Nolt's is the cheapest place I have found for row cover and tunnel supplies and they have fast service as well. Farm Tek is expensive. A friend got a high tunnel about a month before I got mine. His was from farm tek and cost at least $1000 and the shipping was also a lot more (I live in western OH and he lives in Eastern PA) and the Farm Tek tunnel is not as solidly built as ours from CVS supply (the company Nolt's uses for high tunnels).

There are at least 15 high tunnel companies out there. And i would say a high tunnel is not necessary for the first couple of years one does market farming as there is so much else to learn and we are talking at least $5K to buy one plus the cost of putting it up (or a few weeks with one person doing it). Row covers and low tunnels will do a lot at a fraction of the cost of a commercial high tunnel.

And I strongly suggest getting good at succession planting before getting into season extension as i have found succession planting is where the real money is made and it is very cheap to do, you just have to be organized

clinchbilly ... where is your farm?

Its in north east tn

You have a supplier in Cookesville. They are nice and I've bought from them before. You can pick up and save alot on shipping. Growers Supply. They are online. You would probably save more on shipping than anything else. I believe they will custom build.

Thanks for all the help and advice, few more questions any body raises christmas trees would it b a good long term investment, are there anybody that grows seedless watermelons, is it a hard crop to raise?

I haven't figured out the seedless watermelon thing, but sandy soil is helpful for melons.

Christmas trees take more work than you expect. Each year you have to shape the trees. We have a few farms here in Indiana. One has been doing for years. They take over the 'hot dog stand' about NOW and continue til Christmas. Many acres each year and only cut a few of each, several varieties (since people can't want the same thing as their neighbors).

I know christmas trees don't like their feet wet got a hill that's too steep to plow trying to figure out something for that spot be enough room for a couple 100.

Might work, all of what I know, is they are planted on flat ground that doesn't grow well. My dad always said 'a pine will grow anywhere, it doesn't need dirt', he meant good fertile farm ground. We only have 1 on the entire farm, and that's in a fence row.

Like a lot of plants, Christmas trees were a much better investment 25 years ago. last 10 years or so, the price has not changed much while the expenses have soared. If you have money to waste for 8-10 years to buy the tree, fertilize, spray, trim, mow and keep buck deer away, then go for it. And hope the economy turns around before you have to sell them. Plus, a lot will depend on your area. If you have other tree farms for competition, large city vs rural area, etc.

I'm not wanting to go in too deep just a couple 100 trees. There's no other tree farms within a 100 miles, thought it might be worth a try.

totally recommend growers supply in Cookeville if you need supplies. my family on moms side lives in Byrdstown and so when they were down there visiting I had them pick up supplies for me. Great people. Ditto on Nolt's, our local amish deal with supplies that they get through Nolt's. I suppose they are Amish too? anyway their prices are really good, and I get most of my supplies there now through our Wayne county supply, Jonas Esh, who is amish that i met through the Wayne county produce auction.
I would think tree farm could be pretty hard sell because everyone I know down there just goes and cuts cedar trees for free. Just my 2 cents worth. if you want to plant trees, maybe some variety fruits like apples, asian pears, nectarines, peaches, plums, grapes, cherries.... You could make more $, just get apples that are cedar rust resistant.

How much earlier can you start planting under frst blankets and row covers?

At least 2 weeks, which makes a big difference. Possibly more if you use a black mulch/plastic on the ground to plant into.

Also transplanting everything really helps getting crops earlier in the spring. You get a better spacing. It also takes less time in the ground to get a crop. We transplant the usual tomatoes and peppers, but we also transplant zucchini, cucumbers, lettuce, kale, chard, herbs(cilantro and dill).

Also another idea is green onions. You can direct seed scallions seed or just buy white onions sets, keep in fridge until ready to plant. You can plant some every week or two and have a steady supply all year long. Everyone has them in the spring, but summer and fall they can be scarce at our markets. We sell them for 6 for $1. Kinda cheap, but we will sell 20-40 a market and they don't take up much space.

Jay

before i had hoophouses i grew early tomatoes (oregon spring)in plastic under row covers. around here (7a)i set them out after 4/15. i would take the row covers off 6/1. it gets frosty here until the end of may. i would have ripe tomatoes to sell in early july when there was little competition.
if you have access to a tractor you can grow a lot of potatoes on your own.
if you have a place that gets late afternoon shade in the summer you can grow lettuce/salad mix when most other vendors don't have it.

Sandy where is this store? I am in Preble County Ohio so just over the boarder from you. Do you sell at the Richmond FM? I got my start at that FM.

Thanks again.

I turned about acer and a half of sod ground yesterday, thinking of planting it in watermelons, muskmelons and pumpkins any thoughts or advice? Never went this big in any type of planting overwhelming when I look at the field.

All those things take lots of ground, divide the 1 1/2 acre by 3, and plant come late spring. 1/2 acre of each isn't much when you think of it. Plant some different varieties, on pumpkins (sizes, from mini to larger). I won't plant the huge ones, too heavy for me.

Plant mostly red watermelons, and a few yellow/orange flesh ones.

Muskmelons, cantalopes, plant in succession, at least 3-4 plantings about 2-3 weeks apart.

Enjoy.

not sure where you farm...here you almost have to use plastic mulch to help warm the ground to get melons during august. small melons sell better at my market than big ones.
before i planted i would want to know the market for these crops.

Id like to use plastic, haven't got no way of watering. The few times I went to market last year the only watermelons were huge, heard a lot of people said they'd like to had one but they were too big. My plans are to grow small and mid size melons. The pumpkins I'm goin to try the weird and odd, everybody grows plain everyday pumpkins!

Id like to use plastic, haven't got no way of watering. The few times I went to market last year the only watermelons were huge, heard a lot of people said they'd like to had one but they were too big. My plans are to grow small and mid size melons. The pumpkins I'm goin to try the weird and odd, everybody grows plain everyday pumpkins!

I found black landscape fabric, it does let some of the water thru. It's like really heavy shade cloth. Weird and Odd doesn't sell for us.

Id like to use plastic, haven't got no way of watering. The few times I went to market last year the only watermelons were huge, heard a lot of people said they'd like to had one but they were too big. My plans are to grow small and mid size melons. The pumpkins I'm goin to try the weird and odd, everybody grows plain everyday pumpkins!

With growing melons, you need to know your customers wants and needs. I grow and sell small melons. The biggest are the 8 to 10 pound range. I have been really happy with Starlight, Sunshine, New Orchid, Sorbet Swirl all from Johnny's. Sweet Favorite is good too, it is a oblong watermelon. I have since dropped Sorbet Swirl as I never saw a real demand and I always had some left over from each market. So I have a Red, Orange and Yellow now.

About Cantaloupe, I again like to grow the smaller personal sized ones. Sarah's Choice, Wrangler from Johnny's do good for me. Another favorite is Tasty Bites. They are very small, about 1.5 to 2 pounds, but they smell and taste wonderful. I would sell 2 to 3 30 gallon tubs full of them a market for 3 or 4 weeks straight. I was charging $1 to $2 each for them. They are slow to sell at first, but then the customer try them and taste them and they come back for more.

Smaller melons are easier to handle, actually produce more and are better suited for smaller families or couples.

Just my two cents!

Jay

One variety of cantaloupe that is a good seller (again after people try them) is Ice Cube or Sugar Cube. Little but tasty.

It is surprising how well the black plastic mulch holds in water. I used to use it with sprinklers and just poke a few holes. Now I have drip tape under.

Anyone tried growing seedless watermelons, arr they hard to grow and are they worth the extra money, what types of pumpkins sell best.

i find it hard to get seedless watermelon to germinate, and the seed is very expensive. i used to grow vanessa seedless personal size watermelons and they produced and sold well but i can't find the seed anymore. i used to grow pumpkins but loading and unloading them for the market gets old quickly, and most people like the family experience of pick your own. i just grow some pie pumpkins now and sell them like winter squash.

I know there's a lot of factors that can swing it e ither way but guessiment how many watermelons and muskmelons get on half acre?

" Posted by boulderbelt 5/6 (My Page) on
Sun, Nov 17, 13 at 4:20

I have found if someone actually asks for a certain variety as in "are those blue Lake beans?" I always say yes as almost no human you will sell beans too can tell the difference"

lieing to a customer is the most disrespectful thing we can do as market farmers. leave that to the corporate industrial producers

as for the OP, no one can really answer your question unlkess they sell the same area and markets as you. other than to say have a nice spread of high quality produce and then have enough stuff that is not directly competing with the rest of the growers. but it is more difficult than that. unless you plan to specialize is a few things, you need to have certain staple type crops. the things everyone wants. you need to have a nice diversified spread to bring people to your booth. so you need to look at what people want in your area. for example here in the north west, no one sells okra and i could put some in the hoop house and bring it to market. but folks around here dont even know what it is. you dont see it any where so it probably would not sell well even if you were the only one to have it. this year we planted corn in the hoop house and had it to market a good 3-4 weeks before anyone else. we sold it for $2 an ear! and sold out with no complaints about the price. a couple years ago another local farm grew zucchini in the hoophouse and made a killing in the early season when no one else had it. now a lot of growers are doing that and the market share is not so great. you dont need to grow early to have things others done. if you cant swing the hoop house cost, think about other things that people want at different times of the season. it gets warm enough here in the sumer that growing good lettuce and salad mix is tough and a lot of farmers dont even try. here if you can grow good lettuce and salad with successions, over head water and the right cultivators, you can bring a lot of folks to your booth. the cool thing here is that by doing this people come to the booth for the salad or heads of lettuce and then tend to also buy the other stuff on display.

it takes a lot of work and research to find out what people want in your area and to figure out what others are selling so you can find things people want and that you can provide at a time when th emarket is not flooded.

" Posted by boulderbelt 5/6 (My Page) on
Sun, Nov 17, 13 at 4:20

I have found if someone actually asks for a certain variety as in "are those blue Lake beans?" I always say yes as almost no human you will sell beans too can tell the difference"

lieing to a customer is the most disrespectful thing we can do as market farmers. leave that to the corporate industrial producers

as for the OP, no one can really answer your question unlkess they sell the same area and markets as you. other than to say have a nice spread of high quality produce and then have enough stuff that is not directly competing with the rest of the growers. but it is more difficult than that. unless you plan to specialize is a few things, you need to have certain staple type crops. the things everyone wants. you need to have a nice diversified spread to bring people to your booth. so you need to look at what people want in your area. for example here in the north west, no one sells okra and i could put some in the hoop house and bring it to market. but folks around here dont even know what it is. you dont see it any where so it probably would not sell well even if you were the only one to have it. this year we planted corn in the hoop house and had it to market a good 3-4 weeks before anyone else. we sold it for $2 an ear! and sold out with no complaints about the price. a couple years ago another local farm grew zucchini in the hoophouse and made a killing in the early season when no one else had it. now a lot of growers are doing that and the market share is not so great. you dont need to grow early to have things others done. if you cant swing the hoop house cost, think about other things that people want at different times of the season. it gets warm enough here in the sumer that growing good lettuce and salad mix is tough and a lot of farmers dont even try. here if you can grow good lettuce and salad with successions, over head water and the right cultivators, you can bring a lot of folks to your booth. the cool thing here is that by doing this people come to the booth for the salad or heads of lettuce and then tend to also buy the other stuff on display.

it takes a lot of work and research to find out what people want in your area and to figure out what others are selling so you can find things people want and that you can provide at a time when th emarket is not flooded.

" Posted by boulderbelt 5/6 (My Page) on
Sun, Nov 17, 13 at 4:20

I have found if someone actually asks for a certain variety as in "are those blue Lake beans?" I always say yes as almost no human you will sell beans too can tell the difference"

lieing to a customer is the most disrespectful thing we can do as market farmers. leave that to the corporate industrial producers

as for the OP, no one can really answer your question unlkess they sell the same area and markets as you. other than to say have a nice spread of high quality produce and then have enough stuff that is not directly competing with the rest of the growers. but it is more difficult than that. unless you plan to specialize is a few things, you need to have certain staple type crops. the things everyone wants. you need to have a nice diversified spread to bring people to your booth. so you need to look at what people want in your area. for example here in the north west, no one sells okra and i could put some in the hoop house and bring it to market. but folks around here dont even know what it is. you dont see it any where so it probably would not sell well even if you were the only one to have it. this year we planted corn in the hoop house and had it to market a good 3-4 weeks before anyone else. we sold it for $2 an ear! and sold out with no complaints about the price. a couple years ago another local farm grew zucchini in the hoophouse and made a killing in the early season when no one else had it. now a lot of growers are doing that and the market share is not so great. you dont need to grow early to have things others done. if you cant swing the hoop house cost, think about other things that people want at different times of the season. it gets warm enough here in the sumer that growing good lettuce and salad mix is tough and a lot of farmers dont even try. here if you can grow good lettuce and salad with successions, over head water and the right cultivators, you can bring a lot of folks to your booth. the cool thing here is that by doing this people come to the booth for the salad or heads of lettuce and then tend to also buy the other stuff on display.

it takes a lot of work and research to find out what people want in your area and to figure out what others are selling so you can find things people want and that you can provide at a time when th emarket is not flooded.

" Posted by boulderbelt 5/6 (My Page) on
Sun, Nov 17, 13 at 4:20

I have found if someone actually asks for a certain variety as in "are those blue Lake beans?" I always say yes as almost no human you will sell beans too can tell the difference"

lieing to a customer is the most disrespectful thing we can do as market farmers. leave that to the corporate industrial producers

as for the OP, no one can really answer your question unlkess they sell the same area and markets as you. other than to say have a nice spread of high quality produce and then have enough stuff that is not directly competing with the rest of the growers. but it is more difficult than that. unless you plan to specialize is a few things, you need to have certain staple type crops. the things everyone wants. you need to have a nice diversified spread to bring people to your booth. so you need to look at what people want in your area. for example here in the north west, no one sells okra and i could put some in the hoop house and bring it to market. but folks around here dont even know what it is. you dont see it any where so it probably would not sell well even if you were the only one to have it. this year we planted corn in the hoop house and had it to market a good 3-4 weeks before anyone else. we sold it for $2 an ear! and sold out with no complaints about the price. a couple years ago another local farm grew zucchini in the hoophouse and made a killing in the early season when no one else had it. now a lot of growers are doing that and the market share is not so great. you dont need to grow early to have things others done. if you cant swing the hoop house cost, think about other things that people want at different times of the season. it gets warm enough here in the sumer that growing good lettuce and salad mix is tough and a lot of farmers dont even try. here if you can grow good lettuce and salad with successions, over head water and the right cultivators, you can bring a lot of folks to your booth. the cool thing here is that by doing this people come to the booth for the salad or heads of lettuce and then tend to also buy the other stuff on display.

it takes a lot of work and research to find out what people want in your area and to figure out what others are selling so you can find things people want and that you can provide at a time when th emarket is not flooded.

" Posted by boulderbelt 5/6 (My Page) on
Sun, Nov 17, 13 at 4:20

I have found if someone actually asks for a certain variety as in "are those blue Lake beans?" I always say yes as almost no human you will sell beans too can tell the difference"

lieing to a customer is the most disrespectful thing we can do as market farmers. leave that to the corporate industrial producers

as for the OP, no one can really answer your question unlkess they sell the same area and markets as you. other than to say have a nice spread of high quality produce and then have enough stuff that is not directly competing with the rest of the growers. but it is more difficult than that. unless you plan to specialize is a few things, you need to have certain staple type crops. the things everyone wants. you need to have a nice diversified spread to bring people to your booth. so you need to look at what people want in your area. for example here in the north west, no one sells okra and i could put some in the hoop house and bring it to market. but folks around here dont even know what it is. you dont see it any where so it probably would not sell well even if you were the only one to have it. this year we planted corn in the hoop house and had it to market a good 3-4 weeks before anyone else. we sold it for $2 an ear! and sold out with no complaints about the price. a couple years ago another local farm grew zucchini in the hoophouse and made a killing in the early season when no one else had it. now a lot of growers are doing that and the market share is not so great. you dont need to grow early to have things others done. if you cant swing the hoop house cost, think about other things that people want at different times of the season. it gets warm enough here in the sumer that growing good lettuce and salad mix is tough and a lot of farmers dont even try. here if you can grow good lettuce and salad with successions, over head water and the right cultivators, you can bring a lot of folks to your booth. the cool thing here is that by doing this people come to the booth for the salad or heads of lettuce and then tend to also buy the other stuff on display.

it takes a lot of work and research to find out what people want in your area and to figure out what others are selling so you can find things people want and that you can provide at a time when th emarket is not flooded.

Kenny what is your problem with me? you have found several of my posts and have pointed out things you do not like, why? Have I made you angry for some reason?

I can see you have experience in this line of work, perhaps as much as i have , 20 years. but so far I am not impressed with your postings. perhaps lay off the personal attacks of people you do not know.

It depends on the situation. I grow OP white turnips not hybrid hakurei but if someone asks if they are hakurei and I don't have time to get into it I might nod yes. But there is no problem with saying, 'no, but very similar'. People are always guessing things wrong so I usually grant that whatever it is in indeed very close to their guess or 'like a sister to it' if it is in the same family. People tend to think there are about 4 squashes so I explain that this squash is a 'sister to' buttercup or whatever. It is never a good idea to be caught in a lie but it is best to not make the customer feel stupid.

i don't lie to customers. whats the point? if it ain't what they want i don't want to sell it to them.

I am not a market grower but I do shop sometimes at the FM.
Most people at the stands are REGULAR HELPERS AND not the grower/farmers and if you asked them what "that" is, often they do not have the right answer. Case in point: I was buying heirloom tomatoes. I asked the lady "What is the name ?". She said "heirloom". It was already marked "heirloom" that is why I was buying them.
You don't need to provide too much information about what you sell. WHAT YOU SEE IS WHAT YOU GET.

My 'helpers' were my family and if they didn't know the answer, I was there to answer for them. I will NOT send anyone to market until they have worked with me for several weeks. That lady would've not worked for me.

This reply explains lots of your posts. You look at things differently than what the growers do. Sometimes it's good to see the customer's view.

The few times i went to farmers market the only thing lies i seen was people not growing their own produce, one guy,his produce was waxed its a wander it didnt have the stickers on it.

When selling salad mix how do you sell it by pound or bag and how much?

i sell by the bag but weigh the bags when i fill them. $10/lb. i put 1/4 lb in a 10x14 bag.

I once allowed the customers fill their own bag for a certain 'fair' price. Didn't have any problems, except 1 gal. She stuffed 2 lbs in a T-shirt bag. She did it, so if she ruined it (I'm sure she did) it was her problem. I had so much that needed to be gone, I wasn't out anything.

Some vendors at SOME market do sell from commercial brokers (lots wax immediately after picking). Me, I buy from personal farmers. I'm not able to do the farming/gardening like I used to. I know my growers and am more than happy to get the growers their credit. If someone wants to meet my grower, I give them directions to their farm. Most of the time, the grower sells at the same price or higher than I do. I get quantity prices, so I can pass on good prices. I also take any losses from my decisions.

The market i was at that was one of their few rules, that you had to grow what you sold.

and how was that enforced?

Ok, I wanta make clear, as I have stated on here before, this is going to be my first year selling at market. I have sold to individuals in the past, and have basically "hung around" farmers market's for some time. I have a close friend who is a market gardener for almost all his income and I do a lot of work for the biggest destination type farm around here. I have also been self employed for 20 years. I am not rich, but I have managed to stay off food stamps.

I wanta say I see some of the worst business people in gardeners that I have ever seen, and I am not a business man, but I do know my weaknesses. Please, nobody take these statements personal, for I do not mean to offend, they are only observations.

1) Never lie to a customer. It WILL bite ya in your booty

2) Always listen to your customers,(even when it hurts). What doesn't make sense or work for you now, may at least explain something later

3) Always know what ya sell. I plan on specializing in heirloom tomatoes, and I will know what they are, how they taste and maybe even a little bit of history. If I can not be at the market, there will be a cheat sheet for whoever is there.

4) Market yourself, and your product. Even here, where there is not enough farmers to supply veggies to every one who wants them, there is always somewhere else for the customer to go.

5) If you are gonna charge a higher price then the stores, make sure you provide a higher quality product. I don't grow sweet corn, because I can not grow it better then the stores for close to the same price.

6) To the original poster- you might try baby steps instead of one big bite. If I was you, I would sew my hillside to a cover crop like white clover in the spring, and then plant pumpkins and maybe winter squash in late spring or early summer. I would also concentrate on succession planting, and making sure you have veggies when your customers want them. It's much better to do a few things well in this business, then to do a bunch terrible.

Also, I get the impression that gardening is somewhat new to ya. There is nothing wrong with that, but take notes, read and learn. Gardening is the most simple yet complex hobby/business you can pursue. Make sure you don't make decisions today, that will handicap you tomorrow.

Just my opinion, and a few observations. I am being a huge hypocrite giving advice to most of you, but maybe for the new guy it might help. It is only coming from a business point of view.

It wasnt enforced, one guy had been ran off couple times but came back.

Thanks hillbillymick, good advice, im not new to gardeing, just new to growing on a large scale, i try to be honest in everything i do.

What are the best kinds of tomatoes to grow for market, I've always grown heirloom because their my favorite but they don't always look good, and in selling looks is everything.

What are the best kinds of tomatoes to grow for market, I've always grown heirloom because their my favorite but they don't always look good, and in selling looks is everything.

I found for my market, the Mountain series or Big Beef sells best.

i grow heirlooms and some bhn hybrid varieties...bhn589, bhn1021, bhn 871. these hybrids are all determinants and put out a load of marketable fruit. if you plant all at the same time with different maturity dates it'll keep you going for a while.