selling seedlings

chickennoodle

Hi,
I'm setting my children a entrepreneurial for 2017. They are beginning to brainstorm ideas and my daughter wants to try and grow and sell seedlings/ plants.


We only have a small east facing (boo) garden with one of those makeshift greenhouse things.


I guess Im trying to glean some info to help her out(shes 8) so questions are:


*recommended plants that would sell well and easy enough for an 8 year old to grow.
*ideas on where to sell
*how much she might be able to charge
*container ideas? (was thinking used washed plastic cups?)


Any help &advice gratefully received.

Farway

Runner bean plants, sell well because a lot of people fancy growing them when it is too late to sow them, could put say have half a dozen in the kind of punnets mushrooms are sold in

DaftyDuck

Having started gardening as a tiny person, and still doing it (wider now, if not much taller, now) I'd much encourage it. Tempered with some realistic damping of expectations.

Selling price will be low, unless uncles, cousins and nice old folk can have their arm twisted. Imported seedings abound, even Aldi sell posh plants for peanuts, and what your imp will grow may well not be perfect. So, I'd set expectations low.. but still encourage.

One possibility is to grow for a charitable cause - a local one that has a sale/bric a brac/fete, where any money raised is a bonus. Did that, in my teens, and it did feel good! Helped the local stray cats, so they also felt good.

Otherwise, selling at the front gate is as good a place as any, even if using an honesty box, rather than a manned stall.

Personally, I'd encourage vegetables and the like, as some can be grown through to eating, and that's reward in itself. I'd consider tomatoes, peppers and courgettes, but I'd aim for the slightly exotic varieties, as these may promote more interest on sale, and may well keep the child's interest for longer.

A small greenhouse is ample for starting these things off. Don't sow too early; patience here is key. Planting regularly over a few weeks will bring the best (educational) result. You've plenty of time to plan and order the seed. Christmas stocking-fillers!

For flowerpots, try Freecycle. If your post popped up on my local one, I would offer you several hundred at least, and I'm not alone. Every keen gardener in the World has dozens or hundreds spare.

If you aren't doing veg, and are sticking to flowers, aim to make them decorative in display. Instant idea; visit the local Charity shops, and ask if they have old/unneeded tea cups and mugs, even chipped and broken vases, and plant them up. Plant in a plastic pot, tuck in a cup, and sell for a fortune. (If, in twelve years she's selling these "Moonpig" style, and rolling in gold sovereigns, do remember Dafty, please :D )

Children (i.e. me as a kiddie) always overwater and overfertilise things; probably 'cos we are starved and thirsted by our lousy parents... So, try to encourage patience and not do this.

One other suggestion (he says, looking to the windowsill, and smiling).... grow some cacti from seed. They are surprisingly easy (seed can be expensive), and slow growing. That one on my windowsill, mum and I planted that, back in the early 1970's.

Now, shower soon, as I need to get the soil out from my fingernails! Happy memories. Not rich ones, but happy ones!

Happy growing(up)!

unrecordings

As a first attempt, I'd go with herbs. Rosemary from cuttings, and something like Oregano (which, once it starts to spread is brilliant for propagating). Maybe horseradish might be a good one too

Daisymaisy

So many options . Here are a few:
1. Sweetpea seedlings. They are quite hardy so shouldn't take up space in your mini greenhouse.
2. Chillis - very popular these days. They will need to be started indoors and are started early in the year. Look for chillis that are produced on smaller plants as these can be grown indoors on windowsills in most homes increasing your potential market.
3. Dwarf sunflowers - cheerful, multi flowered and manageable unlike their lofty cousins.
4. Runner or french beans - both easy to grow.
5. cucumbers, courgettes and squashes but pick some unusual varieties for example a yellow courgette instead of the normal green ones etc.
6. Tomato seedlings - like the chillis will need to be started indoors. Don't be tempted to start them too early. You won't be able to put them outside until it is warm and all risk of frost is over. Sungold are a good option, the seeds are not cheap (check eBay for better deals than the usual seed companies)but for that reason they are a 'premium' plant rather than the run of the mill tomatoes and you can charge more.


If you plant open pollinated, non F1 seeds then you could grow a few of your seedlings on yourselves and save seed from them for next year :j

Once you know what you want to grow you could ask for some seeds on freecycle, a lot of gardeners (well at least me) find packets of seeds irresistible and have way too many You could also ask for compost, pots, plant labels you never know what people have in their sheds that they want rid of until you ask.

With regard to pricing check what B&Q and Homebase are selling at and charge a little under their price as then you can say you are cheaper than them so they are unlikely to get a better deal.

A laminated image of the fully grown plant or vegetable on the sale table also helps buyers to visualise what they will get from their new seedling.

Growing from seed is the most exciting part of the year for me, hope your daughter enjoys it.

spadoosh

Veg should always sell and can be sold quite small where as flowers i believe most people would like it to already be flowering.

Im a tech person so think a good place to sell would be facebook. Maybe set up a facebook page and teach about e commerce and social media. Free to do and doesnt take long. Theyve got local selling pages and could easily be shared out among friends and family to potentially reach 000's of people (ok they wont all buy in fact most will ignore but its a lesson).

Youre never going to be able to charge a lot for seedlings on their own. Daisy has some cool ideas on up selling the product, pinterest could probably give you some more ideas.

For containers i would recommend going to a B&Q (guess other diy sheds will do similar) and asking the garden centre staff for some. I used to work there and we would skip thousands of them every year. Ive never had to buy a container.

Good luck, sounds like fun!

Daisymaisy

Good call on Pinterest spadoosh - lots of inspiration on there.

Another unusual tomato to grow - Indigo rose - most of the skin is black/purple but the flesh is a pinky red. Plenty of pictures of this one on Pinterest.

Honeysucklelou2

When I have sold seedlings in the past, I used to put a couple of sentences of information with a small picture alongside the plant. Takes a few minutes to do but useful particularly if you have an unmanned stall at the garden gate. I've used old fruit and veg punnets from the supermarket to sow seeds in. The plastic punnets usually have drainage holes already!