Custom Ordering Pre-starts in 2019
Did you just go “what” LOL.. I have had a few folks look at me funny when I said I am thrilled to be working with a local greenhouse owner who is offering pre-starts.
These are the pre-starts that I got from him on May long weekend.. They were outstanding! I can only hope that I will get just as good this year!
What have I ordered this year as my pre-starts?
- Sauce Tomato’s
- Summer Eating Tomato’s
- Cherry Tomato’s
- Sauce Peppers – Yellow and Red
- Sweet Bell Peppers
- Med-Hot Peppers
- Hot-Hot Peppers
- Ground Cherries
And I don’t feel the least bit bad about it.
- I am supporting a local business that grows and sells food all season long in our community at a time that is a bit lean in the year.. these early starts help him bring in bit more income!
- I am paying a faction of the cost if I went to the “garden center” and I am custom picking the types of plants I want including custom choices that he is growing just for me.
- I am getting a massive head start. While I can start them at the same time, I simply CAN not allow mine to grow as big as he can. I would be pinching mine down to make them thicker, where he has the space for them to “grow”. last year I worked with him for tomato’s and peppers and we were eating fresh by the end of June
- I do pay a extra fee to have mine potted up, this means that I have more flexablity in regards to holding them for extra days before planting (however they can be offered bare root) but this also means that I have extra small size starting pots coming in that will be reused for many years to come!
- This gives me more room in my house and my own unheated green house space to do all kinds of other starts, while pushing the biggest “space hogs” to be done off site.
I have so many extra things to start this year in terms of clippings for re-working and re-doing in the main yard that I will be really happy that I cleared this space for “other” uses in 2019.
By thinking ahead and planning ahead, we will be planting out on time and still able to do lots of “different from normal starts” I look forward to sharing a number of these different plants and how to save by starting them off their mother plants.
While I know that a number of folks have larger greenhouses or they have much longer growing season’s and that’s great but if you have a shorter season, its worth at least asking at your local greenhouse’s if they will do custom starts and if so maybe its worth considering asking if they will grow a tray of that heritage seed.
If you do that, its worth also having a tiny chat on what, they use if they do so in terms of pest control or sprays as well.. In my case I have had that chat and am comfortable with the answers given and have faith in his word in this regards.
Do you always grow your own? Do you have a favorite privately owned greenhouse that sells starts that you always buy from? Do you go to the big box garden centers? Do you live in a small town and the local hardware, feed store or co-op open up a little garden center for the spring only?
Just another Day on the Farm 
We have a large family owned greenhouse business only a few miles from us – I get my peppers from them, as well as difficult to start things like rosemary. Now and again something else will catch my eye (haskap, grapes and such) and I’ll grab a few. They’ve a fairly extensive set up – about half of which is devoted to hanging baskets of flowers – beautiful, but not something I buy.
i have a closer one but she just does flowers, I heard that she might be doing veggies this year, I will stop in and see.. but I am not really much into the hanging baskets either
I try to buy local to us, it’s how we got our bamboo plant and Japanese maple in the back yard. Sadly the maple died of the summer no matter how much I watered it. Just think it was too hot and sunny for it and it preferred a shady place. So I am contemplating buying another bush to plant there.
I am going to try and propagate my own plants this year and start earlier than I did last year. I’ll try swiss chard, tomatoes and pumpkins I think.
it just makes sense, best of luck on finding a new tree, sorry you lost your maple, they are nice trees.
The sad truth is that I have bought plants from my well respected local nursery owned by a wonderful neighbour that specializes in plants suited to our location and that provides wonderful customer service. Why is this a “sad truth?” Because every single one of the plants I have purchased from them (with the exception of one rose) has been a dud. The straggly plants I buy from the big chain grocery store because I feel sorry for them – grow like gangbusters.
Life is weird.
ok, that is just weird.. lol..
D > If there was someone here in Uist offering this service, I would do the same as you. It’s expensive to providing the light and warmth (and the space) for starting and growing-on early-start vegetables : it’s far more efficient for this to be done by someone doing it in volume.
indeed, I was very pleased to find someone that was offering this service.