Serious about beginning your individual flower farm? Earlier than placing seeds within the floor, it’s necessary to plan out which crops you wish to plant.
The next is an excerpt from Flower Farming for Revenue by Lennie Larkin. It has been tailored for the online.
Crop Planning for A Flower Farm in 7 Steps
Crop planning is a posh exercise that would fill an entire e-book.
Very like within the monetary projections course of, I’m advocating for a top-down strategy that begins with the final and narrows right down to the precise (whereas a bottom-up strategy may contain starting with every particular person mattress of flowers and dealing backward).
Step 1: Set Weekly Complete Gross sales Objectives for Every Channel
To begin, we’ll take a look at your whole important gross sales shops and resolve in your weekly gross sales targets for every. Begin along with your top-line gross sales goal for the yr.
In chapter 5, we used the instance of a gross income objective of $90,000 over 30 weeks of manufacturing, or $3,000 every week.
On this course of, we’ll transfer ahead to divide that concentrate on amongst your gross sales channels after which divide these gross sales amongst your crops.
Weekly Gross sales Objectives for A Flower Farm
Desk 6.3 reveals a fast and soiled technique to set weekly gross sales targets for every goal.
First, put your whole weekly gross sales projection on the backside of every week’s column. Then, divide this whole amongst your buyer varieties.
You will have a dedication out of your florist prospects that they’ll purchase a mixed $1,000 every week, or data that present your farm stand is prone to promote $1,000 every week.
In my instance, I cut up $3,000 in whole weekly gross sales evenly amongst every of three channels.
Step 2: Select Your Crop Record
Bearded iris, an awesome perennial for specialty spring and summer season gross sales.
Utilizing your analysis about particular person minimize flower crops, it’s time to resolve which ones will earn their place in your farm this season.
You’ve recognized your goal buyer channels and the final capability of your farm’s operation; now you possibly can determine which crops will greatest serve each.
It may be overwhelming with so many nice minimize flower crops on the market, however when narrowing your record, do not forget that there’s by no means going to be one proper reply, so simply make your decisions and transfer on. You get to do it once more subsequent yr.
Selecting Crops for Your Flower Farm: Much less Is Extra
A sound technique for a full-time farm enterprise may be to promote as few as 5 or ten main crops at anyone time.
This may imply that you simply deal with three important spring crops and three important summer season crops, with a couple of extras scattered in.
This small quantity might shock the dreamers who think about a subject with each shade of the rainbow and who’ve dog-eared each web page of their seed catalogs, however most farms that begin with too extensive a crop record really excel at just a few of them.
For many farmers simply beginning out, preserving a slim record requires lots of self-control.
You may first brainstorm all of the crops you’ll like to develop, and, after reviewing it, slender it right down to the highest crops you watched you possibly can each promote to your goal prospects and produce properly in your farm.
Styles of Flower Crops
B-Aspect’s 2022 crop plan included the 12 varieties in desk 6.4.
I deliberate to promote principally retail via the farm stand (the place I targeted on bouquets with as few as 3 or 4 components every) and in restricted portions to florists.
As you acquire consolation with the crops in your record over the seasons, you possibly can add a couple of extra each season if the demand and wherewithal are there.
Reevaluating Your Crops
Lastly, as your farm matures, it’s vital that you simply reevaluate every crop via a lens of profitability.
However if you’re simply getting began, you typically don’t have sufficient data to do that.
Many of the farmers I work with who’re within the second, third, or fourth yr of enterprise react with absolute pleasure after I insist that they’ll typically minimize their crop record by 20 to 30 % and can instantly have a extra targeted and environment friendly farm season.
Regardless of the place you’re within the journey, goal to simplify. I say this within the context of my deep familiarity of the pattern amongst new farmers in our business to attempt to develop all the things.
Step 3: Create a Month-to-month Availability Chart
For every crop in your supposed record, the subsequent step is to sketch out the longest affordable season the crop could possibly be in bloom in your farm. This may double as a chart you share with potential prospects to allow them to know what you’ll offer this season.
Desk 6.5 reveals what I count on to be blooming on my farm throughout each month of my rising season.
Getting Seasonal Information: Hitting the Books
When you don’t but have your individual data, there are two good methods of getting a few of this data. The primary could be to “hit the books.”
Primarily based on data from seed firms reminiscent of Johnny’s Chosen Seeds and by discovering your space’s common frost dates and days to maturity (DTM) listed on-line, you will get a way of when every planting and succession will begin blooming.
Then you possibly can estimate how lengthy you’ll be slicing off of every plant. It’s this final half that’s the trickiest to determine, however the duty is less complicated should you hold your individual data over the seasons.
Getting Seasonal Information: Wanting Round You
The second possibility for gathering this data is to take a look at the farms and gardens round you, each in individual and on social media.
When was the primary foxglove blooming within the spring or the final dahlia within the fall? Notice that on this step, I don’t suggest going deep into your sowing schedule or planning the numbers of successions you’d want to attain the seasonal harvest.
Step 4: Create Weekly “Crop Plan by Gross sales Channel” Charts
As soon as you understand the tough month-to-month availability win- dow for every crop, you possibly can create a extra detailed weekly chart for every of your gross sales channels, as proven in desk 6.6. (So, I might make one template every for florist, wholesaler, and farm stand gross sales.)
Beginning Your Personal Chart
Begin by itemizing every week (as a date or every week quantity) throughout the highest and the crops in your record down the left-hand facet.
Add two extra rows on the backside: one the place you’ll plug in your whole weekly gross sales objective (whole calculated projection) for that channel (from step 1) and one the place you’ll calculate your weekly projected gross sales of all of the crops in bloom that week (whole weekly gross sales objective—you possibly can add a method to the relevant cells should you’re working in Excel).
I then undergo a course of just like that of the month-to-month availability chart, highlighting the weeks by which I hope to have every crop blooming (proven right here in purple). I cut up every week into two slender columns, one for bunch worth and one for variety of bunches.
Step 5: Allocate Weekly Gross sales Objectives to Particular person Crops
On this step, you’ll decide which crops will get you to your weekly gross sales objective: divide the objective quantity among the many crops in bloom throughout every week of the template. Which of your crops, and in what quantities, will lead you to this gross sales objective?
When you’re at a loss for learn how to venture every crop’s particular person gross sales, you possibly can simply cut up the crops evenly the primary time round.
Florist Gross sales for Your Flower Farm
Let’s stroll via an instance with desk 6.7, which is the template from the earlier step stuffed out particularly for florist gross sales.
In step 1, I made up my mind that I might goal for $1,000 every week in gross sales to florists. Due to this fact, I’ve plugged that quantity into the Complete Weekly Gross sales Objective row for every week within the desk. I’ve additionally entered the common worth per bunch of every crop into the suitable column.
Estimating Gross sales
Subsequent, decide what number of bunches of every crop you count on to promote in every week.
On this instance, I’ve determined to separate gross sales evenly throughout the crops out there throughout the week of April 1st. That is assuming that my florist prospects will take an equal quantity of every crop.
I would like to usher in $1,000 in florist gross sales by promoting the crops in bloom that week: tulips, ranunculus, peonies, raspberry, snapdragons, and inventory.
Utilizing the common worth for every bunch, I performed with the bunch numbers till I reached a complete near $1,000—on this case, $945.
How Many Bunches Will You Want?
At this step within the course of, you possibly can see what number of bunches of every crop you’ll want every week for every channel, after which modify your numbers from the highest down if one thing appears off.
Discovering the correct amount of a crop to offer is troublesome earlier than you will have particular prospects and data of how a lot they’ll purchase.
Whilst you get extra skilled, you’ll undergo years of under- producing a crop one yr solely to overcompensate the subsequent. The objective of the crop plan is to reduce the uncertainty.
Step 6: Decide Weekly Complete for Every Crop
Subsequent, you’ll add up the weekly gross sales projections from your whole charts (throughout all channels) to give you the quantity of every crop you’ll want every week, whole.
For instance, we discovered that for the week of April 1st, I’d goal to reap and promote 15 bunches of tulips designated for florist gross sales.
I’d then add this to the variety of bunches I’d calculated for wholesale and farm stand gross sales to give you the entire quantity of tulip bunches I’d want for the week of April 1st.
This can provide help to get to the subsequent step, which is working backward to determine what number of beds of every crop you have to plant to attain these numbers.
Step 7: Calculate Mattress House Wanted for Every Crop
It’s time to enterprise into the territory with maybe the scarcest assets within the minimize flower world: yield data.
There’s not an entire lot of knowledge on the market for flower farmers, and predicting yields is troublesome for a lot of causes. There are two totally different choices for locating the variety of crops wanted to attain particular gross sales targets.
How Many Stems Can You Minimize Every Week?
The primary is to make use of a easy estimate of what number of stems you may be capable of minimize from any plant every week.
To err on the conservative facet, you possibly can assume a salable harvest of only one or two stems per week per plant, relying on the crop, after which estimate the variety of weeks you count on it to be blooming in your local weather. This works properly for some crops, reminiscent of dahlias.
Over the combination, most growers will inform you that by the tip of the season, they’ve minimize and bought about one stem per plant per week of their rising season.
Whereas this estimate doesn’t apply to all crops, it’s a begin, and it’s the best technique on the market.
Digging Into Every Crop
The second possibility is to dig into every crop independently and estimate what number of salable stems every plant will produce over its lifespan; then divide that by the weeks you count on it to bloom.
This can be a big knowledge hole within the business. All of us must get higher at monitoring after which sharing our personal yield knowledge, regardless of how totally different one farm or season is perhaps from the subsequent.
As a begin, I’ve compiled desk 6.8 based mostly on anecdotal averages of stem yields per plant per season from my farm and others.
So as to add to this rising knowledge set, please go to the Sources web page of www.flowerfarmingforprofit.com.
Calculating Numbers for Beds
Utilizing the entire bunch numbers for every crop from step 6, I calculate roughly what number of beds I would like based mostly on my greatest try at yield data.
If I count on ranunculus to yield 7 stems per plant over the course of the season, and I calculate that I would like 70 bunches (700 stems) to fulfill my spring gross sales, I do know that I would like 100 crops.
To be on the protected facet, I add 20 % to my estimated variety of crops and develop 120 crops.
I then calculate how a lot mattress area I would like based mostly on spacing data from my very own notes or from assets reminiscent of Johnny’s Chosen Seeds or the brand new Floret Plant Library (https://library.floretflowers.com).
Really helpful Reads
Changing into a Flower Farmer
Pinching Flowers to Extend Bloom: When and How