whats your market? a lot of competition?

For tomatoes I'll do 18 oz. red solo cups for $2.00, maybe $2.50.

Haven't completely decided which market to go to. One market doesn't start til Memorial Day, almost too late to sell plants. Other one starts first Saturday in May.

I have had 2 responses from the CL posting, one for several hundred and the other more of a information gathering post. I'll be speaking to the one that will need hundreds later today.

I'm thinking about the 1203 (36 cell) going for $10-15 and the 4" pots for $2-3. I believe I can make enough money for at home sales with these prices, I might go lower depending on quantity. I think my break-even point will be close to $7-8 per tray.

I haven't used solo cups, mainly because the costs of the solo cups are more than regular pots that can be used again if the plants don't sell in that size pot.

Marla

good idea advertising on cl early.

The one person wants about 300 plants. We agreed on $10 for flat of 36 if he furnishes seeds or $15 if I furnish seeds. He wants to grow some in a tunnel and wants to plant the end of Feb (which will be pushing to start seeds this week, IMO).

I already have everything, except a good planting day. I try to plant with the moon, I've had better luck over the years working that way. Next good day for tomatoes is the 11th.

No response back from other person, I'm not surprised since I think he was just wanted to determine when he should plant. Without experience, I don't expect him to succeed with good healthy plants.

I get:
$15 a flat, regardless of number of cells
$5 for 1-gal pots
$10 for hanging basket tomatoes
$1.50 for 6-packs (too low, but I'm matching the other vendors)
$1.50 for single plants in a 4-inch pot or solo cup. I will mix and match 4 for $5. I also include direct-sown herbs with that price group; there's a lot of plants, but they are tiny.

I also sell a planter for $5 that is a nice-looking oval Panterra brand container. I fill it with leaf lettuce, herbs, or two dwarf tomato plants.

My prices are low, but I'm also in a very poor area of the country. I feel like I need to beat everyone on price and quality in order to get much business. The big retailers near me usually have plants from Bonnie plant farm in Alabama. Their quality is up and down from year to year. No one buys plants when the weather is bad, so sometimes they sit at the store too long.

That is one of the things I learned last year - people buy plants based upon the weather, not the calendar. If it's 80 degrees and sunshine, people want peppers and tomatoes, even if we are still a month away from the last frost.

Another observation I had was that hardly anyone understands the benefit of being in a larger container. Even if it is still too early to plant, they want the $1.50 tomato in the 4-inch pot that is already blooming and think that paying $5 for the 1-gallon plant is foolish.

I tell them when they question why I charge so much more for the 5-gallon plant, the price of the dirt is much more expensive than the single seed in the pot. Plus the amount of extra time needed to get to the 5-gallon size.

FYI, Bonnie has several greenhouses throughout the US, one less than 45 miles from me. It's been harder to compete since they came in so close.

I'm glad I'm at least in the ballpark. the person that I talked to was happy with my prices. I've haven't done business with him before, so neither one of us know what to expect from each other.

I did state that my plants would either be sold or planted for my own use.

Marla, do you charge a deposit? I would as I have people order things from me and than decide they didn't want the order at the last minute and would leave me hanging so now I get a 20% deposit (applied to purchase but non refundable) before doing such orders.

I hadn't thought about a deposit, but the customer suggested one. I knew that the plants would be sold or planted so I wasn't too worried.

Now the customer is ordered the seeds, I'll do the planting. He's also upped what he wants. Sounds like I'll be doing more planting than I thought, I'm happy about that.

At this time, I'm just happy to be planting seeds and maybe NOT doing all the weeding and picking. I would much rather grow the plants versus the rest of the work.

Marla, Is it possible to see your ad on CL? My luck here in central Ill with CL is not good as you get a lot of juck responces. Would like to know how you and other handle that on CL John

I've only got 2 responses this time. I usually don't get much response, but am lucky enough that I get 1-2 good leads.

Look under Lafayette, IN or Tippecanoe County, IN. I'm the only one with tomato plants listed lately.

This one person that wants me to grow has now brought the seeds to me today. After sitting down with him, I'll be starting about 1800 plants. I'm happy with this, since that was my entire goal for this year. If I get more, that's ok.

Marla