Growing/selling super hots on the side

[rjacobs]

I got a buddy who has an agg type business.  I wont go into what he produces or sells because its irrelevant.  I have told him to come on here and look around.

His main product, I believe, he will start selling at farmers markets next year, I think thats part of his plan.  They are expanding the main portion of their business.  They are also getting into supplying a few restaurants/specialty grocery stores with their product.
 
He has 1-1.5 acres available to be tilled and setup as a "garden".  We have discussed setting this up and growing super hots to then also take to the farmers market to sell.  It wouldnt cost a ton of money to get it all setup.  They are on well water so thats basically a free cost.  Irrigation would probably be via long runs of PVC with holes drilled in it.  I believe he has access to a large tiller type machine, so tilling cost would be basically free.
 
We have discussed plant spacing of 18-24" in rows that are 4' apart.  At 24" spacing that gives us roughly 100 plants per row and ~50 rows @4' spacing... based on a square acre being roughly 200x200.  Unless my math is way off.  Thats 5000 plants give or take...  
 
I dont know if the desire is there to make hot sauces or powders or just try to sell fresh pods to either sauce/powder makers or to individuals at farmers markets.
 
I'm really not sure what kind of questions we have at this point, its just an idea floating in our heads and looking for any feedback or thoughts people might have.
 
The land is located in the 6a/6b zone so growing season is roughly April-October.
 
Like I said, our "thoughts" are that there wouldnt be much money invested into it(mainly irrigation) and the time suck would be mainly getting it started and obviously harvesting.
 
Is this a "viable" business if the land is just sitting?  
 
Beyond the farmers market angle, is there a market to sell fresh pods to sauce/powder makers?

 

[Papyrus]

People are lazy, might make more sense to process it if you're able?  Maybe make sauces or something.  You're basically doing the work for them and the mark-up would be a lot more.  I think super hots are a very small market as most people think black pepper on their chicken and potatoes is too hot.  Just my two cents.  Why not produce something and mark it up yourself rather than sell the super hots directly?  There are a lot of hot sauce companies so it may be difficult.  Maybe doubled with seed salts or something with a website.  Just a few ideas of the top of my head while I avoid studying for my chem midterm tomorrow!  FML.

 

[rjacobs]

Only issue is getting a kitchen setup and getting everything approved.  The money factor goes sky high when you talk about that.
 
His other product is agg, and they have purposely kept from building a kitchen facility because of the cost involved, and potential pain in the ass.
 
Trying to stick to straight agg here and not venture into the needing to build a commercial kitchen arena.
 
Like I said still trying to gather idea's to see if its even something worth doing.

 

[The Hot Pepper]

I dont know if the desire is there to make hot sauces or powders or just try to sell fresh pods to either sauce/powder makers or to individuals at farmers markets.

 
If your heart is not in it why do it? This is like asking... Should I sell cars, or tires, or axles, or motor oil? For me, there should be a passion that drives what you do, in which case you would know the answer.

 

[rjacobs]

 
If your heart is not in it why do it? This is like asking... Should I sell cars, or tires, or axles, or motor oil? For me, there should be a passion that drives what you do, in which case you would know the answer.

 
 
Well for me its the physical growing of the plants and peppers...
 
I give away 95% of what I grow in my own small garden.
 
For my buddy its about adding on to his small farm/agg operation on some land that is sitting idle with no real plans for it.
 
He talked about doing Tomato's and other vegetables to sell at the farmers market.  IMO that market is saturated and you can buy all that stuff at the grocery store.  His other product is fairly unique so doing something else that is unique is what were looking to get into.

 

[Edmick]

It's not a bad idea but 5000 plants is a lot of pods and that would be a lot of pods to try and get rid of at farmers markets. You would most definitely need another way to get rid of the product otherwise you'll probably be faced with huge amounts of wastage/spoilage. Either that or you would need to "cycle" your plants in such a way that you have a steady supply of pods ripening. The last thing you want is to be sitting on hundreds of pounds of product that you can't get rid of.  

 

[Voodoo 6]

I usta grow a small number of specialty plants for this lady who was craving fresh vegetables from Asia. That might be another market you can look into.

 

[SmokenFire]

He talked about doing Tomato's and other vegetables to sell at the farmers market.  IMO that market is saturated and you can buy all that stuff at the grocery store.  His other product is fairly unique so doing something else that is unique is what were looking to get into.

 
5k super hot plants are way too many imo.  In my experience supers take the longest to mature/fruit - I will germinate in late Feb and won't get ripe pods until mid to the end of Sept and I'm in zone 5a.  180-200+ days from them hitting the dirt.  
 
You'll plant out and then wait till the end of summer and then have all the pods coming in at the same time.  You're going to need to sell/ship them quickly before they go bad.  One super goes a long way so few people are going to buy pounds or large quantities.  You can offset some spoilage by dehydrating a good amount of peppers - and then sell those off little by little - but still not going to be the volume you'll need to make it all highly profitable.
 
Also think you're underestimating the market for tomatoes and fresh vegetables.  Sure you can buy tomatoes and vegetables at the grocery store, but many times those were picked green and ripen in shipping.  The taste of an heirloom tomato - grown without regard to shipping by rail - is so much better than anything you buy at the store.  Not to mention what commercial agriculture is sprayed with before it gets to market.
 
If your buddy is already ag and has a free acre I'd suggest cutting that land up into heirloom and hard to find varieties of tomatoes, cukes, squash, radish, beans, greens, eggplants, broccoli/cauliflower, hell even some potatoes if you want in addition to some peppers.  Only thing I'd avoid is corn because yields are small and they take up a lot of space.  
 
Correctly planted that space can start yielding radish, lettuce and greens in March & April, then beans/squash/greens in May & June, tomatoes, cukes, eggplants, peppers and brassica in July through the end of the summer.  That type of addition to his ag biz for farmers markets would be the better option that solely planting super hots.  Just my opinion. 
 
And really - check out veronica cauliflower.  People go NUTS for this at our local farmers markets. 
 

 

[rjacobs]

yea, we are discussing doing a few different things.
 
I honestly was thinking like 200 plants of a few varieties of peppers.  I hadnt really done the math on what would physically "fit" in an acre and when I did we both kind of went "holy shit"...

 

[salsalady]

Growing superhots sounds like and appeals to the "latestGreatest" trend...  But...
 
from 20 years of selling salsa...
25% of the salsa I sell has ZERO heat (yep.. nada..)
50% of the salsa I sell has 3/10 heat  (medium)
2 out of 100 buy the Scorcher 7/10 salsa
 
Considering that, I'd guess that maybe 1/3 of consumers actually buy fresh hot peppers of any variety, and most of those are jalapenos or serranos.  Trying to build a business on growing and selling superhots is a niche market.  Look at the vegetable displays at your local supermarket.  The larger the display space the larger the demand.  In our inland northwest Washington markets, peppers of all sorts have about 2 square feet combined of pepper display trays. 
 
 
The peppers can be grown, you can do the work, but you will need buyers of quantities of superhot peppers.  Consider contract growing.  Certain varieties for specific buyers.    The fact that you have access to and support for growing chiles is super exciting!  Hope things work out for you to have a super terrific grow!
All the best,
SL 
 
 

 

[Hafners]

If you have Mexican or Asian grocers in your area, you can asking they're interested in buying fresh peppers whenever they are ready. I sell some of mine that way, I even sell some directly to restruants. I just call them when I have a fresh batch and ask if they want them. Sometimes they call me and ask when I'll have a pound of habaneros ready for them so they can plan out the dinner specials.

 

[The Hot Pepper]

You wouldn't want to grow 5k plants without contract growing, or you will lose your shirt. That many, you need a customer FIRST.

If you are really interested, contact member Alabama Jack. He contract grew TS peppers in those numbers, but it actually didn't work out. Maybe he could shed some light.

To do farmers markets, MUCH smaller numbers.

 

[BAPeppers]

I sell super hots at the local farmers market and it is definitely a niche market. Honestly, I enjoy growing the pods and continuously grew too many so I needed an outlet for them so decided I would try the farmers market. It went well so I decided to grow more, then I continued to have excess so started making powders and sauces. There are not nearly as many people coming to my stand to buy the super hots as there are that want the quick easy sauce fix or a nice spicy rub. That being said, the more beautiful pods that are on my table, the more people are attracted to check it out even if they don't want to purchase because most people haven't seen all of the crazy super hots out there.  The nice thing about also doing the sauces and powders is that there is nearly zero waste because whatever I don't sell fresh I turn around and use in my other products. 
 
I try to grow between 30-50 varieties a year of all different colors and heat levels to cover the market needs including jalapeños, Thai, Serrano, cayenne, and other not so hot peppers along with my super hot varieties. The big thing with the super hots that I have noticed is that people want what they know which is ghost pepper and Carolina reaper. Its fun growing super hots, but it is a lot of work compared to other pepper varieties. Hope this helps! 

 

[rhines81]

 
You can offset some spoilage by dehydrating a good amount of peppers - and then sell those off little by little - but still not going to be the volume you'll need to make it all highly profitable.

 
I realize this is an old post, but ran across it and commenting anyhow.  If I am not mistaking, dehydrating peppers for sale is considered "processing" which opens you up to licensing, inspections and other regulations.