For the past three years, I sold tomatoes, peppers and similar seedlings in 3" nursery trays for $3 each and did okay. This year, because I simply did not have room for nursery trays that would hold only 18 plants, I went with 4- and 6-packs.

Today was my first sale day and I heard people gasp about charging $3 per plant but also sold almost a flat (18) of them. I also hear how $3 for 4 plants was way more than some garden store up the road was selling plants for.

It may be because this was a different market, but I found most people didn't care about heirloom vs. hybrid - they only were interested in how big the fruit was. I sold more BHN 589 plants than I did Rutgers or Celebrity - varieties that are far better known.

I will never sell seedlings in 3" cells for a buck a piece, except maybe at the end of a season, and then only if someone wants a bunch of them. I actually had one person who thought he could buy four 4 packs for $3.

Selling seedlings must be like speed dating! Some people would come up and remark how great the plants looked, the next person would scold me because they are too small!

As Rickey Nelson crooned - You can't please everybody so you ought to please yourself!

Mike

What good is a 3,4,5,6 inch pot for tomatoes and peppers. They have to be transplanted anyway.
I sell my tomato plants in a standard 1020 flat with 1203 inserts (36 plants to a tray) for $14.00. That is around .40 cents per plant. Smaller amounts are .60 cents each or 4 for $2.00 (plus 3.00 for tray)
This $3.00 per 3 or 4 inch pot is price gouging and you should be not allowed to sell. What good is a 4 inch pot? you cant grow a tomato in it because you have to transplant it in the ground . . . so you wasted $3.00 for extra dirt and a ounce of plastic with a tomato plant worth about 50 cents.
I can see selling a basil or other spice in a small container because you probably do not have to transplant and can harvest at least something but not $3.00. . . maybe a dollar or so for a margarine container size.

Mark, in your area, things must be different. Either that or people are expecting lower prices at your stand.

Standard prices for my area are $3 for 4" pots. People want that size of pot for the developed roots. Smaller pots either will root bound the plant or the plant just don't have the root development that the larger pots have.

I have figured up my costs this year. I use a premium soil and good quality seeds. Each pot uses between 30-40cts of dirt, a few pennies for the seeds (depending upon variety), and lot of time, and electricity. My time is valuable to me, maybe not to others, and as it is I make well less than minimum wage (usually less than 1/2 min wage, if lucky).

I even sell to other vendors, because their plants are only 3-5" tall and are not ready to produce like my plants are.

Mark, prices for 1203 trays, here, are $20 per tray at the only professional greenhouse in town. Even Walmart, RuralKing, Lowes, HomeDepot and Menards are now selling the 3-4" pots for a minimum of $3 per pot.

Minnie, check prices at the above mentioned places and then mark yours alittle higher. Be sure to mention that your plants are locally grown, which means less chance of the blights coming in from down south. (check out late blight on the internet). Plus mention that the money that your customer spends is going to a local person, not some company several states away.

I sold my basil at the same price as my tomato and pepper plants. Your peppers should be the same price as the tomatoes. I did sell my zucchini and cucumber plants at 1/2 price of tomato and pepper prices. I was getting $1.75 for them and $3.50 for the tomato, basil, eggplant, and pepper plants at my former market.

Now of course, when I go to the lower end market, my prices will need to drop, but I won't go less than $2 for any plant.

Marla

Marla, a 7 inch transplant will get ripe tomatoes just as fast as a big transplant such as 10-20 inches or more.
My 1203 inserts do not get rootbound because I plant them at or near a 4-6 week time and they are perfect healthy plants under 8 inches. Timing is everything as to when to seed and transplant when your plants are 3 month old or older at transplant you are in trouble. (overstressed and poor yields)

Mark,

Around here, it's the customer mentality that drives many sales. I've seen guys absolutely ecstatic as they walk out the door with that eight inch tomato plant sitting in a six inch pot, tied to a small stake and a flower on the plant. They were thrilled to have to pay ONLY $8.99 for it. It was the same thing for me - some buyers wanted the 3" cells because the plants were taller and had more leaves and thicker stems. Then there are those who would rather spend the $1.25 for four, 3.5" plants up the road a quarter-mile at a feed store.

In the previous two years, I've sold almost every plant (except cherry and yellow - I always transplant too many of those) and never dropped my price below $3. Yeah, I could have sold them for $1.50 each but I would not have sold more plants, only cut my profits in half.

Mike

Some of my oversized plants have produced ripe full size tomatoes 1 month after the person bought them. I sell what the customers want, just like you. My customers want larger potted plants and are willing to pay much more.

I have several customers that request their plants the fall before just so that they can get the large plants. They have bought from several other people, including the smaller transplants, but keep returning to me and my large plants.

Marla

Yep there are a lot of different ways! I start my peps and tomatoes in 4 packs. Peps in Feb and toms in March. I transplant them in April to paper cups for me or 4inch pots to sell. That way I can put them in deeper and develop a large root ball. I use sifted compost from last fall for transplanting so it is free. The 4" pots are cheap at bulk rates. That size plants sold quite well at market last season. I did do a patio pot of a nearly full grown patio tomato in a nice ornamental pot and no one would buy it for weeks. So that did not work for me. I went to one nursery today (been looking for a few red onion sets to finish my onion beds and they are horrible and moldy everywhere!) and priced stuff. They had no medium sized tomatoes. Only little baby ones for $1 and big patio pots with fruit for $13. They had small peppers for $1 too. It would be very cost ineffective for me to sell peppers started in February for $1! But mine are beautiful this season. Last season I had aphids on them and this year they are perfect.
I usually do a tier pricing and drop the price after 2 or 3 weeks. Just wanted to hear how others price things. For those who ordered from Craig's List I am giving them a deal for pre-ordering and giving them 7 for $20.

Minnie, even if I would use my own 'free' compost, I use the amount that it would cost me if I had to buy everything. I believe that if a professional greenhouse is pricing a 4" pot for $3 then we should also. I'm not talking about the big box stores' prices, but I think they're about that price also.

Congrats on your peppers, if you get aphids, you know soap works well on them, right?

Marla

I price plants at what I need to make a little profit. I do not look at the garden center prices. Now I am not over $2.00 per plant for Camelot Peppers & Mountain Fresh Tomatoes in 4 inch pot to name a few and Pansy's in 4 cells and many others (putunias etc). If I have something the customer can use a flat of 32 or 48 for $16.00 I let it go and have $16.00 to reinvest in my business and have a returning customer. I use PMX soiless mix on all growing mediums that I sell, with
Sol u able fertilizer

I sell my pepper and tomatoes for $2.00 each. They are transplanted into 2401 trays. I also offer, 3 for $5 and 10 for $15. If someone wants a whole tray, I will sell them for $20-$24 depending on variety.

Last year I had 1801's and I moved down a size to 2401. I like this size. You have a good sized root ball and they are easy to handle.

Most of my customers only grow 4 to 6 plants and they want them all different kinds, so they don't want 4 packs. I didn't even use any this year. Last year I ended up cutting up four packs to sell individual plants.

Jay

I have numerous varity of plants mainly spider and hens and biddies (sullculents) what can I sell them for and where is a good place to get inexpensive pots to sell them in.? Thanks,

Diane

I sell my mostly heirloom tomato plants in four inch square pots grown in Pro-Mix BX with biofungicide potting soil to which I add extra pumice for $3 each or four for $11. This year I grew 26 different varieties, and my customers say I have the best plants in the area. I do a lot of little extras like giving the plants plenty of room to grow in so they can grow nice and bushy instead of tall and lanky, taking them outside on my patio in the daytime to harden them off and bringing them back inside if the temperature will drop below 45 degrees and putting them under my powerful 21 fluorescent tube light setup, rotating them into a different positions everyday so they don't develop a lean, watering only with pure rainwater I collect in barrels, fertilizing with my own custom blends of soluble fertilizers, etc., and the effort shows in the most stocky, healthy, dark green plants in the area. I get lots of repeat customers who drive 30 miles to buy my plants. I usually try to sell my plants when they are in the six to twelve inch high range.
I have a lot of competition from the Fullerton Arboretum which typically sells 40,000 to 60,000 plants during their annual sale which is billed as the biggest sale west of the Mississippi, plus the horticultural classes at local colleges are also a competition, but everyone who sees their plants and mine say they wish they would have seen mine first and bought from me, but they have the advantage of being able to take out full page ads in the newspaper plus getting a lot of free publicity. The area also has many big box stores selling tomato plants, plus a few hobby gardeners like myself.

Californian, Alot of what you do, is the same as I, and I charge about the same also. Same with repeat customers. People respect good grown plants, and are willing to pay for them. Some of my plants get much bigger, but those usually go into containers for patio type of tomatoes.

Marla

I was short on mature basil and cherry tomatoes so I bought 2 each from the vendor next to me. They are tall but obviously root bound because I have to water them 3 times a day before getting in the ground. The mix completely repels water. Mine are in compost and have a 4" root ball although not as tall and green as his. He only charged $2 per plant and mine were $3.50 or 3/$10. Now that it will be June I will mark the plants -pepper and tomato - down to $2 to get rid of the rest. I must say they look quite good this year. I expect the peppers to do extremely well this season.