Thanks for sharing. I have been inspired by you. So last autumn I brought 800 bulbs (20 different types) from a local garden shop. I've harvested my first 50 so will try selling my first 5 bunches. 😅 can totally see the appeal of hydroponics.
Have you heard of Jenny Love, a flower farmer in PA. She uses decking boards to create beds propped up by rebar to create low raised beds. When the growing season is over, the decking boards come down and the tubers can be pulled easily. Sorry i can't find the video anymore. I thought i saw it on the No Till Growers channel but now i can't find it.
Hey Jesse, great recap of your season. I would like to try hydro forcing to hit Valentine’s Day specifically as a supplement to field and crate grown. But I don’t have a basement, storage shed, barn, etc. to set up the whole system. I currently have grow lights on shelves for my seedlings but that’s sharing a laundry room with no other space to expand. Any idea on how much square footage you utilized and also, how many bulbs fit in each tray? I wouldn’t need thousands. Both my crate and field harvested super easily versus using a trench in my clay soil like last year. Only pain was washing off the leaves and stems. Thanks!
Hi Karen! The great news with hydroforcing is that you can achieve alot in a small space. Each tray can fit anywhere from 80-90 bulbs so realistically, you can have 2-3 trays and have a really good succession. I factor in 20% attrition for each tray, so you're talking about 65 ish blooming in a specific tray. 65 sounds like alot but it's really about 7-8 bouquets. So 2-3 trays would be about 15-25 bouquets at a given time. Each tray is basically the dimension of the crate, just shorter, so you can use to that see how many you can fit in your laundry room!
Did forcing off-season fetch a higher wholesale price/increased demand vs growing in field? Did timing affect profit? Maybe you don't know that just yet. Thanks for your videos!
Yes! It absolutely did. I should have mentioned the specifics in this video but didn't bc I talked about it in this video (in hindsight that was stupid because obviously not everyone watches every video!) ruclips.net/video/Hb3bBS3-b3Y/видео.html The cliffnotes version is- Winter forcing - ~$2 a stem wholesale, $2.25-$2.50 a stem retail Field tulips - ~$1.55-$1.85 a stem wholesale, $1.25-$1.65 a stem retail It will look different for everyone based on region, what kind of florist you sell to, how many people are growing field tulips, etc! But one thing for sure is, I have seen students of The Tulip Workshops all over the country is that $2.25-$2.50 retail price is achievable literally in most geographies!
I have been considering hydroponic winter growing tulips. However, with electricity prices being astronomical here in New England, I wonder whether the profitability is really there. It doesn't sound like you included the cost of electricity in your expenses and profit margin (maybe you did and didn't discuss it). Did you by chance take a look at those figures?
I did the math on the electrical input for the lights. It costs roughly $1 a day to run the lights. Given that each succession turns over 6 weeks, we are talking roughly $40 in electricity per succession at which im growing anywhere from 300-900 stems. So it’s about 5-10 cents a stem. Not negligible, but other things I also did not factor in are rubber bands, sleeves, etc. The goal is to eventually get solar panels (more a personal than business goal). This is also being very conservative bc sometimes I completely shut off the lights to slow things down and this calculation is running them 24/7 which isn’t necessary. I didn’t factor these things in bc I’m looking at the 20% of costs that impact 80% of the margin if that makes sense.
Very helpful! I've been wondering about growing tulips hydroponically. Also, can you tell me the brand of your sectional? Do you like it? I've been shopping for one.
Hi there! We got our sectional from Bassett furniture. They have a few showrooms where we used to live and we wanted to sit on the sofa before we committed bc it's one of the more expensive pieces of furniture you'll buy. Plus, I also liked they were made in America and attempted some level of sustainable practices. We ordered it right before covid (Jan 2020) and were impressed that they still delivered it to us on time. We love our sectional and I often tell Eric how glad I am we splurged on that sectional! I think the main thing is, I would not shop for a sofa without testing it. I did that once and it was a disaster - I bought a West Elm loveseat and it was terrible (ps I have stopped shopping there bc they have some very unsustainable practices but post college me felt so adult like shopping there lol!!)
Mid-Dec to mid-April is only 4 months, so you did even better. Love your videos.
Win!! Thank you ☺️
Thanks for sharing. I have been inspired by you. So last autumn I brought 800 bulbs (20 different types) from a local garden shop. I've harvested my first 50 so will try selling my first 5 bunches. 😅 can totally see the appeal of hydroponics.
How did the selling go?? Hopefully you are able to harvest most of the 800!
Another great video! Thank you ☺️
Great video - super helpful!
It was fun watching this while cleaning dirt off of tulips I pulled today 😆
Lol I definitely felt your pain 😆
Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge! Who is your bulb source?
Hi! I buy from the tulip workshop (they source only for their students) and Netherland bulb co
Have you heard of Jenny Love, a flower farmer in PA. She uses decking boards to create beds propped up by rebar to create low raised beds. When the growing season is over, the decking boards come down and the tubers can be pulled easily. Sorry i can't find the video anymore. I thought i saw it on the No Till Growers channel but now i can't find it.
Yes! Jennie is awesome. I will likely employ her method especially since we may have machinery to move compost from point a to point b!
Hey Jesse, great recap of your season. I would like to try hydro forcing to hit Valentine’s Day specifically as a supplement to field and crate grown. But I don’t have a basement, storage shed, barn, etc. to set up the whole system. I currently have grow lights on shelves for my seedlings but that’s sharing a laundry room with no other space to expand. Any idea on how much square footage you utilized and also, how many bulbs fit in each tray? I wouldn’t need thousands. Both my crate and field harvested super easily versus using a trench in my clay soil like last year. Only pain was washing off the leaves and stems. Thanks!
Note: I used the raised bed method (brought in extra soil to cover the bulbs vs digging a trench)
Hi Karen! The great news with hydroforcing is that you can achieve alot in a small space. Each tray can fit anywhere from 80-90 bulbs so realistically, you can have 2-3 trays and have a really good succession. I factor in 20% attrition for each tray, so you're talking about 65 ish blooming in a specific tray. 65 sounds like alot but it's really about 7-8 bouquets. So 2-3 trays would be about 15-25 bouquets at a given time.
Each tray is basically the dimension of the crate, just shorter, so you can use to that see how many you can fit in your laundry room!
Did forcing off-season fetch a higher wholesale price/increased demand vs growing in field? Did timing affect profit? Maybe you don't know that just yet. Thanks for your videos!
Yes! It absolutely did. I should have mentioned the specifics in this video but didn't bc I talked about it in this video (in hindsight that was stupid because obviously not everyone watches every video!) ruclips.net/video/Hb3bBS3-b3Y/видео.html
The cliffnotes version is-
Winter forcing - ~$2 a stem wholesale, $2.25-$2.50 a stem retail
Field tulips - ~$1.55-$1.85 a stem wholesale, $1.25-$1.65 a stem retail
It will look different for everyone based on region, what kind of florist you sell to, how many people are growing field tulips, etc! But one thing for sure is, I have seen students of The Tulip Workshops all over the country is that $2.25-$2.50 retail price is achievable literally in most geographies!
I have been considering hydroponic winter growing tulips. However, with electricity prices being astronomical here in New England, I wonder whether the profitability is really there. It doesn't sound like you included the cost of electricity in your expenses and profit margin (maybe you did and didn't discuss it). Did you by chance take a look at those figures?
I did the math on the electrical input for the lights. It costs roughly $1 a day to run the lights. Given that each succession turns over 6 weeks, we are talking roughly $40 in electricity per succession at which im growing anywhere from 300-900 stems. So it’s about 5-10 cents a stem. Not negligible, but other things I also did not factor in are rubber bands, sleeves, etc. The goal is to eventually get solar panels (more a personal than business goal). This is also being very conservative bc sometimes I completely shut off the lights to slow things down and this calculation is running them 24/7 which isn’t necessary.
I didn’t factor these things in bc I’m looking at the 20% of costs that impact 80% of the margin if that makes sense.
@@bareflowerfarm Thanks for sharing your experience. It's helpful to hear how things are going for you.
Very helpful! I've been wondering about growing tulips hydroponically. Also, can you tell me the brand of your sectional? Do you like it? I've been shopping for one.
Hi there! We got our sectional from Bassett furniture. They have a few showrooms where we used to live and we wanted to sit on the sofa before we committed bc it's one of the more expensive pieces of furniture you'll buy. Plus, I also liked they were made in America and attempted some level of sustainable practices.
We ordered it right before covid (Jan 2020) and were impressed that they still delivered it to us on time. We love our sectional and I often tell Eric how glad I am we splurged on that sectional! I think the main thing is, I would not shop for a sofa without testing it. I did that once and it was a disaster - I bought a West Elm loveseat and it was terrible (ps I have stopped shopping there bc they have some very unsustainable practices but post college me felt so adult like shopping there lol!!)
I hear vlog well.
Your audio is missing. FYI
I hear all vlog well.