Market Farming

[Dean Mullis <demullis AT InfoAve.Net>]

We started displaying in cheap, dark green, plastic waste baskets.  The kind 
you would put
in a guest bathroom.  We grow the State Fair mix from Johnny's.  An ounce 
($8.30) will
direct sow 750' row feet with some left over.  I use an earthway seeder and 
the cucumber
plate and don't thin.  I plant 2 rows in a 375' 50-inch wide bed.   I 
cultivate till they
are about 12" high and then lay down drip tape and much with straw from round 
bales.  Takes
time to mulch but then I am down with weed control for the zinnias.
We bunch as we pick, 15+ to a bunch.  We used to try and "arrange" in the 
field, but the
State Fair variety is so varied, 15 randomly picked flowers always makes a 
nice bunch.
We used to strip most of the leaves off, but one Friday evening, we were in a 
hurry and
didn't, and it has doubled our sales from 20 to 40 bunches a market.  We can 
sell between 35
and 40 bunches per Saturday @$4/bunch.
We have had minor success with sunflowers and dismal failures with other 
species such as
statice and celosia.  The zinnias are pretty trouble-free and profitable in 
our situation
and will last around a week for the customer.  We like to tell our customers 
that they are
programmed to die on Fridays.
We do not use a preservative, we tell the customers to trim the ends every 
day or two and we
do use well water.
Hope this helps.