New to Market Gardening

sunflower1948

19 years ago

My husband and I will be growing produce/flowers for Market Gardening next year for the first time. We've plowed a 100x100' section for the Market Garden this fall and will be dividing it into 2x25' beds in the spring. Our current veggie beds are all raised beds and we will continue using them for the root crops.

We are planning to start with the basics ... lettuces, radishes, onions, peas, carrots, spinach, beans, squash, tomatoes, cucumbers, new potatoes, etc. We have several raised flower beds and will also provide fresh flowers as they are available. We don't use any chemicals, only organic fertilizers. We will be using straw as mulch on the walkways to keep down weeds, and rely heavily on compost to amend the beds. We plan to replant on a weekly/biweekly basis to keep a steady supply of produce throughout the growing season. We have 12 perennial flower raised beds currently and will be planting lots of sunflowers and other annuals to add to boquets.

I've talked with other vendors at the market and there are very few who provide fresh produce, so I'm excited about the potential.

We would be interested in any feedback from others who grow for market ... what were your best sellers, are there things you've grown you would forget about another year, pricing, displaying, etc.

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Comments (4)

mark_brown
19 years ago
You would likely benefit from the newslettter "Growing for market" they also have a web site growingformarket.com

Mark
ohiorganic
19 years ago
get a hold of the new organic grower by Eliot Coleman. lots of great ideas for the new and experienced market grower.

Good luck
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jayreynolds
19 years ago
"I've talked with other vendors at the market and there are very few who provide fresh produce, so I'm excited about the potential."

Here are several things you could think about.

You can grow what others are growing(a proven market exists, but competitive), or you could do something different than anyone else(more risk/less competition).

You can grow high volume/low value crops, or you can grow high value/low volume crops.

You can grow low labor input or high labor input crops.

You can grow seasonal crops(but everybody else is trying to sell their's too), or try to grow things out of season(better prices, less competition).

You can specialize in one or just a few crops(perhaps your soil is best for those, some people grow only salad stuff, some grow only garlic), or grow a large assortment(gives you a wide range of harvest possibilities, rotations, and customer appeal).

It's possible to do a little of all of the above, or to change over time, but in several years of doing this, those are some general considerations all market gardeners will face.

Nothing beats experience, and I'd suggest seeking out anyone who has grown and sold in your area, even in towns similar but farther away, and picking their brains. Even retired market gardeners can help in basic ways, though some of what they know may be dated.

Read the old pages of this forum and you'll learn a lot.
hmeadq
19 years ago
Be prepared to learn from your failures, and make sure you get excited about your successes.

Make sure you get into the best possible markets. I have been to a few where there are few produce vendors BUT there was a reason why, no one was buying or only wanted to buy extremely low prices items 4 cucmbers for a dollar ect.

If you visit a market and hear a lot of people saying things along the lines of "I can get it cheaper at the grocrey store!" that might not be the best market.

Remember you are selling an experience and a value added (your knowledge.) Also make sure your table looks as good as porssible and rememeber abundance sells, a half empty table stays half empty, so don't try to many diffrent varieties. That was our biggest mistake. 15 types of tomatoes was to many, becasue we did not grow enough of any one. This year we are growing 4 times as many as that first year and are only doing 8 varieties, which we still think is to many...