Can Anyone Give Me Some Tips On How To Grow Herbs For Profit?
Posted by admin on February 17, 2010
I have some large oregano, parsley, cilantro and basil plants in pots. I would like to sell them at a local farmer’s market. Can anyone give advice or tips?
Determine what size pots you are going to sell…4″, gallons, etc.
Compare prices at the local nurseries and what other plants are selling for at the market. You would probably price just under a nursery so that you are competitive.
Know your plants! Be prepared for all kinds of questions on care, how to use, how to transplant, etc. Be sure each plant has a label and put as much information on the label as you can! (If you maintain a website, you can put all this information there too so they can reference it when they get home. A lot of people get the information when they get the plant but don’t remember all of it by the time they get home.)
You can make little signs for each plant when they are displayed in groups. You can have a sign for oregano, parsley, etc.
Have your prices clearly indicated. As a consumer, I don’t know how many items I have not purchased because I couldn’t find a price and just didn’t want to take the time to ask.
Sell good quality, healthy plants. Don’t sell leggy or overgrown plants. You will learn the timing of when to seed up and how much to seed and how to stagger your batches as you go. But be sure you have nice plants!
You won’t get rich doing this but it’s fun and you meet a lot of nice people. Good luck!
talk to the market manager about rules of the market (if there is no market manager, avoid that market as it will not be well run which means not a lot of customers and poor sales).
Show up every week, consistency is a key to good sales.
Do not expect to do well in sales your first season. it takes a while to build a customer base.
Use a table with a table cloth.
Greet everyone who walks past your stand with a cherry good morning (or good afternoon/evening if the market is that time of day) this gets boring but is important to do.
Do not under cut other vendors at market. All this does is lose you money and creates bad feelings towards you from more experience growers
Potted herbs sell best in May/June and after that sales will go down dramatically
Mikey baffled at your question……………Herb is healthy and fresh or herb is brown and dead ?????????