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  • From: "Kevin Ancell" <kancell AT goodearthgardens.com>
  • To: "Market Farming" <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [Market-farming] Sweat equity required
  • Date: Sun, 2 Mar 2003 09:47:15 -0800

Sweat equity required

By Mike Surbrugg
Globe Farm Editor

NEVADA, Mo. - Anybody who thinks they can get rich quick without a lot of
work by growing vegetables to sell wholesale or retail had better think
again.

"Know your costs and how you will sell what you produce," said Lewis Jett,
University of Missouri horticulture specialist.

People at a specialty crops meeting in Nevada last month were told to expect
to spend $8,000 per acre to raise tomatoes, $2,000 for an acre of
watermelons, $2,700 for an acre of cantaloupe and $1,200 an acre for sweet
corn.

The potential net return per acre is $3,000 to $5,000 for tomatoes, $600 to
$3,000 for sweet corn, $500 to $1,500 for watermelons and $1200 to $1,700
for cantaloupes.

Hours needed to grow an acre: tomatoes, 1,000; sweet corn, 100; squash, 425,
and pumpkins, 95. Labor includes planting, controlling weeds and harvesting.

Any sizable planting will require special equipment such as a one-row
planter. Most crops do best growing through openings punched into black
plastic laid along the row. Drip irrigation is a must.

Information on where to buy used equipment for vegetable production can be
obtained from Jett by contacting your county extension office.

Initial investments should be for drip irrigation, Jett said.

Lighter soil is better than heavy soil and growers should plant varieties
with resistance to diseases and insects. Extension offices have information
about varieties from asparagus to zucchini, he said.

Area vegetable growers have a huge population for potential customers from
Kansas City to Northwest Arkansas and Springfield.

Produce can be sold to a market, farmers' markets, produce auctions,
restaurants, institutions such as schools and jails, on the Internet and
through organizations where customers buy shares to get a weekly allotment
of vegetables.

Jett said growers often ask him how to get produce to market earlier or
later in the growing season.

One option is to grow some plants in hoop houses that can cost more than
$5,000 per unit. Such houses are made with plastic stretched over metal
tubing. The units are solar heated with ventilation in the roof (extra cost)
or by rolling up sides. Plants grow in the natural soil that can be formed
into raised beds. The area must be irrigated.

Such houses can provide a five-week jump on the season in the spring. It may
be necessary to cover plants if spring temperatures drop. Price rewards can
depend on markets and can be $2 or more for a pound of tomatoes in the late
spring.

In addition to warmer temperatures, hoop houses protect plants from hail,
wind and heavy rain damage. Rain protection helps reduce diseases in tomato
plants. Houses should be located perpendicular to the prevailing wind, he
said.

Spring temperatures in a hoop house can be 15 degrees warmer than the
outside temperature.

Adding extra layers of cover on rows can enable a crop such as lettuce to be
grown throughout the year.

Materials to make hoop houses are available from various sources, he said.
Hoop house can look similar to the plastic "greenhouses" seen on parking
lots of retail outlets that sell plants.




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