Be first and last to market
A Hensley's Seed Co. guide, drawing on advice from Lynn Byczynski, founder of Growing for Market
Selling over the longest season you can is key to a successful market farm. Arriving first with fresh produce in spring and keeping a range of products through winter sets you apart and builds loyal customers.
Running CSA shares across three or four seasons spreads out both the work and the risk, and can increase your income. Home gardeners get bragging rights with family, friends and neighbors.
Sow spring vegetables in an unheated hoophouse once daylight reaches 10 hours. From January through March, plant arugula, beets, carrots, chard, kale and collards, lettuce, radishes, salad mix, scallions, spinach and salad turnips.
As soon as the soil can be worked, start the same cold-hardy crops under low tunnels or caterpillar tunnels, a cheaper option than greenhouses.
After your last frost, set summer crops on plastic mulch to warm the soil as much as possible.
Cover new plantings with row cover to give seedlings a sheltered start.
Plant crops in several successions, counting back from your first fall frost to find the last sowing date.
Grow plenty of storage crops, such as onions, garlic, winter squash, potatoes, leeks, storage cabbage, carrots, parsnips, kohlrabi and sweet potatoes, to sell through fall and winter.
Plant cold-tolerant crops in the field and have row cover ready as the first frost nears.
For fall harvest, grow cold-hardy crops under low tunnels, caterpillar tunnels or hoophouses.
Founder of Growing for Market magazine
She and her family have grown vegetables and cut flowers in Kansas since the late 1980s, selling through CSAs, farmers' markets, restaurants, grocers and florists.
Her books on market farming include The Flower Farmer and The Hoophouse Handbook.
