Price for seedlings?
 

Wondering what others charge for tomato seedlings?

Mine are Organic, Heirlooms in 4 inch pots and I've charged $2 each the last several years. After a trip to the big box hardware store today I'm thinking that's too cheap! Their conventional hybrid tomatoes were in 5 inch pots but about the same size as mine and were over $3.50 each.

Thanks!

The general standard I see is that a good seedling should be about $3.

There are several businesses on the internet that want significantly more.

DarJones

Yeah, I sold mine for $3. The 4-packs I think I sold for $6, which is way too cheap.

But yeah, I'd say $3.50 is fair. I actually paid that for a couple plants I bought from a reputable source the other day.

I'd like to sell them for more like $2.50 and I really would if I could grow enough to make a bit of change. Plus if you just go up $0.50 folks aren't likely to throw a fit if they're your regulars from previous years.

I price my seedlings anywhere from 2.50 - 4.00. They seem to do well and I haven't had any complaints. I base my prices on seed availabilty, the harder for me to find the seed the higher the price.

$3 each or 10/$25

I have been selling for $2.50 per plant, but this year my sales have went to the Basement. I don't know if the heirloom trend is waning or there is just too much competition. I reduced them to $2.00 and staring Saturday I will be selling them For $1.00 at the Farmer's Market. I hate to throuw them away.

I'm selling them for $3 in 4" and 5" pots this year. Given how inflation is running rampant, due to the billions and billions of funny money that the Federal Reserve is printing, you've got to raise prices significantly each year just to be able to buy the same amount of "stuff" yourself from the proceeds. :(

Around here I am use to getting them(when I do buy them) for 1.99 per six pack.1 gal pot $5 to $5.99.


Kevin

We get $3.50/plant in 4" pots.
If you have left over plants at the end of the season we have found a lot of places that would like them for food pantry kitchen gardens, low income community gardens, etc - and most places give you retail value as a tax deduction. It seems like the catholic charites are really involved in getting people growing for the hungry.

Thanks for all the good info on prices!

I ended up selling mine for $3 at a local Health food store and $2 at the local farmer's market. After seeing other's selling their hybrids for $1.50 I got scared. Next year maybe I'll do $2.50. It so much easier not to deal with coins though. LOL

I tried $3/plant, but sales were much better with a 4/$10 offer as well. Most folks went for the 4/10 deal, which moved more plants, and I didn't need to carry quarters around.

My plants are in either 3.5" square pots or plastic drinking cups. This year I got a bunch of pressed 4 cup carriers like you get at fast food joints, and they hold the cups & pots securely for the trip to their new home. Worked out great, and customers were happy to be able to easily carry their plants.

I sold them for $2 each, 3 for $5, 7 for $10 and cheaper with higher quantities. I'd say I averaged about $1.50 each because I usually throw in extra plants with each order.

I had SEVERAL customers tell me my plants were way too cheap. I'm thinking of going up to $2.50 - $3.00 each or 5 for $10 next year.

I'm also at the point with my customer base where I don't think I'm going to take on many new customers except for referrals from existing customers. :panic:

[QUOTE=whistler;217923]This year I got a bunch of pressed 4 cup carriers like you get at fast food joints, and they hold the cups & pots securely for the trip to their new home. Worked out great, and customers were happy to be able to easily carry their plants.[/QUOTE]

Sounds like a great idea. May I ask where you got them? My window of profit is so small I couldn't afford to pay much. Those carriers might even be good for display; my cups kept falling over in the wind. (Maybe because my plants were too leggy.)

I had to resort to putting the plants in plastic shopping bags (repurposed from our supermarket purchases). Customers asked for the (1020?) watering trays the plants were sitting in but I explained that the trays cost me 90 cents each. (One customer actually paid me the 90 cents.)

The local nursery throws away/recycles all their carrying trays after the plants are sold - they let me have all I wanted for free. Some of the ones that held flowers had a bit taller holes, and held the cups perfectly. Doesn't solve your take home problem, but worked perfectly for display.

tam91:

Thank you!

Another seller used those plastic carrying trays to hold his pots of heirloom tomatoes and cleverly taped laminated 3x5 picture/info cards to the trays in front of each variety. I'm sure more people were willing to try these heirlooms when they could see a pic of the resulting fruit and read some history/info.

Well, that's a project for me and my computer this winter. Don't have a laminator, though.