[Market-farming] Transplants

Liz liz at horseshoegardens.com
Sun May 3 11:55:18 EDT 2009


Hey Sheila,
 
We've had a crash course in selling transplants the past few weeks.  We have
over 50 varieties of tomato transplants--7 hybrids, the rest heirloom.  We
encountered 2 issues, one with much larger transplants, and the other with
much smaller transplants in comparison to the other vendors.  
 
Most of our transplants were/are WAY much larger than others at market.
I've never had the full luxury of starting plants in heated greenhouse space
so I wasn't sure about when I should start seeding; plants grew much faster
than anticipated.  We only used fish emulsion and a really good organic
growing mix and didn't expect such happy growth.  We had full-size, very
healthy transplants at 4 weeks--2 weeks sooner than could be planted in the
market area!  Not only did the plants grow much faster but we also started
them much earlier than necessary since I was afraid we'd miss the window for
transplants at our market.  We're 2 zones above the market area.  Many
customers have been thrilled about the much larger transplants as compared
to what other vendors offered, but knowledgeable customers did not want
transplant at that size.  They quickly overcame that hesitancy after we
instructed them to pinch off the lower leaves and plant up to the growth
center which would result in a thicker stem. 
 
Our second issue with much smaller transplants as compared to most of what
we offered came about when it became evident we had a much longer transplant
selling season than we thought.  And we were quickly selling out of popular
varieties...I'd started 6000 plants, I thought that was enough!!  I'd
figured new market, new growers, it would take awhile for customers to warm
up to us, but we started off with a bang that hasn't let up.  We've been
selling multiple flats to farmers/vendors also which resulted in depleted
inventory.  After realizing I'd forgotten some key varieties such as Sun
Gold, I quickly started a new batch of seeds 4 weeks ago which we just took
to market yesterday.  These transplants have their second set of true
leaves, much smaller plants than our other transplants.  In anticipation of
customers' reluctance to purchase "small" starts, I made up signs with
attractive descriptions of these varieties which made them WANT to buy
these, and we let them know that the transplant season doesn't end for
another month so these smaller plants will catch up quickly. 
 
Even yesterday we still had folks telling us they'd be back in a couple of
weeks as they'd not put in their gardens yet and didn't normally until the
end of May so they were happy to see young transplants.  We also had an ag
agent stop by to chat and he told me he'd started advising gardeners who
called in about blight problems to rip out the old plants and put in new and
to also do this for fall gardens, which means an even longer, albeit
smaller, transplant selling season for savvy growers.      
 
I wouldn't say anything about roots not filling the pot.  The customer is
only interested in a healthy plant that will transplant well and produce in
their garden--much better to have a bit of loose soil than root-bound
plants!  If you don't want to bring young plants to market, put up signs
alerting customers to when your transplants will arrive.  Regular customers
who like to buy from you may delay their planting until they can spend their
money with you! 
 
just our experience...
 
Liz Pike
Horseshoe Gardens
Hillsville VA
zone 6b/7a


 

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