Selling plants and seedlings

[sumi]

I saw a few brief discussions on selling plants and seedlings recently on the threads and figured it's best we make a dedicated discussion to that topic.

Who of you sells/sold plants and/or seedlings? What did/do you grow to sell, where and how did you sell it and how do you price it? Any other tips you can share?

We used to sell some vegetable seedlings and plants (mainly peppers and herbs), but we owned a garden nursery at the time, so people came to us for plants anyway and we stocked it. Peppers were great sellers (especially once they started setting fruit!), as was herbs. Tomato seedlings we did not advertise, but sometimes sold some from our garden, by request. I have seen other people sell onion seedlings at our local small market as well.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

I haven't been doing this right, lol. I have been known to give away seedlings to friends, but haven't really tried to sell any. There is a guy down the road that has a sign out - seedlings $1. I don't know if that's per seedling, or like a six pack. I dunno if he sells much but he must do ok because the sign is up every year.

 

[mythreesons290322]

I can’t wait to see the reply’s to this post.

 

[tortoise]

I have sold 1 year old asparagus plants! They were so easy and profitable! I have a little garden that was just perfect from growing asparagus from seed. I planted 3 packets, weeded once when they were about 2" tall and put fine wood shavings down for mulch. Then left it and dug up the plants the following spring. I sold them bareroot at a swap meet for $0.75 each. Probably could have done a dollar, but I really wanted to sell out fast!

 

[frustratedearthmother]

That's awesome! I need to get out more...but not too many farmers markets close. There's a few in Houston, but we're so rural that most folks grow their own.

 

[Britesea]

I have sold parsley, comfrey, and squash plants before. There used to be a community greenhouse here- you got 1 table for growing stuff in exchange for coming in once a week to water everything and spend a couple of hours manning the sale table. If we had plants to sell, we marked them with our names, the price, and what it was, and it went onto a table at the front which was open to the public. I have to admit on the comfrey I didn't grow it from seed- a neighbor had a bunch of it growing and wanted to get rid of it; I dug them up for her and then transplanted them into pots and sold them for $1 each. The parsley and squash were some plants where I oversowed the flats and had to do a lot of thinning. Instead of just throwing the thinnings out, I transplanted them and sold the survivors after a few weeks.

I have a small hedge of hazelnuts growing. I've been told that squirrels will steal the nuts and cache them by burying them; but they forget where some of the caches are, so you can have volunteer hazelnuts all over the place. I'm thinking if that happens, I will dig them up and see if I can sell them.

If you have a Farmer's Market in your area, that might be a good place to sell plants if you don't have to pay too much for a table.

 

[mythreesons290322]

Britsea~ thank you for sharing your experience with us.

I’ve had excellent experience growing herbs like oregano,thyme,parsley,marjoram,and sage from seed.. I do the over seeding method that I learned from a guy on YouTube..you can turn a 6-cell pack into 24 individual plants by dividing each cell into 4-plants..I’ve done this so it’s a tried and true method.

I grow lots of comfrey I love it! A couple years ago I was thinking how many plants that I have growing that are worth money one of them being my comfrey, walking onion tops,Jerusalem Artichokes, Ramps,whatever fruit tree produces fruit, the foraged blackberry’s ..learned a few years ago to grow petunia’s from saved seed, then the echinacea seed...so I learn a little bit more each year..

Seriously need to have my husband build a stand for me to put out front of our house.. we are the main route that the city people travel so they are always going by my house and love this kind of thing..Just came to mind we have organic farm that use to be a CSA around the corner from my house that sells vegetable plants maybe they would be interested in making a deal with me..was already going to talk to them about buying my free range eggs.

 

[mythreesons290322]

Another good seller my dentist told me about was zinnia and sunflower’s he and his partner buy and said people love fresh flowers..I love my zinnias and grow more and more different varieties each year so might try that also..I could just put a rubber band around a bunch or go to the dollar store and buy the $1.00 vase’s.

Oh and we are boiling down our maple sap as I post this so maybe sell some of my syrup?

Ideas ideas..lol..

 

[treerooted]

Sounds like you and I are thinking along the same lines @mythreesons290322 !

As for selling plants, it wasn't something I had really considered, but if I see there's a market for it, and once I get some greenhouse/cold frame/seed starting area set up, I would give it a try!

 

[CrealCritter]

I've sold tomato and pepper seedlings for $1.00 each or 12 for $10.00. it's not profitable at all though at least for me. Because I have to start them inside under florescent lights, then harden them off outside. Separate them and roll the roots in newspaper to make up bundles of 12.

When I lived in North Carolina a local farmer sold sweet potato slips. He would have flats of them on an old farm trailer that he pulled behind a tractor and parked in town. He sold slips for $1.00 each or a flat of 72 for $65.00. He told me he sold thousdands of slips each weekend and started them in his greenhouses. I believe him too because I've seen people buy his whole trailer load at once and he would be back a few hours later with another trailer load full.