I think selling the same starts as tomatoes isn't a big deal. As mentioned, you are marketing to different people.

I also think that's a great idea to donate whatever you have left to the church sale.

I sell seedlings, peppers and tomatoes mainly. I usually raise 30 to 35 flats of 2401's to sell. I charge $2.00 each. Later in the season, I do 3 for $5. Most people who buy my plants are only raising a few plants. Do not compare 4 pack and 6 pack prices to singles. The people who buy singles, won't buy 4 and 6 packs, and vice versa.

Growing in high tunnels, I always sell my customers plants in May and early June, then sell them tomatoes in June and July, then they pick their own tomatoes in late July and August and then I sell them tomatoes again at the end of August through November.

Jay

Jay - do you sell the same varieties that you grow? Sorry, I know an 1801 is 18 to a 10x20 tray, is 2401 24 to a tray? I've got most of my cherry tomatoes (Super Sweet 100s and Gardener's Delight) in 18's, some are still in the 36's (2.5" cell 6-packs). So you charge $2 for each "cell" or "pot" in the flat of 24 (in-between my 2 sizes)? Are they separated?

How much would you charge for a 6-pack of 2.5" cells (36 to a tray) of cherry, Black Krim, or Bloody Butcher? I've only got a couple dozen of each variety extra - which is probably more than enough for this small market.

I'm afraid people think "bigger is better" - but smaller 6-packs of really leggy plants (straight from the greenhouse) were selling for $3 at the women's club Mother's Day plant sale. Maybe it's parental pride, but my plants are bigger and healthier even if they're still in 6-packs. I was thinking asking $5 for a 6-pack since they're nearly the same size (some look taller due to not being planted as deep!) as the ones in the 1801s.

How much would you charge for 1 "pot" of the 1801 size (about 3") in a cherry? Most are 6" tall, some look more like 4 (and some 2"!) depending on how deep I potted them (if the bottom of the cell fell apart, or plant was really leggy) when I potted up from the Jiffy strips (50 to a cell) in April, and of course some were smaller than others at that time.

I also have 4" pots (square) and 4.5" pots (round) of Brandywine from organic seed. Some of them look smaller than the other varieties in the 1801s or 6-packs, though. I just started with the BWs and the pots I had at the time, since they were getting leggy, so they're planted really deep, but only 3 sets of leaves on most since I've been using dilute Neptune's Harvest (shoulda hit'em with MG!), I know cherries grow fast but the Bloody Butcher and Black Krims also seem to have taken off, the potato-leaf BWs and Glaciers are lagging (Glaciers I put down to being determinates).

I gotta build a high tunnel - I'm going to be trying to sell tomatoes to people about the same time they're harvesting their own, since I started all the seed the same time and we're planting about the same time (I hope to plant Mem Day weekend if I can get everything hardened off and get the fence up with all this rain, and market starts the next Friday).

I know you extend the season, but wondering why customers buy from you in August-Sept when they still should be harvesting their own (late blight? Other diseases you don't get in the tunnel affecting theirs?)?

2401s are 24 single cells and usually are sold individually. They will break apart rather easily.

I sell the same varieties that I plant. Most people that buy plants don't buy the fruit, unless they need extra.

You can't get 6x the individual price for a 6 pk, people will not pay it. They will pay much more for those individual plants. Sometimes, they'll buy 6 of the same variety, but all in individual pots before they'll buy packs. Why, I don't know.

I have people buying from me during their 'harvest time' because either their plants have given up or they have OR they just aren't getting as much yield as they thought they would. Others just buy the fruit, they've told me that doing the garden was TOO much work, so they would just buy from me. Some people don't have as good of soil as I do, is another reason.

I've found that several of the indeterminate heirloom varieties will 'vine' like crazy, plus most of them have thicker stems. they also get leggy earlier than the hybrids.

Our son and DIL came down today and put in another 100 or so tomatoes plants, we already had 36. Still have several 100 to go. Some of the plants will just be thrown away, we only want SOOOO many Yellow Pears and some others. After all, how many cherry sized tomato plants should you plant. I've done 200 of 5 varieties before, and that's not going to happen again.

Marla

Thanks Marla - the potato-leafed kinds just seem to have stalled (again) since potting up, the RL may be slowing down (starting to get rootbound in the 3606's?) but have still grown quite a bit in the past month. I just didn't want to pot up *again* as I was trying to start hardening off. If we had had more sun (and some warmer nights - last night was 1st night outside in the garage) I would have had them hardened off by now and be planting this week.

If I can charge $2 for a single 3x3 (1801 or actually larger, these fit in sculpted trays but are a bit tight in a flat), can I charge $5 for a 6-pack of 3606's? $4? They're nearly the same size pot/cell, and are pretty much the same size plant.

I don't know how many cherries I'll plant - I figured a dozen GD, no Sweet 100's (well, maybe 1, plus my dad will take 1), though maybe I'd buy a 6-pack of Sungolds from nursery? But I only have two 98-ft rows to plant in, and I have the Bloody Butcher and Glacier (a few, just for comparison) for my earlies, and want at least 3 (probably 9) Krims, 2 CP from my cousin (huge, hope they make it), at least a dozen BW plus I have at least a dozen bell peppers, 6 pepperoncini, 6 jals, 6 serranos, gonna buy some cherry peppers and maybe bananas - need frying peppers. I can squeeze peppers 2ft apart, but tomatoes should be 3 ft plus I have 6 eggplant, want some squash and cukes too though I do have three 4x16 beds near the house for squash and if I can get them amended in time another 200 row ft (only 1 ft wide) in a wetter area I can put the cukes in.

Definitely small-time, but I'm trying to get a little more land in production each year. DH helps with the heavy stuff, but it's just me doing the day-to-day weeding, watering, harvesting and marketing. Did I mention we had berries too? ;-)

I sell plants in May and will sell extra produce during the summer.

Most of my customers, like stated above, only want a few plants. So next year I am going to plant in larger pots and cut back on the 4 packs I have.

I'm going to have to see about potting up the ones that are in 6-packs but I hate to do that while hardening off - or after hardening off and then transplanting. Or do you think it won't really matter if they're already hardened off, then potted up and transplanted within a week?

I tried 4 packs, did sell any all year. The previous year I sold 2 or 3. I don't know why they don't sell, but most small time home gardeners only plant 3 or 4 plants. So they don't want all the same kind. I ran out of some varieties last year so I started cutting up 4 packs with scissors and sold them for the same amount!

People buy tomatoes from me in August because they are lazy, mine look better, mine taste better, mine are picked, there are no weeds around them, I have a different variety or color. These are all reason I have been told.

Yes 2401 are 24 to a tray. I used 1801's but they aren't as easy to handle as the 2401. The greenhouse in town sells theirs in 3601 or even more, $1.99 each.

My goal is $40 a tray. So 2401's are $2 each, that give me $48. However, I do drop price to 3 for $5. That is $1.66, and that gives me $40.0000000000001 How did I come up with $40, I don't remember.

What plants do I sell, currently I have 31 varieties of tomatoes that I am selling and 15 varieties of peppers. When I go to market I usually try to take 25 flats. I have also learned that if you take one cell out of the corner, people are more inclined to buy a variety because it looked like someone else thought that it was good too!

The only tomatoes that I grow and also sell are Big Beef, Cherokee Purple, Black Cherry, Sungold, Red and Yellow Pear and Lemon Boy. I grow many other red slicers and cherry tomatoes, but at close to $1 a seed for some of the hybrids, I keep them to myself. Also, they don't have name people know. Honestly if I told you here is BHN 589 or BHN 624 or Florida 91, it doesnt' sound familiar. However, Celebrity, Jetstar, Brandywine, Roma all sound familiar.

Yeah, I have to go with named varieties - and even then, I know people won't have heard of Gardener's Delight or Bloody Butcher, but hopefully they'll remember the name (or me!) if they like them.

Thanks for the tip about taking 1 cell out! I thought that if I took partial trays, people would think I didn't have many (kind of like half-filled basket of fruit) and pass my over - funny how the mind works!

Wow, $40 a tray seems like a lot - that would be $6.67 per 6-pack and I know people won't pay that. Guess I'd better look for something other than the 3606's (that I paid $1.20 each for!). Plus maybe if I put them in larger pots, people will just buy a few and not want to take the trays - the trays are $1 each and got impossible to find later in the spring. Of course if someone spends $40 and buys a whole tray they can keep the tray ;-)

Too bad I have a couple of Lot stores, Home Dep and wAlmart to compete with in the area. I'll try $2.50 for the cherries in the 1801s, 2 for $4 and see how it goes. Maybe I can ask more - $3? - for the heirlooms (if I get the BKs into bigger pots).

It's been difficult to harden them off with the cloudy rainy weather - do you think they will suffer if I pot up now? Best to wait a week, or do it now (today is raining, next 2 days cloudy)?

We sell our's in 1801's, too, mostly toms and peppers. We not not send the trays with them (the 1020 trays - you know the bottom) unless we know the person and they will return them at some point). Instead if they get just a couple of plants they go into short paper bags (grocery size but short - maybe 8 inches tall) but you have to be aware you are going to do this in advance and not overwater or the bag will fail. Moist but not saturated is best (plus prople do not want to put a dripping plant into their car and have it weep into the carpet). We always take water with us when we market them and if they start to dry out too much top water a little to keep them mosist but not to the point the tray is holding water. If they get more than a couple plants we use cardboard boxes - beer flats work great as do any short flats that canned goods come in you can get from any store (we pick most of ours up at Sams through the winter and keep in the barn). The plants are bottom heavy enough the stand up fine and we save the cost of loosing our 1020's. Win-win.

Tom

I use paper lunch bags to send the plants home with the customers. I can put two 2401 in one bag.

Jay

They will look like they've stalled, but what they are doing are building roots instead of tops. Actually better for them. Transplanting them into pots while hardening off should not make a difference, might even be easier on the plant.

I use leftover cardboard boxes from my merchandising jobs, to send a large amount of plants, otherwise, they go into the same size T-shirt bags or leftover store bags.

I water the plants heavily a few hours before loading the night before.

Cloudy weather is the perfect weather to harden off with, following with some sunny afterwards. My problem, this year, has been the extreme heat/sun. Inside the greenhouse WITH shadecloth having temps of 110 or outside with temps of 80-90 but extreme sun and not being able to water 24/7. Lots of yellow leaves due to that.

I planted in 1203, 3 pks, only because I got 50 flats for less than $20 including shipping off of ebay last year.

I'm lucky to get $18 per flat this year, this has not been a good year to selling tomato plants. It seems like every vendor at market is selling them.

My first market/plant sale is tomorrow. Well it's really my second, the 1st one was held in a meeting room in a low income highraise. Most of the customers were the people who live there (no balcony to put plants). I sold $120 worth, not that hot. One man said he could get plants cheaper at wally world. I'll only be bringing 15 flats: Numex Joe, Jalapeno, Fooled You, Sweet Spot Banana,Carmen pepper plants. I also sowed some 4pk's (10 flats total) with one of each/green, red, yellow and orange bell peppers. These went over pretty good at the first sale. I'll have broccoli, sprouts and caulflower plants also. For the Tomato plants: Mountain Fresh,Celebrity, Cherokee Purple and some of the Tumbling Tom Baskets (they are just starting to fruit, about a 1/2" size, the market is starting 2 weeks earlier than last year). From the sound of it here, plant sales are down, I'll let you all know how it went.
Deb

You should have mentioned to those people with no balcony, that IF they had a window with lots of light (south preferred), they could have had an indoor garden with pots/containers.

Wallyworld's plants come from a mega-greenhouse and the employees don't know/care about the plants. If WM doesn't sell the plants, the megagreenhouse HAS to give them credit and WM doesn't pay for them, no matter what kind of care the plants have had.

Same thing with the Lot stores, HD, etc. But the customers don't seem to care. Now the Lot gives no guarantees (so tells you to look it over carefully - I saw lots of broken stems). But I think HD guarantees their plants will grow. How do you compete with that, AND low prices? There was even a post on Tomato forum that said HD was selling herilooms. of couse that may have been earlier (I saw foot-high plants in March!) and they may be sold out now ;-)

My market starts at 3pm today. I hang up 5 nice signs (right in a row): "IT"S TIME TO PLANT !!
WE NOW FEATURE "NATURALLY GROWN" VEGGIE PLANTS"
All of our veggie plants are grown with Organic bone meal, blood meal, Seaweed/Fish Fertilizer !!
NO "PLANT GROWTH REGULATORS" USED HERE - - -
UNLIKE many BIG BOX stores PLANTS !!
(These regulators tend to stop the Plants from growing to their full potential, thus - Smaller/Less PRODUCE !!
:) :) HAPPY GARDENING is
When You Choose "NATURALLY GROWN" Plants!! :) :)
If someone asks me about this I explan it to them in sample laug.
Well, got lots to do, update later.
Deb

Good informative sign, good with the generalizations so it won't get you into trouble with slander/libel.

People are interested in their food, but if they don't the difference between what they buy in grocery stores and from the farm, we need to educate them.

Lots of the BigBox stores have been selling heirlooms for the last few years. Around here, they starting with Brandywine, and people thought it was the only heirloom variety. Now, you can't hardly sell a Brandywine, after people have discovered the other varieties that are Heirloom.

I have done some work off of the internet, printing descriptions and pictures of my varieties. I have several different heirlooms this year, and the visual aid is helping. After we get some produce off of them, next year it will be easier to sell the plants.

Marla

Ah gee! I just spent the day potting up my Black Krims and some of my BWs (I had already potted up, but was trying to get the BW I was selling all in 1 size/shape pot so they fit better in the flat, also pulled some of the smaller ones - I still have plenty for me). Hope they sell.

Already had 24 Sweet 100's and 18 Gardener's Delight in 1801s, potted up another dozen of so GD's in 4" pots and still have about a dozen (a little more) scattered over 3 3606s. I guess I went overboard with the GD -they're such tiny seeds, I ended up with way more than the 2 per cell I was trying to plant, and then of course had to prick them all out and pot up, couldn't bear to throw things away.

How many cherry tom plants do you think is a good number to plant for market (only once a week and I will have Bloody Butcher and Glacier "salad sized" tomatoes early in the season, BW and BK later)? I wanted to plant a lot more BW (and BK?) since I hear they're not very prolific, though the tomatoes are huge. I've never (successfully) grown either before - but cherries I have and 1 plant is enough for my family!

Thanks for the tips Deb, and good luck at market tonight - let us know how it goes.

I guess I'd better start looking for pix and growing info on the Internet to print out (and laminate, or make copies to hand out). Tomorrow I pot up the Bloody Butchers that are outgrowing the 3606's, I don't think they're going to make it another week, and even if the weather allows for putting up the fence and planting mid-week, I've still got more than I gthink I'll use. Haven't grown those before either - any suggestions for how many to plant (I want to plant a dozen Glaciers, that's how many I had last year, and they were very prolific, though small)? Remember I only have 196 ft of raised bed (though they are a couple feet wide and deep) to put all these in - and I was going to put 98ft along the fence, but the other 98ft would have to be FL weave or else don't run the fence around the potato rows, just around the tomatoes.

Try craigslist to advertise sales ... there may be some gardeners looking for what you have.

I could have sold way more sunchokes than I ordered, If I had known to check.

A dozen or 2 would be more than enough for any of my markets. Tip--if you have different varieties of cherry, mix them in pints. This gets people to try the different ones and sometimes they'll like the new ones better than what they're used to. Plus the pints really look cool.

I haven't had good luck with CL, too much spam coming thru it. I have had some luck, but more spam than anything.

Marla

I don't know about CL, I did get a lot of spam (and scammers) when I advertised my old set of dishes (I think $100 and up items get hit). But local "Patch" email newsletter just had an article on "It's Tomato Planting Time" and they accepted my comment saying I had extras, email me for list so maybe I'll get some sales that way. I just have to decide how many to sell and how much. I can also advertise in the "Plant Sale" section of CT NOFA website - have to send them the details, but I'm a member and talked to coordinator at her booth at Girl Scout Jubilee on Sat.

Unfortunately, the only 2 cherries I have are GD and SS 100 which should look pretty much identical since GD is a parent of the Sweet 100 hybrid family. But maybe I'll buy some Sungold starts and plant some of those to mix in. Black Cherry might be nice if I can find it, but don't want to get too many cherries.

I made several hundred dollars off Craigs List plant selling this year. I had one guy stand me up on 10 superhots but otherwise everyone picked up. I give them a deal off market price. Many said, 'see you next year'.
At market I sell square pots 3-4 inches - tomatoes or eggplant 3.50 each or 3/10 and peppers 3.00 each or 4/11. I have a few 4 and 6 packs with cheaper prices but they aren't as popular. My plants are mostly heirlooms, grown naturally and pretty large. Many are beginning to flower (in a good way). I offer lots of choices on heirloom tomatoes and at market make up a little book of 6 pages or so with the photo and description. 1 page for pastes, 1 for cherries and 2 for larger tomatoes, and 1 for peppers and 1 for eggplants. Probably will be terrible tomorrow in the rain though...

I'd love to sell my deep 4 (or 4.5"?) heirlooms for $4, we'll see, but besides the bigbox stores, I noticed grocery store ad has 5" tomato pots 4/$10. Hard to compete. Most of mine aren't that large (esp. the ones in deep pots - I stripped lower leaves and planted deep - all the way to the bottom so pretty much all of my pots have only 4" or so of plant above the soil line). And of course they aren't that deep "Miracle-Grow" green.

Black Cherry's are great, especially if you have some good sweet soil. the chocolate cherry doesn't taste the same.

Minnie, I'm glad CL has worked for me, I keep trying, but there are so many people trying to sell things for almost nothing, my stuff is too expensive evidently.

I need to arrange my varieties into categories like you have. I was doing good just to get the info printed.

Any way one of you could email me your pages? It would save me a lot of searching, cutting and pasting. The book is a great idea, that way I could use it when selling the tomatoes too. Though some people may still want growing info to take home. I hate to make up labels for all these pots, but maybe I should at least put the name and DTM.

I sent you an email with mine.

Thanks Marla - I'll look for it.

I got 2 emails overnight from my comment saying I had plants available. But I think both were looking for freebies.

OT - but we are being invaded by ants - inside and out! I've been searching for organic controls, does anybody have a way that's worked for them? There are just too many urban myths - I think borax might work, couldn't find any in BJ's today (I couldn't find bleach either, isn't that strange?). Vinegar worked to kill a nest I think they made between our carpet and tile last year, but I don't know if I want to go spraying the whole carpet with vinegar. I *will* use it in the kitchen though - just saw the first one on the counter (so far they've stayed on the floor, except for 1 I found on the bathroom mirror upstairs).

Borax works for fleas, find it in the grocery store laundry soap aisle, probably right next to the bleach. MuleTeam is the usual brand.

Bay leaves is supposed to work for ants, but keep fresh ones. Once they dry out, the ants will come back. Spray all entrances with the vinegar to help keep them out.

They're looking for food and water, if it's been super dry that might be why.

When I advertise 'available' items, I always get the people looking for freebies. I have to be sure to put a price on the ad.

It's been damp here (though still 2" under for May), I don't think they're looking for water - we had a bad ant problem last year and it was the wettest year on record. I've got to go pick up DS from school, will check the grocery store in town since warehouse store (BJ's) didn't have any.

Do you mean fresh (as in still pliable) bay leaves, or dried ones but new bottle from the store? They're starting to crawl on the cabinets now, and I'm sure they'll be in them soon (cereal, etc. is in Tupperware, but I hate the thought of them crawling all over the dishes).

I didn't put prices since I was just commenting on the "Tomato Planting Time!" article, didn't want to have the comment pulled by the editor. 1 person did say they weren't sure if I was selling or giving, the other didn't say anything but said she'd "love some plants, esp. heirlooms, since hers died 2 weeks ago". I emailed her back saying I was selling, and depending on where she was located, she could have planted 2 weeks ago, but if she planted in April in CT, we had 3 freezes in Litchfield County the last week of April so it was probably too cold, try again.

There are a lot of guys that keep bees that swear if you sprinkle cinnimon agound your hives it repels ants but have never tried that myself. I have problems with them in the house and considered doing it in the crawl but seems like a lot of effort. Borax will kill them - that's the active ingredient in the ant killers you buy (like Terro).

Tom

I sent an email with my signage.

Accordingly to one article, when they get real brittle, replace them.

They laughed at cinnamon on the carpet last year. I had to use vinegar. Bought borax tonight.

Didn't buy bay leaves - but you mean dried bay leaves, just as long as they're not brittle, right? Or do I have to find someone who grows bay here to get *really* fresh ones? Don't want borax in the kitchen.

Thanks for the descriptions/signs, Marla and Minnie.

Plant sale was't that great again,$30 more then last and a $10 TIP. There was a lady who ordered a 36/flat of Mountain Fresh at the last plant sale (I only had 3" pots that day) she came and picked them up and gave me $10 bc they are her favorite kind but can't find them no where. MF have been my BEST seller this season, I had to move 36 MT to my other GH to plant for myself. I have lots of Celebrity, I'll have to sell them cheap in about 2 wks. Last year I planted 160 tomato plants, planning on 250 (large)this year, and maybe around 50 cherry type (not counting the TT Baskets that I'll have left after 2 more wks of plant sales).
I used to buy plant tags (5 cents each) not any more. I make my own also, put it on a florist card-stake, place one in each flat.
Deb

Borax in kitchen, as long as you're not cooking with it, why not? I keep some in the kitchen, so I can find it. If you spread it on the countertop, just wash the countertop really good, use it, then put more out.

I used to use the mini blinds, until we ran out of broken blinds, this year, we bought the blank tags. Any tags of plants not sold, get re-used next year. I had a friend that would send them thru the dishwasher (alone) to be sure they're clean and sanitized.

Can you buy the florist card stakes? I'd like to use them for price tags.

The Terro says not to use in food prep areas. But I had DH put 1 of the leftover Terro traps from last year under the DW b/c that's one place they seem to be coming from now. He moved the range and I vacuumed behind it but there wasn't much there - don't know why they seem to be interested in that area too. Still don't know why they're in FR, but I read they don't like cayenne and I have lots dried pods from last year so I put 1 in each cabinet, 1 under range, 1 in slider track, etc. I told DH after he has breakfast, makes his lunch, etc. in the AM he has to spray and wipe the counter and not leave any crumbs for me to clean up an hour (or more) later after I get DD off to school. I should tell him to empty DW and put dirty dishes in it if I ran it overnight, too - he leaves his in sink and DS leaves his on counter. Though I grab those ASAP and rinse them, put them in sink too, and I haven't seen ants in DS's bowl yet, can't be too careful.

I have 1 plant tag with name in each flat, have tongue depressors I can put in each pot if need be. The tall florist stakes with index cards for price sound good, I'll see if I can find any.

Yeah Deb on the TIP!

I tried the Popsicle sticks and marked with permanent markers, but they bled. I think I with my grocery store's floral department to see if I can buy some, or maybe some that are might be broken.

I am going to use Avery labels slapped on the pots this year. It should work once I find the right template! I just printed them out but I guess I used the wrong one.

The Avery lables - tried that and they bleed just like the popcicle sticks. We found some waterproof vinyl labels online and they work great. I have some that we printed four years ago and they still look almost new (some even sat out over the winter). They make them either for ink jet or laser printers. We had to adjust the printer settings to reduce the amount of ink used (best setting is "draft" on my Cannon).

We use OL25 for plant stakes and OL8250 for our cider jugs.

I have an old Avery label program that came with a printer years ago that is pretty slick. All you need is the label product number and it provides the template for you. If you want to try it shoot me an E-mail and I'll send it to you.

henhousefarms@consolidated.net

Tom

Here is a link that might be useful: Weatherproof Matte Inkjet Labels

Windows also does label on Avery labels by choosing the number that is written on box. Just type your info into a Word document. Highlight, press mail murge, choose labels, choose avery number, print. Simple once you do it the first time or two.
Problem with them-IF your printer isn't one of the newer ones, the ink that it calls for WILL bleed. The more updated printers ink have taken care of alot of that, at least for black.
Another problem-they stick really well and are harder to remove from pots not sold.

I have an old version of Word and I don't think it has that feature.

I use the full-sheet labels cut into rounds for the top of my jam jars - they do stick really well, and even with the new printer they bleed. I just try not to get the tops of the jars wet before I sell them! The sheets are about $1 each though so would be pretty expensive for plant labels, since this is just getting rid of my extras I'm going to use the popsicle sticks with the names on them, once they plant them people can label them any way they want - and I'm going to ask them to return the pots at a later market if they will. Keeps them out of the landfill and then I have pots for next year, can return the 25 I borrowed from my cousin last year (and kept - I actually borrowed more than that but returned a bunch, I probably used 100+ pots last year).

Sorry to go OT again, but I found where the ants are coming in the FR slider where it meets the wall at the floor. It's carpeted - do I try to seal it up (without making a mess of the carpet) or do I let them come in and find the bait now that we've got it out?

I know my local florist, I get the 18"long ones with the angled card holding part, people can read it better. When the stakes break/shorter, I use clear packing tape to hold the stake(shorter) to the back side of each of my produce displays. For produce/price I print off "quarter fold card"(4"x5"-I cut to this size later after printing) print with what kind of produce and picture of produce (I take my own pic), leave 2 1/2" blank space at the bottom of each card guarter,cut card to size, laminate. Use a permanent marker to write your price per lb or bunch or bag (the blank 2 1/2 " part). Use a magic erasing pad/wet to remove price and change to fit your market. Use year after year. You can use the back to write whatever else you need. You may have to tape your card to the card holder on windy days.
Deb

Put the bait outside of the door, check to see if you can seal the slider from the outside before trying to seal inside.

Tom,

Those vinyl labels look pretty slick. I may consider getting them for myself but not for what I am selling.

Marla,

I don't have Word on my computer at home, but I retooled the labals here at work today and hopefully they will print all right. I did use the right template but the spacing was off.

~

TBH - I am not that concerned if the labels bleed once the customer has bought the pot. It just has to be legible until time of purchase. I will stick them on tonight. The tape idea is really good though. I may take that extra step.

For my own private labels I used mod podge and sealed it with nail polish.

I don't think I could live without Microsoft Word. Had to buy 2010 for classes this year, and found out that it has all kinds of new whistles and bells.

I have had some spacing issues, but I just print the first one on blank paper and compare to the labels. Sometimes I need to add a space or two to compensate.

I like to label the pot 1 time, and not worry about remembering more tags later.