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tawnyap_gw

Do any of you grow mums?

Tawnyap
19 years ago

Do you grow them in pots or in the ground?

Sell them wholesale and/or retail?

I have an opportunity to try this and wanted to hear some of the pros and cons.

We have a small roadside market where we sell produce, sweet corn and pumpkins that we grow in our fields. I also sell some cut flowers, but was wondering if I should consider selling/growing mums, too.

And advice? Thanks.

Comments (12)

  • calliope
    19 years ago

    Mums are a very easy crop. You don't even need a g'house. But, because they are so easy, they flood the market. We grow them, but only as a source for a little cash flow between our major crops.

    Our areas has such a glut of them, you have a hard time making the price worth the work involved. I got the flyers for cuttings this year and boy, oh boy, are the prices up.

  • GrassIsEvil
    19 years ago

    I grow mums, but I don't even bother with trying to sell them potted.

    I must confess every year I buy a bunch of those left-over mums at the box store for pennies and stick them into the ground. They're so hardy most of them survive to bloom the following year and I use them as cut flowers.

    Ray

  • Shag
    19 years ago

    Would it be possible for you to grow some of the less common varieties? some of the spider mums for instance (ah, well, here I am showing my provinciality ... when our local grocery store gets spider mums in, I think they're exotic ahem.

  • sandy0225
    19 years ago

    I find around here the market is so competitive they are hardly worth your time. Unless you just can get someone to buy them as an impulse because you are selling other fall items, or you grow a special size that is hard to find, such as very small but blooming, or very large or hanging baskets.

  • flowerfarmer
    19 years ago

    In the past we grew and sold many, many, many garden mums. Then, along came two of the well known box stores with their "basement prices." If one does grow them, consider doing something different than the standard mum in a 6" colored pot. Think about using buckets or baskets. OK. Here's an idea for you that would work well with your farm stand and fall display. Try putting the mums in the standard basket used for apples/peaches, tomatoes. You don't even have to take them out of their plastic pots. Three in a basket with a little spagnum moss around them.
    Unique and more $$$$$$$$$$.
    Since we now grow strictly for cutflower production, I am wanting some of those Spider mums Shag mentioned. Now, where is my wholesale plant catalog?? I do like the large field grown mums as well. The so called garden mums do not make good cutflowers.

  • earthlydelights
    19 years ago

    since a few of you are mum growers, i'll pose my question here.

    i put in a small bed of mums last year - somewhere between 3 and 4 dozen. i've never really had luck with mums coming back but i buy them and plant them anyway because i love them.

    i would like to move them to another portion of my yard where i have prepared the ares specifically for the mums. although they are normally a late bloomer, there is some green sprouting up at ground level. can i move these now or will that put them into some type of shock and kill them off?

    any advise would be greatly appreciated.

    thanks.

  • hemboy
    19 years ago

    If you sell pumpkins, adding mums to your fall sales should, if nothing else increase traffic. Even with competition, have had hard time losing $ on mums. They help my fall perennial/daylily sales. Fall sales getting better all the time, and more competitive. Add some ornamental pumps/squash, and corn stalks.

  • anniew
    19 years ago

    I checked out the prices of mum cuttings as I wanted something to help extend the season, and decided not to do it for this year. Maybe another year.
    What prices do others pay for cuttings, and what is the minimum order?
    Ann

  • Bob_NJ
    19 years ago

    I have been growing mums for my roadside market for many years. I used to ship wholesale and found it a major money looser, three to four months work for 50 cents profit on a pot. I grow only enough to sell at my market, I charge about twice the going rate and have no problem selling out. I don't grow any early mums,I prefer the season extenders that mature late September into November they fit nicely with fall pansys and pumpkins.
    Yellow decoratives have always been the biggest sellers, followed by red, bronze and white, lavenders are unpredictable last year they were hot most years not. Decoratives are usually prefered by most customers.
    Grow them in the larger mum pan type pot usually called a 9x6 pan. I prefer a bark soil mix its heavier and drains fast, mums like a loose airy well drained soil. I don't like growing them in the ground as some folks do, digging them is hard work and the plants wilt badly.
    Lately I have been staking and tying my mums like we do with poinsettias that way they don't fall appart when a hard rain falls. I use a constant liquid feeding at every watering plus Osmocote 14x applied after the first pinch. I also try to get one application of B9 growth retardant on before plants start to spread. I set them 30" appart in the rows with drip irrigation... Goodluck Bob.

  • tgifvt
    13 years ago

    I am considering selling mums as a "dig your own mums" business in the summer. When I lived in the Midwest, these were very profitable ventures. Does anyone have any information on this type of business in Vermont? Also-any connections for wholesale mums would be helpful. Thanks!

  • hillbilly_hydro
    13 years ago

    go to a big box store and buy the ones you want to grow and just use them for cuttings ...i have a friend that keeps 3 of each color every year just for cuttings and by the time he plants his fields has 10-15000 mums ready to set out ...he runs a dig your own and sells out in 2weeks of course he only charges 2.00 each

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