Allotments 4 All

Hi guys

I sell plants to fellow allotmenteers and what with the ever increasing prices of seed,compost, heat etc I never know what to charge them so I thought I would come to you and ask you what you consider to be a fair price?

All my plants are in 3" pots and ready for planting out!

I will have;

Tomatoes,
Sweet peppers
Chillis
Cucumbers
Cauliflower
Calabrese
Climbing French beans (Cobra)
Ditto Blue Lake
Runner beans - Enorma

Your opinions would be appreciated...Tg

Hi Tee gee
Well i sell a few at the car boot sale and toms and peppers go for 60p each or 2 for a pound not sure about beans and things maybe a pound for 6 in a tray?

Dont sell them at below what they are costing you to make though. I reckon a tomato plant costs me around 10p (I grow them to sell in juice cartons though so no pot in price!)

Good luck
x Sunloving

OK this is a real can of worms but I'll have a say too.

50p for the toms, peppers, cucumbers and the like.

Then next to nothing for everything else - maybe 10p / 20p a plant?.

Allotmenteers are a tough crowd to make any money from.

But kudos to you for doing it, there are so many peeps out there who wont pay for good seeds/plants and don't make the connection with disappointing veg.

As they used to say in the chem lab where I started off as a youngster: Turdus Reactem, Turdus Extractem !

I suppose it depends what sort of 'feeling' you're going for - is it  a sharing/friends/community type of price? If so my feeling is 50p would be good for peppers, squash and toms, or as other say, sell a bundle for £1 or £2.  Especially beans where you need a few plants. That way you know you will get them all off your hands as well.

There's a greengrocers near our allotments which sells plants, grown at home by someone locally, and I think they're about £1.99 each. So if people have seen them for that sort of price, they should be very happy with yours for less!

We've been selling cabbage and cauli 6 strip for 1.00, cucs, chilli, sweet peppers and small yellow beans all for 50p each. Couldn't keep up with the cucs and chillies . Our toms are already flowering so they're 1.00 each  ;D

I use top quality compost and a 10" pot costs only 30p to fill, so a 3" pot would cost me about 2p.

I would pay 50p for a good sturdy plant of tomato, chili, bean, cucumber etc, and 10p at most for the run of the mill plants, including veg plants

Seeds are so cheap via some excellent ebay sellers eg 1000 greyhound for 99p

Thanks guys those were the sort of figures I was thinking of charging.

Cucumbers put me in a bit of a quandary when you think that the seeds can cost a pound each to buy (£2.99 for 3) not that I pay that for them.

I generally get my seeds at one of the late shows when people such as T&M, Sutton's, DT Browns and I even saw Kings  selling their seeds at £1 a packet this year at Harrogate spring show.

So once again thanks....Tg

Quote from: Tee Gee on May 14, 2012, 10:28:29
Cucumbers put me in a bit of a quandary when you think that the seeds can cost a pound each to buy (£2.99 for 3) not that I pay that for them.

Clear out your local Wyevale of all female cukes and other high-value seed etc in the 50p sale [/sneaky]

I find year-old seed is generally at least 90% as viable as this years (except for that old friend, the parsnip), it still makes cukes the most expensive seed I buy but by flogging off a few spares I can frequently get a chunk of my seed costs back.... ONce I've finished the long-term plan inside the greenhouse (will be at least another year) I'm planning on raising a lot of extra plantlets for selling, and as has been pointed out there are some bargains to be had seed-wise on ebay.... though I tend to find that they're more frequently of the "small quanitity that makes sense for a small price" type... I wouldn't want to be downwind of anyone who ate 1000 cabbages in a year [/manvsfood]

Agree with all the above really! ;D

I bought a lot of Minibel and Tumbling Tom seeds in Wilco's sale just to grow for our Allotment association plant sale and cherry toms as that was what folk were asking for last year. Big Tom plants sold for £1, small ones in 3" pots went for 50p and modules of 6 tomato plants sold well at £2.50. All my heritage tomato spares sold well this year, but what I was asked for this year were plum  and beefsteak tomatoes, particularly the little mini plum types, so I will get some from Franchi for next year as they are so generous with their seed quantities.
I think it depends on who is buying as to whether they perceive your prices as bargains or not..... ::) Personally if I saw a plant I really wanted such as an unusual tomato variety I would get it so I could save my own seeds, and if I were replacing plants that I had lost to frost for example I would probably pay more so I could get them at the right time as I would have no time to resow, such as the chillies and peppers.

chriscross!!  I keep all seeds, bar parsnips, year on year in a an airtight box in the fridge and I get very good germination, even with 3 year old seeds

I use two ebay sellers a LOT

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/CUCUMBER-EARLY-SPRING-BURPLESS-F1-30-FINEST-SEEDS-/280875396491?pt=UK_HomeGarden_Garden_PlantsSeedsBulbs_JN&hash=item41657a6d8b#ht_2233wt_1037

and also one called nutsncones. Their seed is 100%.

p&p is discounted or free for more than one lot of seeds so, even now, I have ordered some for next year. 99p for 30 cucs, 600 boltardy etc amazing value

At our plant sale yesterday we had absolutely no problem selling tomatoes in 3" pots at £1 each or 3 for £2.50.  Chillies were £1 each, so were courgettes.  If the cukes had been a bit bigger they would have been £1 each.

We are by no means in an affluent area but nobody said the prices were too dear. Mind you, the plants were nice and healthy-looking.

If I had to give them away for 50p or less I wouldn't bother growing them.