Shop Products
Houzz Logo Print
hanselmanfarms

selling veggies seeds?

hanselmanfarms
14 years ago

Has anyone tried to buy larger quantities of seeds and then re-sell them in smaller quantities at a farmer's market?

I'm trying to get ideas for next year.

Comments (7)

  • jrslick (North Central Kansas, Zone 5B)
    14 years ago

    I never have, but I should. People always ask were I get seeds from? I guess I could probably sell a few seeds of cucumbers, squash, or melons. I would think that people would prefer to buy plants for tomatoes and peppers.

    Neat idea.

  • hanselmanfarms
    Original Author
    14 years ago

    I know I can buy larger quantities as much lower prices. I usually do because I know alot of seeds have a long shelf life. Tomatoes have about 7 years, I have been lucky to still have good seeds for that long.

    Other vendors tell me that I'm causing less sales of tomatoes when I sell my tomato plants. Me, I think sales are sales, if they don't buy from me, they'll buy from Walmart. We only have 1-2 bulk seed sales places left in my town. All the others have went out of business, they were also nursery centers.

    Did you get all this rain, or did it go south of you? They are calling for 4" in the next 24-36 hours, for me.

  • sandy0225
    14 years ago

    We do that, but we only resell them at "home" at the greenhouse. We also sell hart's seeds. The reason being is lots of people around here still garden pretty heavy and want bulk seeds of green beans, corn, turnips, etc.
    We aren't allowed to sell anything at our farmers market that wasn't grown locally and their definition is Indiana, ohio, illinois, kentucky only.
    So seeds are a no-no there.
    It doesn't cut my plant sales either. People who want to start tomatoes from seed aren't the same ones who start tomatoes from plants. So I sell my heirloom tomato seeds here too. Some of the people who buy tomato seeds come back in May and buy plants with a new respect for those plants too! They say it's so hard to start them from seed....

  • jrslick (North Central Kansas, Zone 5B)
    14 years ago

    We have missed all the rain and snow. We got plenty of cold though.

    I didn't notice a change in numbers of tomatoes I sold this year. I started selling tomato plants as the local greenhouse had a plant problem last year. Their plants "Failed to thrive" in a four pack, 2 would grow and the 3rd one would grow a little and the 4th one would die. Or they all would die. They were aware of this after the fact, but did not know what it was.

    I sold several 100 plants, not tons, but they grew great for my customers. My selling point was these were varieties that grow well in this area (Grew them all myself first).

    My big seller was my hanging baskets of tomatoes. They were the tumbling tom variety. People really liked them. They were also really easy to grow, if you have the space for hanging baskets.

    It was fun to sell them tomato plants in May, sell them tomatoes out of my High Tunnel at the end of June-July, their tomatoes started to come in and then they die and I start selling them tomatoes again in September.

  • myfamilysfarm
    14 years ago

    I was wondering if there was any regulations, what state are you in? I'm in Indiana. Do you know where I would find out more regarding the regulations?

    My farmers market doesn't have a restriction as far as 'only grown locally'. We have even had bananas sold there.

  • calliope
    14 years ago

    I really don't. I am a commercial greenhouse operator and only sell to other wholesale accounts. But, one of my accounts is a hardware store with a small greenhouse and they do a brisk seed sale repackaging bulk seeds. She and I were talking one day on the rather stiff guidelines she must follow to stay legal. I'm in Ohio.