Richard

When I started selling gardening products and plants at Farmers' Markets, I was driving this Focus wagon and it seemed sufficient ...



In the following year it became clear that the wagon was too small so I purchased this 1 year-old cargo van from Enterprise:



That year, business was growing at a tremendous rate so I bought this 6' x 12' trailer ...



This fall I added another 80 varieties of fruit trees to my inventory and of course I couldn't fit a reasonable selection of those in the existing trailer, so this week I purchased a larger 7' x 16' trailer to haul plants to the market with!

__________________
Back in business at plantsthatproduce.com

Richard

I'm really happy with the new trailer. Today I took oodles of stuff to the market and set up this 800 square foot (74 sq. meters) display area! In 4 hours, I sold about 1/4 of what I brought.

__________________
Back in business at plantsthatproduce.com

Tony O

Good job. That's fantastic! Keep going like you are, you'll need a simi in a couple more years.
That last picture of the 7' x 16' trailer is the same as the one I got a few months ago. I'm hoping to be able to fill it up like that in the not to distance future.

__________________

Richard

If you are going to transport nursery stock efficiently, then you'll need some racks for flats of 4-inch pots, etc. Here's a pair of racks I built a year ago. The frames are 2x4's, the support rails are 2x2's, and the side guards are 4x3/4. Each level holds six 17-inch flats, so that's a total of 36 I can take to the market - unless of course there's one on my lap, another in the passenger seat, and so on!

.

__________________
Back in business at plantsthatproduce.com

Tony O

Looks good. How are they secured, to the walls, the floor, or braced with something?

__________________

Richard

Look on the left of the picture ... you'll see a bit of red. That is a bungee cord wrapped around a horizontal member and attached to a hook on the wall. There's another one farther down, the hook of the cord at the wall is barely visible in the photo.

All the roads I'm driving on are paved, so the weight of the flats on the racks and the bungee cord restraints are enough to keep the racks from moving more than an inch or two.

__________________
Back in business at plantsthatproduce.com

notrecruiting

Incredible set up. Looks like you got alot goin' for you. To sell 1/4 of your inventory is great!!! That's in a one day showing? You must have some nice property you're starting your stuff on. Are you selling clones? or everything from seed? or reselling stuff you find around?

__________________
If it'll hold soil or grow don't throw it out

Richard

Thanks! Today was another great day at the market. We again sold about 1/4 of what we brought in plants and about 10% of the fertilizer products -- all in 4 hours from 10am to 2pm. Whew!

The source of my plants varies by type, but a lot of it is purchased from wholesale growers.

• The 4-inch pots of vegetables and herbs are from seed or cuttings: historically I purchased all of them but this year I've started growing a portion of them from seed on my own. By next year I will probably start them all myself. My primary seed sources are (a) Grow Italian, (b) Johnny's Seeds, and (c) Renee's Garden.
• The cane berries I dig up from beds on my property. The other berries I purchase from Northwoods Nursery and AgriStarts.
• The grafted guavas and some other "standard" subtropicals are from La Verne, but the majority of the citrus and avocados are from Durling's.
• Nearly all my deciduous trees and shrubs are from Dave Wilson, but I root specific varieties of figs and pomegranates that are unavailable from traditional wholesalers.
• In addition to bananas, I also obtain Kiwi and other interesting plant starts from AgriStarts.
• Then I have more hard-to-find plants which I obtained by buying out most of the viable stock from Exotica in Bonsall, and also by requesting material from Germplasm repositories and collectors around the world.

Overall I have about 400 varieties of herbs and vegetables throughout the year and about 700 varieties of fruiting vines, shrubs, and trees. All of this I grow at my 1/2 acre home in northern San Diego county.

__________________
Back in business at plantsthatproduce.com

the flying dutchman

This link might be interesting for you Richard. It is probably Hollands
biggest supplier of Vegetables and Herbs seeds. They also sell specials
like edible mushrooms and edible bulbs and tubers.

https://www.vreeken.nl/2007/index102...php?urloptions=

They sell also "old" forgotten vegetables wich people used to eat in the past centuries.



Ron...

Richard

Here's a picture of my 1000 sq.ft. display at the Mira Mesa Farmer's Market about 1 hour before opening today. From left to right, I brought: 20 kinds of berries, 50 kinds of fruit trees, 100 types of fertilizers & supplements, 75 kinds of vegetables & herbs in 4-inch pots, 120 varieties of vegetable & herb seeds, some potting soil and a few tools.

__________________
Back in business at plantsthatproduce.com

Richard

Here's some of banana plants I brought in 15 gallon (57 liter) pots today. The varieties are Misi Luki, Dwarf Namwa, Dwarf Brazilian, and Manzano.

__________________
Back in business at plantsthatproduce.com