I'm going to try this this year. But I won't mix peppers and toms. Maybe a Bell, Banana, Jalapeno, Cayenne, Hot Wax and Paprika.

For tomatoes: a yellow, two beefsteaks, early, cherry and Roma. I figure I can sell six for $5-7.50.

Mike

minnie, that is not a bad idea about the salsa pack. maybe add also some sweet onion bulbs or plants & a few cilantro seeds.
sample six pack:
2-early girl
1-amish paste
1-big bertha pepper
1-early jalepeno
1-hungarian hot
throw in about a dozen sweet onion plants and a few cilantro seeds.
maybe a whole kit for $7.50

mark.

I purchased a bunch (300) trays of 1203 this last winter for alittle bit of nothing. I'll plant 1 variety per tray, but offer a mix and break the 3pks part. I'll also be selling in 4" pots, and 3/5 gallon pots like previous years. The flats will be new for me. I'm thinking about pricing the 3pks for $3-5. I sell the individual plants in 4" for $3.

Marla

I wouldn't grow different plants together. One, they require different environments, they would shade and compete, or not compete with each other.

I sell my plants in 1801's, I wanted smaller containers, but I was very happy with the plants last year. I sell them for $2.00 or 6 for $10.

Jay

I agree Jay, different varieties, yes. Different plants, no.

slick, people have enough common sense to plant them in the dirt with some spacing. I would also remind the customer to transplant in ground when they purchase.($2.00 a plant,6 for 10.00. Do you think that is a little stiff for most people. Up here in Mich. most of us sell plants to our beloved customers for 2.00 a six pack or 12.50 a 48 count flat or .50 cents a plant. Most Growers,Dealers would not even consider those prices of your,s.
People buy plants to save money by growing their own garden, with your prices they lost the battle from the start.

Cowpie,

I sold mine for $3/plant for most veggies. I sold enough last year to pay for a rotary tiller ($400) and lawn mower ($200) and had a few dollars to spare. It would have been far better but the biggest sale day got rained out, on another day we have 40 degree temps with 40 mph winds!

This year, it will be $5 for six plants but they will be in smaller containers.

Mike

I was just going off what our local nursery was selling their single plants for. They were $1.99 plus tax. I was actually cheaper than them since my price included tax. Now the big box stores were alot cheaper, but I was offering varieties they couldn't buy.

Also, our local greenhouse had a problem with their seedlings two years ago. It wasn't a disease, it was just a failure to thrive. In a four pack, one would grow, one would kinda grow, one just sat there and the 4th died.

Cowpie, I thought the original question was to group a jalapeno, bell pepper, tomato all in the same 6 pack. I would never do this, the tomato would outgrow the peppers.

I sold out of seedlings last year. Somewhere between 500-600. Now the more that people bought, I gave them a bigger deal.

Jay

Jay, all geographic regions are different buyers markets I guess. We should move south I might actually make some profit. Mark

Mark, in a rural area, the prices are much lower, because alot of people still remember the old ways. Such as starting their own seeds. I live in a rural area, but sell in a larger town. I get $3 for 4" pots, and put a 2-3 week guarantee.

That price was last years and nobody complained except other vendors that could not get that price for their leggy, root-bound plants. My plants are totally hardened off at least 2 weeks before I offer any. I also sell the same plants, varieties that I sell as fruits. I've sold some uncommon varieties ONLY because the people tasted the fruit the previous year. My prices also include the sales tax. Of course, I have the sales tax license that is needed for any plant sales.

Last year, without looking at my records, I probably sold close to 1,000 plants, and that is without a heated greenhouse. I sold so many that I had to stop selling until I got some in the garden. Normally I sell tomato plants until Father's Day (gifts for dad), starting the 1st of May.

My plants sales go until I have enough produce harvestable to take over the space in the 12' cargo space.

Marla

I would say that the people with leggy,worthless root-bound plants are the ones that start their plants in January in a home and use florescent lights for 2 month,s because they don,t have a heated greenhouse.
I guess that they can always buy & resell some bushey top-quality plants from the Amish if they have an up-to-date sales tax license.

Cowpie, the leggy plants came from people with greenhouses that didn't know what they were doing. Plus they don't want the investment of more dirt or don't know that they should uppot them.

Personally, the plants that I do buy, from Amish and other greenhouses are ones that go into my garden ONLY if my don't do well.

Everyone I know, in Indiana, that sells plants must have a sales tax license. You have buy plants without a sale tax license, just using your SS# for farm production.

Anyone that wants to visit my market in May and June and check out my plants are welcome. Also they can talk to my satisfied plant customers. I believe I have posted pics on another thread, I just don't remember where.

Here are some pictures, the large plants were started after Christmas 2009 for May 2010. The greenhouse plants were 2008, and the ones under the lights were this years, which I started in Jan. they have since been transplanted into cell packs. I'm not as professional as some, but I sell good study plants with wonderful root systems. Even with last year's weather, these plants produced, just not as much as other years.

Marla

Here is a link that might be useful: some pics of mine

Cowpie:

I do take offense, I do use florescent lights in my basement. I also grow very high quality plants. I would love to have a heated greenhouse to grow my plants in, but I prefer to spend my money on my high tunnels to grow high quality produce in.

These plants that I produce, aren't going to other producers. They are going to homegardeners who only grow 2-4 plants. They don't care about cost, they just want quality, healthy plants. I give them all the advice they want. I help them along in the year, they bring me their troubles, they ask for suggestions. I don't just sell plants, I sell all the knowledge that I have gained over the years to support each plant I sell.

Also, in Kansas you have to have a plant license and sales tax info. I go do all the legal stuff, some don't.

Jay

I personally would not buy those plants. Maybe for a quarter a piece. They look terrible and way to leggy and generally weak looking. very amateurish.
But ,on the bright side,your Amish produce looks good, better than the other stuff.

Slick - you don,t leave plants under florescents after the 3 week stage. Even you know that they don,t have the lumen strength for proper plant development. They are great to start the seed but Tomato plants should be brought in to green house environment after first true leaves develop.
If you dont have heat in greenhouse bring them in to the house at dusk in the freezing nights
I was smart enough to put a small woodstove in my greenhouse
Slick, just put a big sheet of saran wrap over your yard. you will get the same effect but a lot cheaper.

I dont know if any of you have a sales tax license or Ag. license but i do have a sales tax license and proper zoning.

cowpie, I have the zoning, licenses and knowledge. I don't know what Amish produce you're talking about.

As far as I'm concerned, what my customers like is what I sell. I really don't care if you wouldn't buy my plants, I don't need you.

Remember people that live south of you, don't have to keep them under lights as far into the calendar as people further north. My first planting of plants will be out from the lights by sometime in March and into an unheated greenhouse. They will and do thicken up the stems. Last year I should have put stakes to help make them straighter, live and learn. I sold more than I wanted and had to turn customers away. I hated turning the customers away, but I needed some for my gardens.

Marla

i dont have any idea who you are. i can only go by what i see or learn.i am sure you are full of knowledge and so are most of the people that grow produce. all i am saying is that tomatos should not be started to early. They only need to be 5-6 weeks old for good healthy 6-8 inch plants great for transplanting in ground. As far as plants living their whole life in a pot. i would recommend at least a 5 gallon pail unless it is a small patio variety and then i think a 2-3 gallon would be suffiecient.even up here in mich. we only need 4-6 weeks for a great tomato or pepper transplant.

"Slick, just put a big sheet of saran wrap over your yard. you will get the same effect but a lot cheaper."

What is this suppose to mean?

What is with all the negative comments? You talk such a big game, but I don't see much proof. Yes a picture of what looks like weeds and a picture of snow and empty road side stand.

If what you are doing is so great, then show us. That would be nice.

Here are some 7 week old seedlings on the first market day, May 8th.

Cowpie, even the patio variety of tomato plant should have a 5 gal capacity pot. The more dirt, the more fruit and better sizes.

Yes, the tomato plants only need 8-10 from seeds for good bedding plants. These plants will be 3-4 feet tall and placed into 5 gal pots for those people that want a tall, bushy plant earlier. They may not produce much earlier, but I've had customers tell me that they had to tie their plants to the eaves of their houses. These customers are the ones that people envy, and they ONLY buy from me.

Jay, your plants always look wonderful, but there probably some that aren't so great. The no-so-greats get planted into my garden. My goal is to have pepper plants that look like yours.

Jay, are you starting more plants this year than last, I know I am. Last year, I didn't have enough for everyone that wanted plants. I really need to plant more in my garden/fields also. Grandkids have decided that they want money and they know they have to work to make money==no free allowance.

Marla

slick, now those are decent plants. a little big but good for their purpose.
my plants are all gone until i put plastic on the greenhouse this spring.
those pics of mine were in late august and everything was about finished in that area. i dont mind a few seedless weeds to plow under for organic matter.
by the way i dont know that much about stuff. a lot of chatter but i always try to learn

Iam going to grow produce this year and i will post some pics. to receive some creditbility

I'm always glad to see other people's pictures, I never know when I might learn something different. I do have a problem getting good pictures of my garden/fields. I don't have a fancy camera or much photograghy experience, unless you want to count the Kodak Brownie camera, circa 1962.

Everyone has their own way of planting, and sometimes one person's idea will work for another person. We just need to keep in mind that not everyone has a 1 acre garden, some of us have 1-3 acre plots and 5-10 plots.

I wish I had kept the good pictures from the year that my 'little ole' greenhouse looked like a 'pot grower' dream. Unfortunately those pictures have disappeared.

Marla

Marla,

This one was part of my crop from my GH last year - taken Jan. 7.

{{gwi:1038716}}

Mike

those are beautiful plants .what variety pepper are those. they look like hot peppers. im gonna grow some too this year if i can afford seed

Mike, they're beautiful. Mine last year, grew so fast and I didn't get the stakes in the pots when I should have. I now have the stakes BEFORE I planted the seeds. What are you using to tie them to the stakes? Did you plant them in 5gal buckets? Did you remove the bottoms or just drill lots of holes?

Last year, luckily my plants were so tall and sturdy vines, because we needed to plant them deep or in a deeper trench in case of drought. I recommend to my customers to plant them as deep as they can dig because we have had too many times when the rains didn't come at the right times. The plants that are only planted 2-3" in the ground dry out and die if the dry times comes. Everytime I sell a plant, I give the customer a lesson on how to plant the plant to give it the best care.

Marla

Marla,

I haven't decided what I am going to grow, if I am going to stay the same or grow more. The reason I grew more last year, than usual, was I had foot surgery and was laid up for 6 weeks. I had two weeks when I was suppose to sit with my foot in the air. I had the surgery at the end of March. So, I was sitting at home and I planted seeds. I potted them up and I was "farming" inside.

I think I will grow more of the things I sold, and fewer of the ones that didn't. I will grow more Hybrids that people know by name. I will grow less cherries. More bell peppers, less hot peppers.

If I can remember, I am guessing those are Bell peppers. I know the one in the middle is called Lafayette, it is a yellow bell, they grow very fast!

Jay

I remember your 'down' time from previous posts. Hopefully you'll be more careful in the future. Your yellow bell "Lafayette' will be an easy one for me to remember, it's the name of the town that my market is in.

Marla

Those are actually tomatoes, not peppers! I grew them in 7-gallon nursery containers, hand-mixing dirt, potting mix, leaves (green and brown) and finished compost, along with Tomato-tone fertilizer. (And got into a huge debate in the container growing section over my methods). The containers were buried in the ground which helped keep them from drying out. I staked them when they were smaller and then wove string around those metal poles.

Now to come clean: I got very few ripe toms - but I learned more in six months than I had in 50 years!

1) - No matter what you hope and anticipate, Cincinnati is going to experience a drought of sunlight from mid-December to mid-February. I had a two-week period that had a total of four hours (probably less) of sunlight. Makes for some leggy plants.

2) - Unless you plan on babysitting the GH all day, every day, be sure to install an automatic vent. One day in either very late winter or very early spring, the weather forecast called for mostly cloudy skies and high temps of 48. It was 42 when I left and though I turned the heaters off, I did not open the door. The weather turned out to be very sunny with a high near 60. When I left I had hundreds of blooms and dozens of very small (pea to marble size) fruits. When I returned, I had a couple dozen blooms and dozens of fried, brown tomatoes. When I left, it was 55 in the GH, when I returned it was 125 - and that was at a foot off the ground. At the top of the plants, probably 5-10 degrees warmer.

3 - don't underestimate the way whiteflies can proliferate in a GH lacking natural predators. A few bugs here and there can turn into hundreds of thousands that are almost impossible to eradicate unless one wants to use chemicals that means the fruit will not be edible.

That said, if I can afford to replace the plastic roof with twin-wall GH panels and upgrade the wiring, I will give it another try next fall/winter. Use lights to replace the sun, but run them mostly at night to also provide heat. Plus, by using the panels, I'll be able to cover them and the windows with bubble wrap - an excellent way to prevent heat loss. I'll also install an automatic, hydraulically-operated vent. I can fit maybe 70 plants inside, using either a drip or DWC hydro system (or if I get real ambitious this summer, super amend the ground and grow them directly in dirt). That's potentially 1500 pounds of maters I could sell at $3/lb.

Mike

Wow, alot of posts! I couldn't open the threads yesterday on this forum.
So first of all, I don't grow the peppers and tomatoes in the 6 pack together. The tomatoes would be taller than the peppers. I stick the peppers in later after starting them on their own 1 month before any tomatoes.
Secondly, in the north you cannot stop supplemental light to your seedlings so early. There aren't enough hours of daylight for them that time of year. You always need plant lights since natural light can be great but isn't enough hours.
I am giving a seed starting class next month actually. It is a subject of a lot of personal choice.
However, my main concern is trying to predict what varieties people will want to buy! I have 50 tomatoes and 50 peppers minimum to choose from and can't guess what will catch people's fancy. If they mention them on a TV show or in a magazine (such as Green Zebra for instance) everyone will want that one! I know people always want 'roma' or paste tomatoes. I need to have more of those.
The thing with the 6 packs from last year is that I didn't record which ones actually sold. I ended up transplanting some into bigger containers alone or planting myself. It is so hard to guess what people will buy!

Minnie, the paperwork is the hardest to keep up with. I only part way kept up with how many large (3-5 gal) pots was sold per day. I can't even tell you how many total
were sold. I can tell you last year, the ones I didn't think would sell were selling like hot cakes. I didn't plant enough of them.

Do you charge for the seed planting class? I've thought about offering one, but wasn't sure if it would be profitable.
Marla

This is going to be a first for me. My keyboard and mouse are not working so I have to use a touchpad on the screen.

I have been selling plants for a long long time. The trend now is towards plants in single pots, but still plenty in packs.

My wife and I grew 130 varieties of peppers and 71 varieties of tomatoes last year. Tomatoes were mostly in single 31/2" pots and some in 1204 packs. The peppers were mostly in 1204s.

We sell at home and at a very large market. At home single pots were 3.25 each 5 for 14.00. The 1204 packs were 2.75 ,4 for 10.00. At the market where the competion is fierce the pots were 3.00, 4 for 10.00 and the packs were the same as home.

I did make up quite a lot of mixed packs of peppers. They are not grown that way. When they are ready to sell I just take some empty packs and make up different combos. It's a lot of work because I have to write up a tag for each plant. Most of my peppers are hot and our customers really like being able to get an assortment. Some guys got 48 different hot peppers in a tray.

Next time you have some tomatoes that got too tall plant them in the garden real deep. Bury them right up to their necks and you'll probably have the best tomato plants you ever grew.

That's the way, I recommend all of my customers to plant them, and if they can't dig that deep, then make a trench and lay it in the trench. Either way will give the plants extra roots.

Marla

I sold pack of mixed tomatoes and peppers, but not together.
Some people want a few cherries/beefsteaks and maybe a few sweet/hot peppers. The mixed 4 and 6 packs sold well for me.

Do you charge for the seed planting class? I've thought about offering one, but wasn't sure if it would be profitable.
Marla

Yes I charge and do it through the local community center. I get 60% of the tuition. It is not enough to make money when you factor how many hours you work on the courses. But I don't have anything else to do in winter and I like teaching. I am giving 4 2 hour classes on 4 different subjects. The comm center pays for the room rental and some advertising and takes the money and answers questions. Then they cut me a check for 60%. I don't have to spend anything on it, but I help advertise (free stuff). I also can sell seeds after the class and take orders for seedlings.

sounds like a win-win situation, for you and the newbie gardeners.