To work out how much to sell tomato plants for, cost a whole crop of starts: the seed, the seed-starting mix, the potting mix and 4-inch pots, the labels, the power for heat mats and lights, and the weeks of seeding, potting up and watering, then divide by the plants that make it to the sale. Price = full cost ÷ (1 − margin − fees). In the example below, 200 heirloom tomatoes started from seed use $110 of supplies and seven and a half hours of work, and 180 are good enough to sell, so each costs $1.59. At a 55% margin after 3% fees, that's $3.80, rounded up to $4. At a spring market's $4.50, each leaves $2.77; a garden center paying $2.25 leaves 59 cents. Below is a crop's cost, the price, peppers and other starts, garden centers, and a free calculator.
The short version
- Cost a crop: seed, starting mix, potting mix, pots, labels, and power for heat and light.
- Count the time: seeding, potting up and about six weeks of watering.
- Divide by the plants you sell, after the ones that damp off or stretch.
- Price = full cost ÷ (1 − margin − card fees), rounded up to a quarter.
- Heirloom and grafted tomatoes sell for more; peppers take longer and cost more.
- Garden centers pay about half retail; starts are a spring business, so price for the season.
- TaroStack counts every tray from seed to sale, with the losses recorded. More below.
What a crop costs
Mud Bay Market Garden, a made-up market garden in Olympia, Washington, I use in these examples, starts heirloom tomatoes in March for its May plant sale:
| 200 tomato starts | Amount | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Heirloom tomato seed | 200 at $0.12 | $24.00 |
| Seed-starting mix | 200 cells at $0.03 | $6.00 |
| Potting mix for 4-inch pots | 200 at $0.15 | $30.00 |
| 4-inch pots | 200 at $0.10 | $20.00 |
| Plant labels | 200 at $0.05 | $10.00 |
| Heat mats and grow lights, power | $15.00 | |
| Fertilizer | $5.00 | |
| Supplies | $110.00 |
Seeding takes half an hour, potting up the seedlings about 45 seconds a plant, and watering about 45 minutes a week for six weeks: 450 minutes in all, $150 at $20 an hour.
The losses and the cost
Twenty of the 200 damp off, stretch or don't fill the pot. The crop's cost is spread over the 180 that sell:
| A tomato start | Cost |
|---|---|
| Supplies, over 180 plants | $0.61 |
| Seeding, potting up and watering | $0.83 |
| Flat share and overhead | $0.15 |
| Full cost | $1.59 |
The price
| 4-inch tomato start | |
|---|---|
| Full cost | $1.59 |
| Price at a 55% margin after 3% card fees | $3.80 |
| Rounded up to a quarter | $4.00 |
| At $4.50, a spring market price for heirlooms | $2.77 left |
| A flat of 18 for $65 | $3.61 each, $1.91 left |
Heirlooms with names people know, grafted tomatoes and larger pots sell for more; price each from its own crop. A plant sale only happens in spring, so the margin has to carry the year's other costs of the starts: the lights, the shelves, the trays. The same method for perennials is in how to price plants, and how a market garden's year adds up in market garden business plan.
Peppers and other starts
Peppers germinate slower and need eight to ten weeks before they're ready, so the watering time and the power for the lights go up by about half; a 4-inch pepper start costs about $1.90 and prices around $4.50 at the same margin. Basil and lettuce are quick and cheap; squash and cucumbers are best started only a few weeks before the sale. Price every kind from its own weeks.
Garden centers and wholesale
| Price a start | Left after cost and fees |
|---|---|
| $4.50, at a spring market | $2.77 |
| $4.00 | $2.29 |
| $2.25, to a garden center | $0.59 |
A garden center at $2.25 a start leaves 59 cents after the time is paid. It works for growers who start thousands in bigger trays, with less handling a plant. How to set wholesale terms is in how to price handmade items for wholesale.
Get the calculator
Download the tomato start pricing calculator. Type a crop's seed, mixes, pots, labels and power, the plants you expect to sell, the minutes of seeding, potting up and watering, overhead, your hourly rate, card fees, the margin you want, a garden center price and a price to test; it works out the full cost of a start, the price for your margin rounded up to a quarter, and what each price leaves. It's an ordinary Excel file with no macros, and it works in Google Sheets, LibreOffice and Numbers.
Where this stops working
Thirty varieties of tomatoes, peppers and herbs, trays seeded on different weeks, starts moving from the lights to the hoop house to the sale table, and a few lost every week. A calculator prices one crop; it doesn't follow them all through the spring.
How TaroStack does it
TaroStack counts every tray from seed to sale, with the losses recorded.
Each crop a batch. Potting up a crop is a batch that takes the seed, mix, pots and labels off stock and gives the starts a lot and a date, and the starts that came out good and those that failed are recorded, so each crop's real cost shows.
Losses with a reason. Starts lost later leave stock as adjustments with a reason, so shrink is a number by variety.
Plant sale orders. Preorders for flats are sales orders, and the plants each customer gets are taken off stock as they leave.
| The job | Calculator | In TaroStack |
|---|---|---|
| What a crop cost | One crop at a time | A batch costed from what you paid |
| Starts that damped off | Estimated | Good and rejected on each batch |
| Starts lost later | Not counted | Adjustments with a reason |
| Flat preorders | A clipboard | Sales orders |
Batches, adjustments and sales orders are on every plan, from $49 a month. The first 30 days are free, with no credit card. If you'd like a hand setting up, ask, and we'll do it with you.