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How many pepper plants? How many tomato plants?
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Posted by redheadedninja 6 (My Page) on Wed, Feb 4, 09 at 12:57
| I just started 144 pepper plants... how many more should I start? What about tomatoes?
Michelle |
Follow-Up Postings:
RE: How many pepper plants? How many tomato plants?
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WOW!!
That is a lot of peppers!! I'm afraid we can't be of much help unless you are more specific with your goals, like how many peppers your going to sell, how your selling them (maybe as seedlings?). You'll find lots of help here, but need more info.
Jake |
RE: How many pepper plants? How many tomato plants?
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| Are you planning to sell pepper plants? Or pick peppers to sell? We don't know what your market is. My wife sows my pepper seeds: about 13,000. I'll transplant them into cell packs. We will sell a lot of plants and then I plant about 7,000 in the garden,from which I will pick peppers for the market. Maybe you need more or less than that. |
RE: How many pepper plants? How many tomato plants?
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| 7,000! OMG! I was not thinking plants... how many days do you go to the market? Do you sell them to restaurants, too? |
RE: How many pepper plants? How many tomato plants?
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| last year I did around 500 tomato plants and around 450 pepper plants. This was for 2 farmers markets and a farm store. I will do around the same this year as I am dropping one farmers market and replacing it with a CSA. I am also counting on the peppers doing a lot better this year. Last year 95% of the plants did not get ripe fruit on them before the first frosts. they were about 5 weeks late in setting fruit and I have no idea why. The 100 peppers in the hoop house produced early as they were supposed to but over 75% got sunscald and than bacterial rot. I grow mainly sweet peppers with a mix of hybrid green to red bells (by far the best seller) along with green to orange, green to yellow and purple to red bells. i also do some funky heirlooms for those who like an adventure in food because the taste is generally better than the hybrids. I also do a small amount (less than 25 total) of hot peppers, mainly jalapenos and cayennes as those sell the best for me. Last year I did 27 different types of tomatoes, mainly heirlooms. Red maters are the mainstay but I also do purple, black, white, green, yellow, orange, etc.. I also do around 50 cherry tomato plants (do not go hog wild on cherries as they take a lot longer to harvest than the big maters) |
RE: How many pepper plants? How many tomato plants?
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| How much time will you have? How big a market do you have? Are you a established vendor? These are all questions that will determine how many plants you need to plant. Keep in mind, you can always preserve or donate the extras. I am planting about 2,000 tomatoes, several varieties. I will be offering people to come out and u-pick. Either for dollars or they pick and keep 1/3 of what they pick for free. Labor costs, and if I can get someone pick 90 lbs of tomatoes and they keep 30 lbs, I'm happy and I think they might be also. It doesn't take long to pick 90 lbs. |
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