First-- do you have a stall for selling things at the market. At most markets you have to pay for a stall and I don't think you would make enough profit from just selling tomato plants to pay for one. Not everyone wants or has a place to grow things either.

As for the time to sell them--that would be right about planting time. Again most people would not have a place to keep a tomato plant for any length of time. Your pricing should be not much more than most nurseries charge for a plant of the size you are selling.

I don't think that by law you can call a tomato plant organic either. There are certain growing and care procedures that organic growers have to follow in order to actually call their plants organic. You can however call them heirloom or heritage tomatoes. I would print out small pictures of the varieties and maybe a small blurb about them. Get some dollar store laminate that you don't need a machine for and either put them on the pot or make labels you can insert in the pot.

You might repost this in the Tomato forum. There are discussions about selling seedlings from time to time.

I use Craigslist to give away extra plants but you can sell there also. You might want to give that a try.

I have a flea/food market that is close by that you can rent a space buy the day for no more than 15 bucks a day.
I didnt know about the organic thing, I guess I will look into that.
And I will post at the tomato forum.

You also can't label them "heirlooms" just because they aren't a hybrid. All heirloom varieties are open pollinated but there are tons of OP varieties that are NOT heirlooms. To qualify as a heirloom it must have a documented provenance of 40 years or more.

Just call them tomato plants and tag each with its name. ;)

Dave

But they are heirlooms, I didnt just decide that on my own lol!

Well I typed out a response and must not have entered.
The point of me labeling them organic and heirloom and having a little sign with a picture and description is to set mine apart from everyone else who sells regular ol "tomato plants". I had these extra seeds and figured there would be people who would appreciate having something different.

I dont know who buys food plants just by a name but I certainly wouldnt do that, how would you know if you bought a roma, paste, slicer, cherry or whatever! ;P

Hey ohio, I'm from Cincy. You can not call them "organically grown" or similar names unless you have certification from the people with badges who have inspected your growing area and methods for (I think) three years. But you can say they have been grown using only organic methods. Splitting hairs but that's how life works. Ohio has no laws that I know of about calling a plant an heirloom. In all honesty, most buyers won't give a crap. Likewise, there is no legal definition of heirloom when it comes to selling plants in Ohio. Siletz, developed by Dr. Baggett from Oregon St. is an heirloom, Legend, a modification of Siletz but almost as old, is not.

Last year I sold mine for $2.50 each. They were nice plants, hardened off, in 3" square containers. I had one person complain but sold over 200 plants. This year, I am asking $2 each, only because I don't need to recoup the costs of buying lights and building chambers.

Good luck. And BTW, my biggest sale date last year was May 2. I managed to snag a spot at a Cruise-In Show (I was the only vendor) and even though the crowd was low, sales were great. I sold almost 100 plants that day.

Mike

I usually sale my plants....tomato's geranium's, petunia ect... right around our last frost date.

I have sold at garage sales. Set up tables at my house & friends houses....who have lots of walking traffic.

Depending on the size of plant, I charged $1.50 to 2.50 a plant. I have been doing this for a few years now.I have people stop at my house & ask when I'm going to start my sale :)

Good luck to you!

Thank you for the info, I too dont really need to make a lot of money off of them, i had all the seeds I just bought more cups and potting soil to put them in but that doesnt equal to that much. I guess I will ditch the organic labels I will however still call the heirlooms out cause I can, lol. I was also thinking along the lines of 2 bucks a plant. Your may 2 date seems so early but you have a earlier last frost date i suppose being all the way down there. Im thinking im going to take the largest part of the plants on may 15. I am hoping that that will be a good in between date, a lot of people do mothers day here but that really usually ends up being too early, memorial day is usually the sure bet.