How many winter tulips can I force & sell in a tiny 4.5 x 2.5ft footprint? + January numbers!
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- Опубліковано 15 жов 2024
- My winter tulip forcing setup is a relatively small footprint but... I can still grow enough to make a profit! I walk through my setup and how much I grew/sold in January. Of course, I would be remiss to not cover costs!!
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Hi Jess. Just wanted to take the time to tell you how much I appreciate the types of videos you create. I really like that I can go to your list of videos and pick out the one I need to hear. This is such an important part of the flower farming business. Yesterday I applied for my sales tax license and had butterflies in my stomach because now I really am in it. I also applied for the name of my business with a sole proprietorship. I still have to get my beds built, I have gophers and deer pressure so I need raised beds with hardware cloth on the bottom.. but now I now how to account for those expenses. I am very interested in forcing tulip bulbs in winter but that will have to be in the plans for 2024, I have enough work to do now. I also need a little money for that operation. But thank you so much. Please keep the business side of the videos coming. I devour every one.
I appreciate this and am glad you too the plunge! It's what makes things feel "official"! Best of luck to you in getting everything set up. It's alot of work but once it's done, it's done!! You will figure out how to account for those expenses. Focus on varieties you are confident you can grow, sell those and reinvest that money!
I so like watching you, I don't plan to grow and sell flowers but I like watching you
I appreciate that friend :)
Hi fellow flower farmer and numbers nerd, I REALLY appreciate your deep dive on the business side of flower farming. Thank you SO MUCH for the time and effort you spend on these videos. I’d also like to recommend the book Profit First for your business. It’s been invaluable to me!
Ohhh you are the second person to recommend that! I downloaded a sample and may take the plunge to reading it in full :)
I have setup my small business with the Profit First principles and I wouldn't have it any other way.
"Investing in your business" can easily become a way to overspend on things without guilt, but profit being the end goal, it needs to be on top of the priorities from the start.
I love LMZ's idea of keeping it very simple at first, finding things that can make you money consistently and THEN, when you have cash flow in your business, you can add new products, markets, etc.
Absolutely love your realistic breakdowns and transparency, it is such a valuable resource and interesting topic!
I'd be too nervous to grow this many bulbs without a definite buyer 😅. I'm flat out fronting up to a few farmers markets a month! Good on you Jessie! Keep going - you'll get the florists on board in the end..😊
Haha! Alison, I think you will be able to achieve more than you think based on our limited conversations via these comments. Back in November, I agonized whether I should be buying 1900 bulbs because there was a Black Friday sale. The bulbs were 20% off. I came to the conclusion that no risk = no reward. I am so glad I took that risk because I would have run out of bulbs to grow given many came in too diseased to force hydroponically. I've always been a believer that we all have the ability to "figure things out". When you have hundreds of stems coming in at once, it will force you to get creative and out of your shell. Sunflower Steve has said, you should be composting stems every season bc the last thing you want is to not have enough stems when there is demand.
Please do let me know how your farmers markets go, but don't let that be your only sales outlet! Once you feel like you have a good hang of that, start diversifying!
Can’t wait to hear how V day goes for you, good luck!
Thank you friend!!
I'd love to know your thoughts on this, as you've got me reconsidering trying hydro tulips....im in zone 5 and really don't have the desire to hit the Vday market, or to have any available before Easter...I wonder if I can just buy tulips as usual (paying attention to varierty of course) and cool them myself..it seems as though I'd have enough time to do that
Most wholesale suppliers will cool the bulbs for free or for a nominal cost (1-2 cents / bulb). This is a much better route unless if you have something like a spare fridge in which you could cool yourself. But there is definitely still risk of the bulbs not holding properly and being overtaken by rot/disease :(
I'm so excited to watch your progress! I have a couple of questions:
Can you share which company you purchased your hydroponic trays from? I'm having a hard time sourcing them right now. Also could you share the bulb company where you purchased your bulbs? You can DM me if you'd rather not publicly comment. Thank you!,,
Hi there! Happy to share :)
1) Purchased the hydroponic trays for Leo Berbee. I believe their $65 price is now for 3 trays that are shipped in a regular tulip crate
2) I purchased bulbs from 3 companies- ADR, Leo Berbee and Tulip Workshop. The Tulip Workshop bulbs are only offered to their students though and was the most accurate when it came to cooling information for 5C bulbs. I found that bulbs sourced elsewhere didn't give me as accurate info and led to me getting very short stems (some no stems at all!)
@@bareflowerfarm Yeah, I actually just got off the phone with Ball Seeds and they DO have hydroponic trays for less than Leo B~ BUT she said she didn't know when they would be available (not helpful).
As far as the bulb purchase goes: are you saying that the bulbs from Leo and ADR did not grow as expected? WHAT? That's crazy! Isn't that their business? Flowers? Bulbs? (Sorry, I'm on a Monday rant I guess!)
@@bareflowerfarm Ok~ then I guess I'll get back on the phone and call Ball again and ask about THEIR tulip bulbs! Thank you so much for sharing your tulip journey. It's so helpful!
@@mtnprairieflowerfarm I would say the cooling times from Leo Berbee were def more accurate. From ADR, the singles I got had I think most of the cooling times but… the doubles didn’t. While these are big bulb companies, I’ve realize that not all are supplying vast quantities to winter forcers!
Hi Jess, I heard hydroponic tulips so often lately….are there only certain types of tulips suitable for this practice or any variety will do as long as they complete their chill period? Very interesting! Thank you so much for the video❤️
That's correct! Not all varieties are good for tulip forcing. I'm not sure why exactly certain tulips aren't a good fit. Part of The Tulip Workshop curriculum included a list of all of the varieties that they suggest forcing and I based my bulb selection off of that.
Those looks like great low profile grow lights- where did you get those?
Hi there! These are good ole reliable shoplights from Amazon :)
💜
Will you be growing hydroponic tulips throughout the summer as well?
I will likely stop in the spring. Emily from The Tulip Workshop grows them into June but she's also up in Vermont which is naturally cooler than where I am. A couple of constraints from not having enough bulbs to not wanting to provide any supplemental cooling in my garage to root make it less sustainable in my view to push too much into the warmer months! Mother's Day is probably the limit bc I can still root naturally in my garage.
Do you have a link for the new tray supplier?
There's no link but I reached out to beekenkamp in the netherlands!
Did you buy pre chilled bulbs?
Yup! The majority of my winter forced tulips were from pre chilled bulbs