Seed Starting Albumn

Bernie, I am sorry that you lost your fun in growing and selling plants. You have the knowledge. Maybe you could give classes on how to grow your own and charge the students.

Nope. There is a big garden center doing that already. They opened their new store about 6 or 7 years ago. They sold hundreds of acres of land for housing development. A DIL wanted to increase her garden center business. I imagine they spent at least a million on it & don't really care if they make money!
They charge very high prices for their plants, but they get all the high rollers in to buy plants.
Mankato has a huge University & also a large hospital system that is tied to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN. So lots of well paid people around. (Helps out are Farmers Market, too.)
I'll just grow the veggies. Big boxes can't do that no matter how they try!
We are going more pesticide free this year. Nearly like organic except you don't need the government involved.
Bernie

Thanks for the chat. I am mostly organic except for some fertilizer and I am changing that with my worms and worm casting tea. You are around a large fishing area. Anyone there specialize in Euro worms for fishing. I have a DG friend that is going to grow them in Montana to supplement his income and enhance his own fishing. I grow red wigglers just for worm castings. I am thinking about the euro worm for fishing. I am going to look into the market and see who and where are supplying the worms for Lake Mead fishermen.

I have a very dear friend who is very wealthy. Her son is in his late thirties and he built a greenhouse on one of the golf courses they own the land under. Very lovely size about 100' x 80'. Has water, electricity, fans, the whole bit. Well he has changed it from hydroponic to seedlings, to growing in buckets and now worms and whatever. I was suppose to help him because he knows nothing about gardening. I am sure they are already in over $200,000 and nothing. He called me the other day and wanted to know when i was coming over to help him. I explained I had a lung infection but he needs to decide what he wants to do before I can get excited again. I am too old to be getting to excited to many times. LOL. Sharon, Las Vegas, Nevada.

Bernie:

I was wondering where you got those trays that you were using as your set up? If you would mind to share the source, as those are just what I'm interested in. Or was it something your put together?

I too am so sorry to hear that WM has done it to another small business again.

Janet

"what brings you the most income? Do people prefer flowers over veggies?"

Carmin...fortunately people are of different natures and your goal would be to attract both, people who love flowers and the people who love veggies. I do both, sell veggies as well as plants (veggie seedlings, herbs, shrubs, perennials, fig trees, etc). I also don't compete with Walmart and Big Box stores even though they are everywhere here. One of the markets I sell at is in a Home Depot parking lot with their garden center 300 yards away from my truck, a Walmart is in the same shopping center in the other direction. People come to me because I offer what they (Walmart/BB stores) don't offer PLUS they enjoy the hands-on communication with a real grower and the source of those plants, how to care for them, grow them out, de-bug them, etc. There is no doubt you can find a niche.

There is a small window of time for selling plants though. Once people have their gardens in, and/or once super hot weather has set in people don't care to be out planting flowers/shrubs, etc in 85º temps. When plant sales slow down then I rely more on produce and herb sales to cover the gap, and that continues into October/November here. With your warm climate I imagine you could also find something that will grow and bring in some income. I think your excessive heat will halt many plants from producing but with a little research maybe there are some tried-and-true veggies that'll produce in your area, as well as fresh herbs. And don't forget those special holiday plants people love to buy on occasions, Valentines Day, Mother's Day, Father's Day, even Easter and the 4th of July. Potted plants, house plants, cut flowers will do you justice for those dates.

Hope this is helpful. Keep in mind, Walmart/etc has been a thorn in the side of many Mom-n-Pop stores but doesn't necessarily run us all out of business. If we try to support the small family operations as much as possible that sure helps quite a lot of people as well as the local community. And on those times when you need to go to the big chain stores, remember they, too, are providing a job for some locals who need the income so don't feel like you are giving up on the community by shopping there.

Best to all!
Shoe (heading to the greenhouse to pot up several thousand plants and sow tomato seeds!)

Shoe

great outlook you have.

I'm turning to selling perennials and herbs and some vegetables this year. Husband lost his job and due to his health hasn't been able to find any other job and since my job doesn't cover our expenses I'm turning to a second job in doing something I love, which is growing and talking with people about growing.....LOL

I'm reading and reading the threads here for extra information that will help me to make money this year.

thanks to everyone who so freely gives of their time, information and your life experiences as we all weather the rough days ahead for our country.

Janet

Janet,
Good Luck in your endeavor.
Part of the reason we quit was because of the weather. So many times we would be all set to go & it would be raining or wind blowing or just plain cold. Those things turn people off from shopping in open air market. Month of May is only selling season here for plants. People wouldn't think of planting Hostas or perennials in the fall.

The trays are 801 inserts for the 1020 series planting trays. 1020 is most popular for bedding plants. All kinds of sizes of inserts.
Stop by a mom & pop type garden center. They may have a bunch laying around. I got over 300 flats from a garden center when I first started. They last forever. I still have some of them.
Go to www.farmtek.com
Click on seed germination. You will find all kinds of things.
The 1020 lightweight flats are 69¢ each when you buy 50.
Inserts are 69¢ each when you buy 100.
They also have coir pellets & cow pots.
I've bought things from this place & they are very good!
Bernie

Bernie

thanks so much for all the directions.

I'm only planning to sell for a little over two months end of april (provided the weather breaks here) all of May and some June as we have wonderful summers, this is the only good thing about living where we do.LOL

I'll check out farmtek.

Janet

Congrats on your choice and I hope you meet your needs. Between you and your hubby I bet you can do well. Your first year will be a great experience with a big learning curve; keep that in mind and you won't get frustrated or disappointed.

Visit the Market Growers forum for lots more topics and suggestions. Bernie is loaded with great ideas and has excellent advice and pictures over there, too! Multiply that by quite a few other growers and you have all the info you'll ever need!

Best!
Shoe

Thank you Shoe, Bernie great info, I am very grateful. I really don't want to make this into a big buss enterprise like you guys have going on but thought of maybe a small sort of thing to see. I have a yard sale comming up and thought maybe trying to sell some plants and herbs would be nice as well as extra income just to see if people are interested or not.

It does get really hot here during the summer months so I do agree that people might loose interest during those months, same thing happens during the winter months, friends and neighbors were just could not believe it when I showd them that you can plant things here even in the winter months, they just thought spring was the only time to plant anything.

Right now I am more focused on growing enough veggies for my family and maybe growing a few more plants on the side so I can get a little bit of $ to help with seeds purchasing and different other projects to expand my garden size.

Thanks again for all you wonderful advice.

Two summers ago I was at a farmers market in San Diego. We go there for two weeks every summer when the heat in Las Vegas gets above 110. Everyone goes to farmers market on Saturday morning. I purchased what I thought was large white round radishes. I only purchased one bunch. When I got home I tried one and OMG, this is a baby turnip and it was out of this world. I rushed back to get more and they were gone. That is the secret. Small turnips, small beets, small whatever has intense flavor and very sweet. Also heirloom tomatoes. Do not grow anything you will not eat. If you grow spinach, clean the stem down to the flesh. Saves the cook time. Post that info on the board by the spinach. Have the unusual and tell them how great you are. Bok Choy is very easy to grow and the Asians love it fresh. Take special orders. Half up front , rest to be collected when crop is available. Complete refund if not as advertised. You are not the supermarket. You can give them what they want. Think out of the box but go slowly. Do not take checks. Also do not take credit cards. They will eat up your profit. Cash only. Price everything so that change will not be necessary. I was in Maui last summer and I watched at two farmers markets. It was very interesting to see who was busy and whom was not and they were selling the same thing. I watched a women wanting Hawaiian onions. She went from booth to booth and they said they did not have them. The last booth I was with her they told her it was another name for what they had??? They lied, she bought two large bags and I just watched. Actually I was stalking her because the majority of the items they were selling were junk and my children and their children were having a good time so I stalked this uninformed visitor. Not saying this is what you should do but it was amazing how careful this shopper had been looking for Hawaiian onions and bought what everyone was buying because she was lied to. If I had a booth set up there I would have placed a sign by the onions that Hawaiian onions were out of season and this was a great substitute. Sorry this is so long, just a few thoughts. And I have extra seed if you need any. .

Bernie ~ Do you mean that you quit altogether? You don't even sell at the farmer's market anymore? You invested quite a bit to get this going, and it truly is heartbreaking .

Over 20 years ago I had a small retail nursery. I was unable to continue due to the fact the person I was buying the property raised the payments to double what I was paying originally, so basically due to lack of capital. Had I been able to buy it outright, I would have been still there, or then sold a successful venture, as I had it for 2 years, and was doing better each year, but just not enough to buy it outright. Still, it was a good experience. and I will treasure it.


Evelyn

We still raise vegetables & all our own veggie starts.
First market day at Farmers Market. So relieved not to have to haul all those plants. Today they would not have sold & wind would have made a mess of them. Other people there with plants were taking a beating.
It is to early here for bedding plants to go out in the beds. Wind was terrible.
We sold our veggies & smiled all the way home.

Hi. I've been wandering all over Daves' Garden trying to find out if any one knows how to stop the leaves of a Geranium turning yellow then brown. I figured it is caused mostly by the oven hot weather here in Texas so put it in a shadier place . Waiting to see if that solves the problem but, since I found this thread and such a nice bunch of knowledgeable folks, I might as well ask all of you, and express my hopes for your success. After reading the whole thread, feel sort of a kin to y'all.
tia
tvksi

Hello,
I have been reading on another site how important it is to get a good seed starter soil for seeds and the one that sounds good is a "Pro Mix Bx". I would have to order it from a wholesaler and it is so large and expensive. I am wondering if many have a good recipe for mixing their own using vermiculite and whatever else. Thanks for any help that you can give me.
Shleigh

Last year after buying several different brands of "seed-starting mix", I thought I should mix my own. Wow...way much cheaper and you can get the conistency that you want. I checked the labels on each and every mix that I had previously purchased and they all contained peat and vermiculite, with the exception of MG, of which I would not purchase again anyway. The MG contained fertilizer! All of the "experts" say to wait until your seedlings have their true leaves before doing any fertilizing at all. And then, go half-strength, if you feel you need to use any.

So, the bottom line is that I used large bales of peat and vermiculite. Later in the season I also purchased a large bag of perlite, to add to the new garden bed as well as the 8 square foot gardens, as I sifted them all out in spring before planting anything in them. That is when I amended them all, since they had clay garden soil in them as well as weeds and roots. It was a lot of work for me as I am older now with both shoulders that have problems. Still the effort paid off. I will not go back to buying tiny bags since I like to start so many from seed. It is fine, however, for those who just can start only a few and get what they need from the small bags.

If you use a lot, it is definitely more economical to mix your own. Check out the prices for 3.8 or 4cu ft. bags compared to the largest seed-starting mix. It may vary from area to area. You might get a friend to go in with you, if you feel that the big bags are too much and the small bags are not enough. I went through 2 sets of the large bags last year and more this year.

Good luck, and happy gardening!

~ Evelyn

Getting this back to top.
Still using this set up.