My hope for a business

W

wordwiz

For months and months, I've been planning a way to make a little money on the side selling stuff I raise. This spring wasn't bad - I sold about $600 in plants. So far this summer, all I have really sold is basil (~$100) but a guy today wants to buy somewhere in the neighborhood of 60 pounds of tomatoes a week, along with some basil. I sell the basil at $12 per pound for just leaves or leaves with very few stems. The toms go for a buck a pound. The price goes up 25ยข per pound on toms, $4 per pound on basil once I have to start using heat.

My biggest concern is being able to walk the walk come this fall/winter/spring. I figure my greenhouse, which I have been working on and is 192 sf. can support close to 50 tomato plants and six, maybe twelve basil plants. Everything will be grown in hydro, which is a new learning experience.

Mike
 
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This is great, Mike!

I certainly wish you well, and would love to be kept abreast of developments via this thread.

Personally, I think more and more of us will be trying this, and if we can pool our resources, so much the better for us all...

Some pics of your set up, perhaps?

Who is your target market? The public? Nurseries?
 
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My target market will be a couple of decent size restaurants and maybe a deli or two. A lot depends on how much produce I can reap. I'm hoping for about 100 pounds per week. Though I have room for about 40 plants, more than likely only about 40 will be producing at a time. The types:

IT-06-313: (Indeterminate) (180-220 g) This is a full sized tomato with a flatened globe shape for greenhouse production. This is one of our best tomatoes. With a great disease package, this variety can also be used in open fields. Tolerant to Tobacco Mosaic Virus, Fusarium Wilt Race 2, Verticillium Wilt, Spotted Wilt Virus, Tomato Yellow Leaf Curl Virus and Root Knot Nematode.

Mira: Formerly IT-03-83. (I) (180-220 g fruit) A hybrid for greenhouse or open field. Mid maturity. Uniform ripening and intense red color and long shelf life. Tolerant to Tobacco Mosaic Virus, Fusarium Wilt Race 2, Verticillium Wilt and Tomato Yellow Leaf Curl Virus, Bacterial Wilt.

Florida 91: Extra large, 10 oz. smooth round tomatoes ripen to a uniform red and are produced as an incredible set of solid, flavorful fruit. Strong, healthy vines have heat-set capabilities and resistance to diseases including alternaria and gray leaf spot. A favorite with chefs and gardeners alike for its versatility and great tomato flavor. Determinate. 72 days.

Siletz: A very large and early maturing Tomato. It produces flavorful deep red, round fruit ideal for slicing. Fruit size is 10 to 12 ounces or even more on determinate plants. It has some disease resistance and will produce well early, even during cooler weather. Approximately 65 days from transplant to first ripening.

Legend: Similar to Siletz but with considerably larger fruits. Legend sets fruit earlier than 'Oregon Spring' and the plant appears to be stronger, with larger stiffer leaves than the other two varieties. As a bonus, 'Legend' is resistant to late blight, a fungal disease that kills tomato plants in home and market gardens.

Roma: Most people already know this plant!

As I see how the different plants produce, I'll probably settle on just a couple of types. I picked 28 pounds of maters last evening from about 20 plants and should be able to do that at least every three days. If this production holds up - which time will tell - I'll be able to meet my goal. I'm sure selling them will not be a problem - last winter tomatoes were nearly $4 per pound and they tasted like cardboard.

Mike
 
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Wow!

Couple of questions, if I may?

72 days: Does this represent the time elapsed from germination to ripeness?

I don't recognised any other than Roma, Mike. Are these not heirlooms, and if not, is it because you will grow them commercially? (I have this idea that heirlooms are not perfectly shaped for commercial growing - pls correct me if I'm off base)

Will you merge this thread with your other one? Makes great reading, and very encouraging to see your progress!

Paul
 
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Huntsman,

The Siletz is an heirloom, at least it is listed as one. The others are not. The Legend is not a hybrid, per se, according to Dr. Badgett but the others are. Some were bred for their resistance to diseases (these days they call it tolerance), others to grow in a GH, for their longer shelf life or because they are supposedly one-pick. I guess this means all the toms on a plant ripen at the same time which would make machine harvesting easier.

JMO, but I think one reason why hybrids get a bad rap is because that is what is sold in most stores. It's not the mater itself, but how it is grown, picked and then ripened.

If one type doesn't turn out good I will have wasted at most two buckets of water. But if say the Sacramento is a heavy producer and tastes great, I'll raise more of them. I think what restaurants want is one that has a decent shelf life, does not have a lot of seeds or too much juice, has a lot of flesh but red, not white "meat", doesn't crack, etc., etc. I want one that produces 3/4 of a bushel per plant, is resistant to diseases and stays under six feet tall.

One thing I have been thinking about is "staking" them. My plan is to grow two rows, skip about three feet on both sides and grow a single row. I'll probably use some fence posts and run string along them, adding another one as the plants grow. Try to keep the determinants together and the others in different rows. The Roma, Siletz and Legend are not very tall, the others are.

One of the mods would have to merge the threads - the best I could do is copy/paste my posts!

Mike
 
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I need to add: I'm surprised more people in this forum and some of the other garden forums I read are not selling their produce or plants. It's not like it takes a lot of space or work. For instance, I have maybe a dozen basil plants that take up 20 sq. ft. of space. But so far, I have sold more than $80 worth of basil and I should have all of September and a part of October - maybe another $70-80 worth. That alone is enough to pay for all my seeds and have a little left over to go toward containers and potting soil.

Mike
 
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The plants died a couple of months ago. I grew Genovese Basil and only sold it to one restaurant - had I been more aggressive and grown more plants, I could easily have doubled or tripled my sales. But it was a side show.

I need to set a goal for selling plants and produce for 2010, then work out a plan that allows me to do this, even though I only have about 1,100 sq. ft. of space and nearly 200 of that is taken up with a greenhouse.

Mike
 
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Huntsman,

The GH is chock full of tomatoes (along with a container for lettuce and a banana!) in various stages of development. A few plants have maters the size of a golf ball, some do not have real blooms yet. I will start plants in August for next year!

I have room upstairs for about 600 plants this spring and will build a 12' long shelf at the back of the GH where I can grow another 24 to 468 more, depending on the size of the containers.

One big difference this year is the variety of tomatoes and peppers for sale. I didn't sell a dozen peppers total last year and maybe four basil plants. In the mater market, it was beefsteak, early or cherry, though cherry was not a big hit at all. No use taking up bench space if all the plants will be used for is compost material.

Mike
 
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Yeah, if you can determine your market before the season starts, that's certainly an advantage.

That's a huge amount of 'maters, though - certainly plenty of scope once the orders start coming in.
 
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Last year, I had all kinds of seedlings of plants that I had grown the year before, Red Zebra and Green Sausage were two great performing maters, the Zebra for juice and the sausage for salsa. I don't think I sold a single one of these. Everybody talks about Roma, maybe two people actually bought a plant. IIRC, AJ experienced the same thing selling peppers - he had some great types he had grown and highly recommended but customers always want the same thing - something they have grown for years.

One thing that may help me, I should have ripe tomatoes of the ones I am trying to sell to show what they look like.

Mike
 
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I sold a couple this morning, primarily because I had a great colour pic and some info laminated next to each plant. If you have the actual fruit, so much the better.
 
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I find things different here with tomatoes lately. Everybody seems to be getting on the heirloom bandwagon and wanting something other than regular toms, at least during the summer. If you are able to provide taste tests, that might be what makes the sale. I'm also surprised that your cherry tom plants didn't sell since they are often my most popular plants. I always have to start tonnes for friends and family.
I know what your saying about Romas, everybody thinks that they are so good for canning, which they are, but in my opinion there are so many better flavored paste types out there.
 
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What a difference four months makes. I did not end up with 50 plants, rather 39, though I would have had room for 3-4 more if I didn't use the space for a compost/compost tea system and some hydro lettuce plants.

Nor are all or even half the plants in water - it wasn't working so 3/4 of the plants are in dirt containers. Started off with great growth and pre-blooms but then the reality of winter and lack of sunlight set in. The plants are still growing, and I have maybe 30 tomatoes forming (from about 1/3 of the plants - the others have not started blooming yet), but not at anything close to summer rates. If I had to grade my success, it would be a D+. I'll know next year to have the last toms ripen by the first part of December, then shut it down until February.

Of course, one can or at least should and better learn from failures. I plan on growing the plants upstairs next year. I have room for at least 56 plants. I will not have to worry about heat, only lighting. I'm getting ready to experiment now to see how this goes. If I can raise six plants under one 400 watt HID light, I figure I can net about $1500 from the full room. I would also raise about 40 plants in the GH (harvesting from mid-September through mid-December and repeat that in April-July). The garden will take care of mid-July through mid-September.

Four more months from now, I wonder what I will be reporting!

Mike
 
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