce.

If I were to believe the chart and wish to make money I would simply grow lettuce and other greens for sale. I suppose one problem is an open air market isn't going to keep lettuce very long whereas tomatos will pretty much keep until they are sold.

I think another important consideration is that while certain crops (like herbs) have a high value per square foot, they also have a very limited market. There's no point in growing several hundred square feet of cilantro, chives and dill if you can't readily find buyers for all of it. Similarly, in a home garden there's not any point in growing loads of a high value-per-square foot crop (like herbs or turnips) if you aren't going to eat very much of it. Better to plant something that's not as valuable financially but that you will actually eat or sell.

I'm also planning to sell some cut flowers which generally have a much higher value per square foot than vegetables, but which also have a more limited pool of customers at my small farmers market.

I don't grow for sale so why would this even come into play. I need to grow a variety of food that can be stored and herbs are to replenish my supply. Business has nothing to do with it. Food should be only valued by it's taste and enjoyment by the average family. Wall Street has turned it into a commodity but I don't think the average home gardener needs to consider that.

I do partly agree with you Shebear, taste and enjoyment of growing your own food are very important reasons especially when the taste if notably superior to organic market produce.

But given the premise of limited space, as many of us city gardeners have, don't you think it makes sense to look at the value of each crop considering that we will have to buy some vegetables due to limited space? Isn't it more logical for a city gardener with a small patch (the blogger at the link above only has 35 square feet) to focus on high value crops like tomatoes, cucumbers and lettuce, rather than low value per square foot crops like winter squash, potatoes, and onions that don't really taste much different fresh? New potatoes do taste better fresh so it might be worth planting a few potatoes for new potatoes but they should also be listed with a higher value per square foot than storage potatoes.

steve22802, you basically hit the point of my point of my post right on. My curiosity for this came when harvesting my potatoes which I grew for the first year. Though I still enjoyed growing them and I was the only "vegetable" my youngest daughter actually ate this year they took up nearly 1/4 of my growing space and could have gone to the store for just a few dollars.

One point I am not sure I made in the original post is convenience. Garlic and onions are relatively low on the list but I will always grow these since I am stubborn and want to grow everything in my garden salsa, but they also take very little effort to grow and you never have to run to the store when you are out of onions or garlic.

The taste should be the number one factor, If I only had two square feet to grow and tomatoes happened to be on the bottom of the list I would still grow them. If you check my references under the chart along with yield that created a palatability index which if you are growing for home use can be much more important than potential revenue.

As for selling goods for profit, I need to write these up sometime but as one poster mentioned flowers are definitely very high on the revenue per square foot. I would also imagine if I did the math fruit is very high as well especially when grow vertically though most of them can take many years before getting high yields.

Here is a link that might be useful: The Cheap Vegetable Gardener

I do think the $/SF equasion is more significant when deciding what to grow to sell. For us, what we like to eat is more significant. I know some of what we grow could probably be had for cheaper at the store, but how can you put a dollar amount on the satisfaction of being able to say "I grew it myself?" However, if you only have a limited amount of space, you might consider seeing what you can buy at a local farmer's market and growing what they don't sell.

Hi there Cheapvegetablegarden!

Nice to have you weighing in in person! Thanks for posting your chart, it's been very thought provoking. I've also enjoyed reading some of your other blog posts as I have a bit of a geeky streak too. Maybe I'll have to try some automated gardening systems too, plus I can 'expense' them since I'm planning to make some profit from my garden this year. ;)

The link you included to the chart posted by the Seattle P-Patch people is also quite interesting. It is aimed at people growing strictly for themselves so they factor in a Palatability Index which is obviously subjective. But as I consider their equation it seems like it might be a useful tool for an intensive market gardener too with a slight change of labeling. Instead of the Palatability Index, I could call that column a Marketability index. For example a value of 1 would mean I could sell little or none of the crop while a value of 5 would mean I sold it all out. Obviously all three values in their Figure of Merit are fluid so I guess I will need to set up my own spreadsheet to recalculate these values periodically.

Here is a link that might be useful: Seattle P-Patch Figure of Merit table

Yes, posts have been pretty nerdy past few weeks it has been a long winter. Though I was able to get my hands dirty outside in real dirt so should have some less technical post coming soon.

I am planning on updating the table using local farmer's market prices when they open up so see if things switch up much. Couple other factors is spoil times for market or table, both how long they are consumable after picked and how long you can keep them on/in the vine/plant/ground without reducing value. There are other factors such as novelty, people might pay a couple extra bucks to try some purple carrots, but may shy away from "Ugly Tomatoes" over pretty red hybrids though on Palatability Index would say otherwise.

Though if you took many factors into account you could have an interesting data model (thinking Analysis services data cube) though doubt I will have the free time to tackle that one anytime soon, though could be interesting.

Even though I grow for fun I definitely consider the market value and the advantages of growing. Especially on products that aren't shelf stable. I can't imagine how many partially eaten heads of lettuce & bags of greens I throw away every year because it went bad before I ate it. At least with a lot of garden vegetables (salad greens are the biggest, for me) I can pick them as needed and what I don't eat won't immediately go bad.

Additionally, living 20 minutes from a grocery store means no trips to the market for 1 or 2 things every few days. Considering the price of gas, doing mid week shopping in the garden is priceless!

Fun factor is definitely important. This year I am planning on growing jalapeños in my automated computerized grow box this year since I don't have the conditions to do it outside. Sure I could buy what I use at the store for $1.00 but something about being able to say everything in that salsa you are eating came from the garden.

Here is a link that might be useful: Computerized Grow Box

No, but I am sure most gardeners consider the output per unit of labor, where output includes variables such as total harvest, vitamin and mineral profiles, long harvest seasons, ease of cultivation, and earliness or lateness (or freezability or storability), besides personal preference.

When it comes to mass and total vitamins, plus a reasonably long crop, it is hard to beat a row of mixed cabbages.