Growing seedlings to sell?

[seymour_man]

A lot of the discussion here has been on selling the harvest.

I have always started and bought the few plants I needed for home growing.

I have been a container grower and am moving to raised beds this year. Also I am planning to try out Ray's Earthtainers for me but mainly thinking about donating a few to some elderly and maybe some of the nursing/assistant living places. I am wanting to build CRW cages.

Of course these things cost money and like a lot of other folks with kid(s) in college, slower work, etc, I have less disposable income. I am not really trying to earn a living but would maybe like this hobby to become more self-financing.

I have been thinking about growing tomato plants (and some peppers) to sell at the local farmers market. I have purchased produce at the market but not plants but have seen a few sellers there in the spring with plants and stuff but not many.

Last year I started over 200 plants mainly to give away to friends, co-workers, etc. It was mainly a test to get my timing down, calculate shelf space, lighting needs, and supplies.

The competition is mainly the Big Box stores (Walmart and Home Depot) and their Bonnie supplied plants and few nurseries who sell wholesale supplied plants. Varieties include a few OP/heirlooms like Brandywine, Mortgage Lifter, Rutgers, Red Cherry and the infamous Yellow Pear. Along with the hybrids of Big Boys, Better Boys and Early Girls. My goal is to supply a better selection of OP/Heirlooms and also a different selection of some Hybrids like Sungold and Big Beef which are never sold here as plants and rarely has been offered locally as seeds. (of course with my luck everone will have those for sale this year...lol)

I figure I have a 3-4 week selling window (month of May) peaking at the May 15 last average frost date. I am basing my calculations on 600 tomato plants. Pepper plant quantities undecided. My goal is to offset as much as possible the cost of a couple rolls of CRW, soil and lumber for 10 raised beds (3x12) plus material to build a few Earthtainers.
Here are my questions to those of you who may have done this before.

1) Is 600 plants a reasonable number? I could do up to 1000 easy I think with some help of my Grandkid gardening students...lol.

2) I am guessing about 2-3 varieties per 100 plants. Meaning out of 600 plants I would offer 12-18 different varieties. I am planning a 75-25 % ratio of OP to Hybrid Varieties but probably closer to 60-40 % ratio of actual OP/Hybrid plant numbers. Actually if my plant numbers would increase to 1000 plants I would offer more OP varieties but keep the Hybrid varieties the same and just increase their plant count. Does this breakdown seem reasonable?

3) With a 3-4 week selling window do I stagger my seed starting so I have a number of plants in their prime each week (which sounds overly complicated) or do I start them all at once aiming at the May 15th peak day which seems simpler?

4) I am already starting some pepper seeds now and over the next month but dont really have a clue for best sellers, etc. I always raise a few for me to use and dry. So I could use some advice on varieties and numbers?

5) I think I have most of the OP seed I need except for Bradley which I plan to offer. However I will need to order some Hybrid seed soon. I know 2 of the Hybrids I want to offer are Sungold and Big Beef. I have several years of growing experince and they have both done well over time. I am wanting to buy these in larger than packet size quantity. I think TGS along with Johnny and Harris offer larger quantities. Are there other, better price vendors?

6) What I am forgetting or not thinking about?

Thanks in advance

Duane