• If you can't find a "Hot" category that fits, post it here!

Farmer's Market

HillBilly Jeff

HillBilly Jeff

Not really a farmer's market, but there is a guy that sells produce at this one intersection and he is there 3 days a week. We started talking peppers and he was inquiring about buying my extra pods. For the amount of money I would get for them (we never talked money, but I know he wouldn't offer much) I'd rather give my extras to people who would really enjoy them. So I told him I didn't have any extra pods for sale.

We were talking about starting plants and all that, and he was wanting to know if I could start him some of these not locally available pepper plants and he'd buy the plants off me. He would be wanting them when they are ready to go into the ground for the duration.

So to make a short story, long, what should ask for these plants? I mean getting em going is the hard part without the reward part of picking pods. But if I can get enough money to pay for the few hybrid seeds that I have to buy and a light bulb or two I'd be happy. He is talking cherry bombs, bishops, thai, lanterns, white habs, some supers?
 
DocNrock said:
Set up shop next to him. :) Eliminate the middle-man.
Click to expand...

Thing with that is then you have to man the operation which means a lot more time invested for little more profit -- if you can sell them to him for a decent price you can make almost as much without the time investment and any that die sitting there waiting for someone to buy them isn't your loss.

Take some time and figure out what your cost is to get the plants ready -- (Seeds, Dirt, pots, ferts, water, electricity for lights, heat, your time, etc.) and then see how many plants he is willing to commit to and see if the numbers work out to make it worth the investment. Figure if you're already going to be starting your plants at the same time it might be worth it just to cover your costs of growing since your not talking that much extra time to tend just your plants or yours and a few more. (Plus you can keep the best ones from the bunch for your grow giving you more choices.
 
I totally agree with JDFan, sell at a price that covers your costs, ie it costs you lets say $10 to grow 10 plants, seed,compost,pots etc.
You sell 5 plants to him at $2 each.
That means your plants are free, and the $10 is yours to spend on new seed.
Check out what he sells them for, and if it's a price that you consider unfair to you AND he sells out at that price then maybe negotiate a better price next year.
Don't forget he takes on the risk of plants dying, being stolen, or just not selling.
So if he sells at $10 each and one dies, one is stolen and/or remains unsold then he makes $20, not unreasonable I would say.
Best of luck.
 
Sorry, I didnt realise that, I assumed he would sell the plants, much easier for him!
I think the principle remains the same though, as long as your plants end up "free" then you are winning!
He will still have to take care of them, pick them and display them.
And then sell them before they go bad.
If you wanted to grow and sell the pods to him for sale then you would expect to get about half the retail value.
My advice is not to price too highly, give him a decent profit, and you will have a good market for all of your surplus plants.
 
Bodeen said:
He isn't wanting to sell the plants, he is wanting to grow the pods and sell the pods.
Click to expand...

Then it becomes a matter of what size he wants the plants at --would he take seedlings in small 3 or 4 inch pots or does he want you to care for them through the winter and give him larger plants already potted up into 5 - 7 gallon pots that are already starting to pod up. -- If just small seedlings then a few dollars per plant should be doable -- if he wants larger ready to go plants then you need to sell for more as the time and supplies it takes to grow them (esp. indoors under light and heat) means more $ is needed to grow them and you need to be sure all of your costs are covered plus a bit left for profit (figure if that is the case then you might want to instead sell him the pods instead of the plants since you've already pretty much done it all and getting say 30 cents a pod is probably better for you and sounds better to him than $15 - $30 per plant but if your getting say 50 - 100 pods per plant the math comes out the same. And if your doing all the work to get the plants to mature so they are already producing you might instead want to just set up your own spot at the market and sell the pods.

So really before you can decide on what to charge him you'd have to figure out what exactly he wants and whether you want to make that sort of time investment.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top