I started selling Heirlooms spring of 07 started small sold enough to pay my heat bill and supplies on my small greenhouse that I use to start my own seedlings for my garden. I was on a lay off from work Jan. Feb March and April of 08 and went overboard with what I started last year got called back to work 7 days a week mid April and did not have the time to get out to sell plants and ended up throwing more away than I sold but I do have a regular customer base that comes back each year some that pre orders early Feb. from me .
Start Small build customer base don't go overboard and find things that no one else has My big seller is Hillbilly tomatoes sells out every year. Start small you should do fine. I sell more each year.

Last year (my first spring with my new GH) I planted every seed I could get my hands on, I also participated in several SASBE seed offers on GW and had some decent plants to start...and I had a very very high germ rate. so needless to say, I had a gazillion seedlings (ok, probably small potatoes compared to most you guys) but it was a lot for me :)

I advertised locally and even put out street side signs and sold a lot of plants. I still had more than I could plant so I gave them away on freecyle and craigslist.

this year, I'm going to get even more organized and will plan to sell at the Farmers market. Along with some strawberry plants that I"m ordering online to resell.

SOME People do look for the specialty stuff, but around here, just getting healthy "ordinary" plants that will grow in the south, for a fair price becomes marketable. The box stores sell their veggie plants for wayyyyy too much in my opinion, so it makes my 50 cent seedlings a good deal. Herbs I sold for $2 a container and that was usually 3-4 seedlings. All the box stores herbs and many of their single veggie 3 inch? containers were $3.49 EACH, of course these were bigger than mine, but we all know that they will grow to this size, so everyone was happy.

I would eventually love to do this full time...I'm starting out slow and like someone else mentioned, building a customer base, adding new plant options etc.

I sell out each spring of the following seedlings:
Snap peas, sugar peas, 'kentuky wonder' pole beans.
We sell rooting cuttings of blue berries and black berries as well.
There is a friend of mine who sold seedlings last year right next to my booth and she sold out of hers as well.
Good luck, start small!
Steven

Thanks for the info folks! I'm actually also considering selling some compost in packages- has anyone here seen this being sold at farmer's markets?

Canuck

Hello
Do you have the following plants?
1-Tomatillo-ground cherry (Physalis ixocarpa)
2-Cereus peruvianus
3-Pomegranate-wonderful (Punica granatum)
4-Jujube-(ziziphus jujuba)
5-Figs-(ficus carica) -black mission
6-Agave (mapisaga,salmiana, or marmorata)
7-Agave (angustifolia)
8-Agave (maximilliana) lechugilla
9- Mormon tea (ephedra viridis)
10-Sotol (dasylirion wheeleri)
11-Avocados hass
12-Passion fruit (passiflora edulis)
Please let me know how many you have, the prices and the sizes.
I need the smallest plants or bare roots, you can find.
or Let me know what you have for sale.

Thank you very much

I sell tomato,pepper and eggplant plants each yr at a local flea market. The best I can get for 3 to 4 inch tomato plants is 1.25 to 1.50. My gallons sell for $3.. Much better than the boxstores and my plants are very healthy..grown in compost and hardened off in full sun. I have many repeat customers from year to year. I grow hybrids and heirlooms. I really enjoy the whole process and my customers..but its long at 12hr days/7 days a week.I usually sell from Mid March to Mid June. Though I was planning on having a fall crop..until our record hot summer.
This year for the first time I sold 2 packs of seedlings I started..of cucumbers..bush and vining,several varieties of squash, okra, cantalope, and bush sugarbaby watermelons. and pumpkins at $1 per 2 pack. THe bush cucumbers and watermelons were very popular for folks with small yards..So there is a market for that.I also sold some 2 packs of burgandy okra..All in all..the 2 pack experiment worked well for me and I will do it again for 2011. I already havemy 2 packsand seeds ready. I will also try some 6 packs of squash and okra . I did have good luck with 4 inch pots of dill and cilantro also..Easy to grow from seed.
I strictly grow plants for market..from the veggies and herbs to heirloom bulbs and many annuals and perennials..by far my biggest call this year was for the veggie plants..I also did some hanging baskets..
Someone asked about selling compost..its really heavy to handle and takes a lot of space to haul..but what I took out in 50lb horse feed sacks..all sold..I have horses so I a great source of compost..the horsemanure with wood shavings and oak leaves makes a great compost.
Happy Gardening..And Marketing..
Casey..

Last year (09) was my first year at market. I was nervous because other than some cool weather items all I could sell was seedlings. I was lucky to find a woman who I used to buy plants from who was closing her business and selling her stuff. I bought trays, baskets, planters, etc...
I sold all kinds of seedlings. Tomatoes, cukes, eggplants, starwberry plants, peppers, and lots of heirlooms.

At the the beginning I had thought that if I made back my fee to be in the market I would be happy. At the end of the day I made $80 and was thrilled.

Andrea

Hi Canuckistani,
I have been selling transplants for about 4 years now. Every year I get better at it. I sell mostly heirlooms and charge about $1.50 for tomatoes, peppers and eggplant. I get started in January and have contracted with two greenhouses (at a very reasonable rate) so that I can grow my stuff from seed indoors. At the earliest possible date. I have had several customers ask if I was going to start including some heirloom cucumbers, squash or melons. Don't know, we'll have to see about that.

Teauteau,

Cucumbers and squash are very simple to sell. Seed, water, 10 days later start to sell. They come up so fast you don't want any more time. I don't sell alot, but I usually put them in 1801's maybe 3-4 cucumbers seed or 2-3 zucchini seeds and tell them to plant them as a "Hill".

I get $2 a pot for them. I start them every 2 weeks.

Jay

I did melons and cucumbers too and they were the easiest and did sell well.

I've been selling tomato plants at my farmers market for 3-4 years. This last year, 2010, I started out at $3 per 4" pot. I didn't sell out, but I also had 1,000 or more. I had started about 2,000 plants so that I could have my own plants for planting. I sell alot of tomatoes during harvest time.

This year, I'm planning on planting more in my fields, and having more plants to sell. We have had an increase in the community gardens, almost 4x over the last year. Fewer people are buying produce, but more plants to grow themselves.

I've only sold tomato, pepper and a few eggplant plants. I'm thinking about expanding into other veggie plants. I've grown basil, but the other herbs I haven't tried.

Marla

Hey Jay,
I don't know why I didn't think about that. I start my own squash and melons in cells every year with superb results. I guess I just wasn't thinking outside the box for selling other plants. I will give it a shot this year and you're right about how quickly the plants come up. Might bring more interested people up to my table. Marla, I think I could get more money for bigger plants too. I think the idea of selling basil is a great idea. Basil is easy to start and people in the Kansas City area are crazy-nuts for Basil. Great ideas! Thanx. Jay, we started making jams, jellies and pickled christophines and Mexican-style carrot escabeche this year, along with bakhlava to get our winter market sales going. We are going to try to put a high tunnel up this year for growing greens. The interest in winter greens around here is just INSANE! I enjoy reading your posts by the way. I've learned a lot from you. Canuckistani, another thing I do is buy unnamed starts of day lilies and hostas at about 100 for $100 and grow them out in the field and resell at $5 to $6 a pot. People generally don't mind that they're not named.

I would suggest doing bush cucumbers..there are large and pickling ones available.They can even be container grown. Also..Bush Sugarbaby watermelons were popular sellers for me this year.I also found a dwarf bush cantalope. People like small space veggies. I also did a few pumpkins in 2 packs..for kids to grow their own jack o lantern..I did warn them that they needed space to roam.
Also..Our area has a big hispanic population that attends our market.. Cilantro in 4 inch pots was very popular..Dill and cilantro are great growers..Also..Im going to try parsley this year..

Do you all sell in 3" or 4" pots the most? I am starting small and want to just get one size pot. I will be doing tomatoes and peppers this year. All heirlooms. Selling farmer's market, word of mouth (small town) and yard sales.

I had always sold in 3-4" pots for tomatoes and peppers, and then into larger pots when the 3-4" pots needed to be transplanted. This year, I'll be doing 1203s also.

Marla

Has anyone tried to take orders for plants? I'm thinking maybe Craigslist, since it's free, and asking if anyone is interested in letting me start their tomato plants for them. I would ask if they have a preference as far as variety and size of plant needed. Just thinking about making alittle more money, since I'm already starting my plants.

Marla

Being in Cincinnati, heirlooms have not really caught on yet - I tried two years and though I sold about $600 worth ($3 for plants in 3" containers) people wanted Beefsteak, Early Girl - names they were familiar with. This year I will go more with them but order in bulk for my garden.

Mike

Mike, I love when I have a customer ask for the 'heirloom' tomato. I have to ask them which one. Then I explain that there are hundreds of heirloom varieties. Boy does that confuse them.

After confusion subsides, I ask what color, what size of fruit, what are they using the fruit for (eating, canning, sauce or paste)? After all of that, I find them an old-fashion heirloom using their answers to the above questions.

I do explain to them, that I'm an heirloom also since I'm over 50 and in some definitions would qualify. Everyone just laughs, and it breaks the ice.

Marla

There are thousands of heirloom tomatoes actually!
I am at a loss as to what varieties will appeal to customers and which won't. I put an ad on Craig's list to pre-order seedlings to get a notion of which ones will be interesting to people. One customer replied. Maybe his selections will be what others like. I have about 55 tomatoes to choose from and 50 peppers and just 1 eggplant.

I put an ad on Craig's List last year and I know one person came to my stand specifically because she had seen the ad. I noticed other folks were putting ads on Craig's List too but indicating the varieties they had. I will include the variety names this year. Looking forward to it!

myfamilysfarm...a few years ago I ordered bare root strawberry from an online vendor. I did use my local Craigslist to take pre orders, I also posted in Atlanta's CL (100 miles away) and then shipped plants to those in that area. but most were for local pick up.

I sold almost 1200 plants. NONE were prepaid, so there was clearly a risk, but people came through, nearly 99% of pre orders came and got them and paid for them, it was a GREAT success. Plants that were not sold as bare root, I potted up in groups of 4 and sold them for $1 each. Most of those sold too.

I have also used CL to advertise seedlings, but didn't need to do preorders for those.

Thanks, I was wondering if it might be worth it. I sell alot of plants at my farmers market, but was thinking about getting those people that don't go to the market.

Marla

Not that it's important to your question...but the potted strawberries that were nice sized plants were $1 each not 4 for $1 :)

I skipped a year, but am going to get my greenhouse back online this season and am planning to do strawberries again. I also have blueberry plants that I bought from a local grower that I potted up and have sold over the past few years. Meanwhile, I get to pick all the berries they produced!! BONUS

The seedlings that I sold (and advertised for online) a single plant in a small styrofoam cup, were mostly 50-75 cents each, tomatoes were $1 and $2 for heirlooms (the longer I had them and the bigger they got the more the price went up), some of the more easy to germinate plants (squash,cukes melons) I sold 3 for $1 (especially if I had a surplus of them) and herbs were $2 and $3 each.

I have flower seedlings one of the plants is a tropical Canna's Lily and it is drought friendly full sun to 6 hours sun and you can collect the seedlings and have beautiful flowers all summer long. just clip as as you like and they make beautiful cuttings for inside. Oh also Angel trumpets and they are beautiful. I live in South Carolina the thrive here. Thanks have a great day.

oh Blue berries lots of in growth or seedlings ...interested let me know silverleafmaple@yahoo.com and yes I've silverleafmaples trees about 1 to 2 ft tall thanks and have a great day :)