Top selling pepper plants

Rajun Gardener

Rajun Gardener

I'm thinking about selling plants next season and I'm looking for peppers that sell in your area? I'm gonna sell to a feed store, farmers markets, CL and facebook. I don't plan on having more than maybe 10 varieties so I don't need a long list. I'm wanting to sell a few of the hotter peppers than the normal stuff I see in my area.
 
Local peppers I see in most stores here.
Jalpenos
Habanero
Tobasco
Cayenne
Banana pepper
Cowhorn 
Ghost
 
I do the same thing here in southern California and the list you posted is pretty much the same stuff we see here. Peppers are usually a hot ticket item because anyone that gardens almost certainly has at least one variety of peppers in their garden. Keep in mind though that superhots are usually considered a "novelty" to your average gardener but if you grow different variations of common varieties, that would peak peoples interest. Varieties like biker billy jalapeno or purple cayenne.. Things of that nature.. People will want them. Aside from that, I don't know what the laws are in Louisiana but in California you need permits through the department of agriculture and a business license to be able to sell at farmers markets. It can get a little expensive.  Just something else to consider.
 
Curious...what size container & what price are you asking? I never thought about it but hey I could always use a little extra beer money :drunk:
 
Prices vary because peppers are only a quarter of what I sell. Peppers are anywhere from $4-$6 in 4 inch pots
 
I've been pricing 6 and 4 paks and some 2.5x2.5 singles then move them up to bigger pots if they don't sell and mark up the price. I plan on selling both tomatoes and peppers maybe even cukes too. Pricing depends on what bonnies will charge this year, I'll beat their price on somethings and be close on others depending on seed cost. I'm still working on that.
 
Rajun Gardener said:
I've been pricing 6 and 4 paks and some 2.5x2.5 singles then move them up to bigger pots if they don't sell and mark up the price. I plan on selling both tomatoes and peppers maybe even cukes too. Pricing depends on what bonnies will charge this year, I'll beat their price on somethings and be close on others depending on seed cost. I'm still working on that.
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I wouldn't base your pricing on what bonnie charges. You'll go broke. Sell things that bonnie doesn't offer at the big box stores and you can charge a premium.
 
hatch chiles sell well because of name recognition.

jalapenos, poblanos for normal peppers

you can sell thai as good for chilli oil / asain cooking.

you gotta think you are competeting with lowes / walmart / bonnie though so you might want to go the exotic route.

superhots, ajis, scotch bonnets, padron, black pearl.
 
Manzano/rocoto and goatsweed are hot sellers locally. The local Latin folk eat em up at the farmers market nurseries and roadside pop up micro nurseries. You can get $10-$15 for 1gal manzano/rocoto over a foot. $5 for goatsweed about the same size.
 
You need to think of brand recognition too. It's easy for any gardener to say they wanna sell plants cuz they're good at growing but to actually put the effort in and become established takes a lot of work. I've spent the last year totally devoted to building my brand and my company. I only sell rare, unique and interesting plants and I buy seed from all over the world. I spend most my days glued to my laptop researching and purchasing seed. I even stopped my regular job to pursue this full time. You need to diversify and do something that no one else has done. I thought it was gonna be easy. "how cool would it be to start your own business growing plants at home and selling at market?". I underestimated the time, money and effort it would take to make it happen..
 
Edmick said:
I wouldn't base your pricing on what bonnie charges. You'll go broke. Sell things that bonnie doesn't offer at the big box stores and you can charge a premium.
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It might be hard to believe but Bonnie's is everywhere here and they are the highest priced at $3.50 a 6 pak and bigger single plants. There's 2 nurseries that sell to a few feed stores around here and they are priced at $1.75 a 6 pak.
 
For individual sales and markets I'll sell for a higher price. This will be a learning/test year for plants, if I sell out then I'll go bigger next year but I'll at least get a better handle on what people want.
 
Thanks for all the replies, I'll try a few of those peppers for sure.
 
When we sold at the farmers market, ghost sold a bit as a novelty but the basics like Jalapeno and Habanero were bread and butter.  Thing is, we had our best sales with sweet bells, especially heirloom and colors you do not find at Walmart.
 
Based on discussions with other folks who grow in my area (South Jersey), it seems like the vast majority of folks grow bells exclusively, and they seem to believe that everything else is hot and stupid. The folks who do grow hots seem to grow Reapers, unless they still think Ghosts are the world's hottest, in which case, they grow Ghosts. These are the discussions I have with neighbors, casual growers, etc...

Folks at the community garden tend to grow a lot of Bells but Anaheim/ Hatch types are popular there, too. Other serious gardeners who aren't necessarily serious chile heads seen to be into a mixed bag of things, but it seems like Fish Peppers are disproportionately popular with the long standing serious gardening types. I think because they look cool, taste pretty good, and aren't very hot.

But yeah, the most popular by far are Bells, around me. Next most popular seems to be Reapers, or so many folks claim, but I wonder how many are actually just growing red Habs from eBay, sold as Reapers...

I think that, as with most things, name recognition is a big deal. It seems like Bonnets got a big push on the Food Network last year, so maybe they'll get more popular with Normies soon, too. Personally, I've been tryna promote Fataliis around me, because they were stupidly productive for me late on 2017 and I couldn't possibly keep up with them by myself, so I shared a lot. Plus, they're a danged good chile... Hot enough to fascinate folks, but not hot enough to blast their faces off. I gave tons of those away and helped create some fanatics...

But nobody is going to claim that Fatalii is a household name these days. At least, not in NJ
 
Bicycle808 just made me think about ethnicity by pointing out location and name recognition at the same time.  We have a huge Hispanic community.  When I added the word Ancho to my Poblano labels,  they sold out the first year I offered them at our farmers market.  This despite the fact that ancho is more properly used to describe the smoked pepper not the plant.
 
Pepperoncini is another name game.  In the US the word tends to indicate a mild pepper, almost sweet.  But in Italy, the word for the mild pepper is Friggitello and a hot pepper is called Pepperoncini.  .I imagine if you have an Italian customer base you would do well with using these names in a way that might make sense.  Like US Pepperocini / Friggitello and Italian Pepperocini.  Dont trust that I didnt reverse those two.  Been a while since I did farmers market so look it up.

Anyway, the point being ethnicity and culture might have a lot to do with your sales.  Thinking if it is still open this year, go and see who shops there. 
 
Outside big box stores, I'm reasonably close to the nursery behind chileplants.com. When walking around the greenhouse, I can tell many people there do not specifically know what they're looking for, but they do recognize a couple "alternative" peppers. Last spring, one experienced member of a group suggested another get (I think) a reaper plant and the guy got angry: "Oh right, and take a trip to the hospital! No thanks!" But....people do walk away with impulse buys that will likely produce fruit out of their comfort range because of an anecdote they heard or a gentle nudge from someone else; or just to grow something different. I think the suggestion above about exotics is a great point. People are likely willing to go for something they've never heard of.
 
I would be more willing to buy from a mom and pop operation than from a big box store. That being said I bought from my local grocery store’s seasonal greenhouse. All the vegetable 4 packs were $1.19. Home Depot had a large selection of overpriced Bonnie plants. HD gets enough of my money thanks to the wife’s Pinterest ideas.


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We have a strong hispanic community in my area and i always wondered how some of the mexican pepper staples would do.  Like Arbol, Pasilla, guajillo.  I think those are the dried names, but cant remember the fresh pepper name.  maybe someone can help me out.  but Like AJ said about Ancho, maybe I would want to use the more relatively known dried names.
 
With something that has the whole 2+ names depending on if they are fresh or dried, and when they're dried...I would be tempted to use the fresh name, and then the dry alias parenthetically. Example: Poblano Pepper (Ancho)

You cast a wider net that way, plus you get the opportunity To discuss chiles with the customer, and flex that knowledge..
 
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