those are some crazy prices. any retail place is going to be high ofcourse. such as lowes walmart home depot. most of our country greenhouses have 3 and 4 plants for a dollar or 1.50.

Yes , great minds think a like, I'm ready to open up a stand and start selling plants.. Farmers makers are normally always expensive, because people go there for plants,etc.. Flea markets and other miscellaneous stores, I can get a flat for a buck or two.. It just depends where you go to look.. If you go to a famous art sale, your certainly are paying the famous art prices. If you stumble across a famous painting at a cheap thrift shop, your going to pay the cheap thrift shop prices.. It all depends what part of town your in, richy, middle class, the hood,etc? A lot Wealthy people wouldn thinkntwice about paying merely $4 for a plant, while low class would only pay that for a flat.. You can only watch where you shop, you can't stop inflation!

Keep growing,
Joe

I bet the people paying those prices, aren't really familiar with growing tomatoes from seed, and what is "healthy" or acceptable. They probably assume the farmers know what they are doing. Those are the prices here too in Roanoke, VA, but here the plants are very healthy and not spindly. I still won't pay those prices- that's a whole seed packet! I think it is a fair price, I just would rather do it myself.

Lindsey

If they non commercial varieties $3.50 wouldnt be too bad .
As the season starts the prices are generally higher then start to come down as peak starting times come and go.

Dont forget to buy a seed you must buy a whole pack .$3.50
a bag of potting mix $ 4.00
container,and electricity too

How much were they last year?

I sold some of my extra plants (and gave a bunch away, started way too many) for $4 organic heirlooms and $3 hybrids in 4" pots last year. That's the price I would charge for 1 lb of the tomatoes, and as dickie said, you have to take not only seed but potting mix, pots, lights, electricity, and your time into account so I thought it was fair. Of course 6-packs would be less per plant.

Big box and "lot" stores sell them cheap ($2), but don't have the variety and don't care what condition they're in. Ag students at high school start some for women's club every year and they were spindly in 6-packs last year, they still wanted $3.

Lindsey, I'm right down the road from you in Christiansburg. I noticed the same price range last weekend too, and I also thought the plants looked better overall than last year around here. Since I have such a small area and am limited to few plants, I don't mind spending that for a handful of healthy looking ones.

Here in the Texas countryside, I just picked up some more tomatoes and peppers, I think 12 or 13 nice healthy plants. The old guy at the farm store said "Give me 2 bucks and we'll call it even". Sounded good to me. Someone had told me they gave $1.80 a piece for some a a big-box store. Guess it just depends on where and with whom you are dealing.

Well, it's getting a little late to plant in TX, they're probably just trying to get rid of them. By mid-June I gave a bunch to the church for their plant sale, not all sold but they were getting $1 less than what I was selling them at market for. I gave the leftovers to family and planted a bunch, but they never did well (don't know if it was too late by then, or if it was the hastily-prepared bed).

I don't mind paying that much for one plant if it's an heirloom variety that I really want. If everything goes right, I only have to buy it once because I can save seeds for it for years after that. My only problem is that I have paid that much for one plant in a 4" pot, only to find that the tomato plant was mislabeled and I didn't end up with the right variety anyway. :(

As a seller of certified organic veggie plants I must chime in here. The price of plastic (pots), seeds, soil and energy to keep my greenhouses warm has skyrocketed as well. While I don't charge these prices I must raise my prices this year due to my costs. Actually I've tried to keep my prices down but in doing so have cut my profit margin to a point where I"m wondering if plant growing is worth it.
On the other hand I would encourage those of you whom desire, to start growing your own plants. Tomatoes are very easy to germinate.
If you need to buy plants, when you think about it if it is healthy, it will most likely give you well over $4 worth of fruit.

Here I S Calif, that would be just a couple of maters @ $2.50/ Lb and often over $3/lb at our local farmers market.

When You see all the work that folks here do, with their seedlings, Lights, fans, hardening off, fertilizers, etc etc, "To Me" $4 for a mater plant is not all that out of line, as thanks to this forum, I know what a tremendous amount of work growing seedling is.

I, in fact paid over $8 for a Giant Belgium plant, but If I get more than a couple of tomatoes off of it, I am ahead of the game, and one year I musta had 50 of those beauties.

Gary

A bit OT, but this year I was *stunned* that here in central Texas I was unable to find six-packs of cherries. Nothing fancy. Just good 'ol Red Cherry or Sweet 100. I plant six foot rows with each of these these six-packs, and now I have to get 4" pots for $3.99 apiece. Crazy!

You'd like to believe that people would realize that the six-pack seedlings, if the stems are properly protected, will all by themselves turn into the 4" pot size in a couple of weeks once in the ground. I suspect the nurseries would rather people not realize that.

Something very different this year. It used to be easy to find those six packs. Even six-packs in full size toms have been scarce around here.

I feel lucky as my LOCAL seasonal garden stand has just about any variety for .99@. 4" pots and healthy. I got Big Beef, Black Krim, and Jetstar for starters. I will go back this weekend. The big box stores had all tomatoes 3.48@. I would suggest trying some of the smaller garden stands if you are lucky to have any in your area.

I just sold my 14 backup plants for $4 each. I work at a university, and we have an email list serve that folks use for announcements and sales. I sent an announcement about my plants out on that. The plants I sold are seven weeks old and 18-20 inches tall in 6-inch pots. They were mostly heirlooms and all types that aren't available around here. It took less than 30 minutes for all of them to sell. I haven't done the math, but I suspect I put at least $2 a piece into materials and care for these babies. In the past I gave my extras away. I think I could have charged $5 per plant and sold them all almost as quickly. More people are interested in gardening now than there were several years ago. My only concern is that a lot of newbies bought these plants. So I've offered to give advice as well.

There's a nursery here that charges $3.99 each for 4" pots, but they have the best selection of varieties I've ever seen. Also if you buy 18 plants (can mix & match with other veggies) the price goes down to $2.99 each. They also have a huge selection of peppers. They grow their own plants & they look really healthy. I start my own tomatoes from seed, but I can't resist going to this nursery to see what they have, and I usually wind up buying a few.

1 kind of weird thing is they sell carrot seedlings. That's a new one on me, I thought transplanting them would cause mangled carrots. But now I'm getting off topic.

This year was the first year I started tomatoes from seed, and I overdid it big time. They all 'took' and I soon had an overabundance of tomato plants--like fifty or sixty too many.

I'm a physician; what I did was brought the excess to my office, and after I finished with each patient, I mentioned they could pick out and take home one or two if they wanted, on their way out.

The plants were gone in a day, and I had dozens of happy patients!

oh yeah / ive seen some from a certain seed co that are $12.99 each / idk who they think would pay that for 1 plant maybe that lil plastic pot and cage is what is costing that much but there isnt even enough soil in it to grow a good plant

I start my own plants, I just went to look! I can't resist. I only buy plants when I run across something different and want to try it.

I'm not knocking their prices. That is why I said "I think it's time for me to build a bigger greenhouse and start selling plants!"

I know that there are a lot of expenses and it's time consuming. But I could make a profit at those prices. And enjoy doing it.

My expenses for pots would be zero since my coworkers bring me their pots after they plant. I get way more than I can use. I haven't bought pots in 20 years.

I normally give away my extras since I usually only have about 20 or so extra. I gave away 25 last week.

I go to the greenhouses and have a look, too. Those prices are probably pretty average for here. We're north, though. I've *never* seen a six-pack of *anything* for less than two bucks.

well, if the seedlngs are decent and are of the rare to find varieties, I wouldn't mind paying $3.50 -$4.00. But for the ordinary varieties those prices are bit expensive. I paid about 3 bucks each for Brandywine and Black krim at Lowes. So, I think that small home growers should concentrate on specialty varieties and differentiated themselves from the big box stores.