Flower Sales Grew 60% Over Last Year

Рет қаралды 10,083

Жыл бұрын

We've done 3 years now selling flowers as a you-pick operation and this year we planted more flowers than ever. Our farm has been open for 4 weekends for flower picking, and now all of our sunflowers are done blooming so we're going to officially say we're done for the year. There are several things with our u-pick flower season that has gone well, and a few things we'll adjust for next year.

Пікірлер: 43

@oldfarmshow 4 ай бұрын

👍👍

@OregonShearwater 3 ай бұрын

Just found your site and you answered a ton of my questions re flower varieties, successions and customer favorites. Thank you! Love that you have focused on family-friendly activities, too. Re older couples, adult beverages, picnic tables and maybe even partnering w/ a food truck might be a way to go?

@WoodsTreeFarm 3 ай бұрын

Hi thanks for stopping by. Glad you enjoyed the video. Thanks for the suggestions for future events too.

@claudettegross3792 Жыл бұрын

Very pretty flower patch! I have a UPick flower farm too and I didn’t have sunflowers the first couple weeks due to some issues and people didn’t even mind. I bet you would still have happy customers with all those beautiful cosmos and zinnias l!!

@solwise2 6 ай бұрын

Thanks a lot! Excited for my cosmos to bloom this year! I did a 4 feet gap on rows. 😊

@stankohl4262 Жыл бұрын

You certainly have nothing to be upset over. Any business that increases by 60% is doing something right. As with any new venture, it does take some time to build up. However I do think you are on the right track for building your tree business faster than had you not done the flowers at all. You have to combine that and numbers won't always tell the whole story on that. You have no way of knowing just how many people come for a tree just because of being there for flowers. The fact that you are getting addition people to enjoy the farm is what is going to help create what you had originally set your goal to be of making a place for people to make an event out of it. Very glad to see the progress, love this and all your other videos. So many people fear failure that they never even try. I am so glad you have at least tried. It's always harder to do the work than it is to do nothing, in the end, you and your whole family will have gained so much more than just a bank account and nobody can ever take that away. Awesome, awesome job Phil and Stacey. Kids too!

@shesothorny9892 Жыл бұрын

Thank you for sharing! I’m new to flower growing but zinnias, cosmos, and sunflowers became favorites in the garden too 🌻 learning a lot from you 🙏

@WoodsTreeFarm Жыл бұрын

awesome thanks for watching

@ElderandOakFarm Жыл бұрын

Yes, landscape fabric is a gamechanger! I use it for my walkways as well. I bought the 6' wide & overlapped it about 3" on each side. Leaving 3' in the center for the bed' & 1 1/2' on each side for the walkway, making the walkways 3 feet as well. (Because you're getting 1 1/2' from the strip of fabric on the left & the right) & it was so worth the extra cost, to not have to worry about any weeds in the walkways! & after the plant grow into the walkways a little, it still leaves plenty of rokm...(I used dewitt pro 5- ONLY thing I recommend!) I used to never be bothered by bugs, but for some reason, they're bothering me more & more, so I do not like when the plants are rubbing against me, because of the bugs! 😵‍💫

@WoodsTreeFarm Жыл бұрын

good info! I think I'm going to try wider fabric this year!

@WECBradio Жыл бұрын

Love the update .. looks like a great year

@kenkouches7603 Жыл бұрын

I'm going to give this a try next year and I have learned alot from you. Thanks a bunch!

@WoodsTreeFarm Жыл бұрын

best of luck t you

@cmoreson4281 Жыл бұрын

Great job this year.

@WoodsTreeFarm Жыл бұрын

Thank you!

@jerryriggedadventures3173 13 күн бұрын

I’m looking at using a field for pumpkins, sweet corn, and flowers next year. 30 acres, roughly 3 almost equal sized sections. What is a good rotation? Do I even need one with a winter cover crop? What cover crop is the best nitrogen adder? FWI the field is corn this year, I could wait another year for beans to be harvested or is it not worth it?

@WoodsTreeFarm 13 күн бұрын

There's a lot to unpack here and I'm sure if you asked 30 farmers you'd get 30 different answers. First off, I don't have any experience with corn or pumpkins so I can't really give any insight there. The right cover crop would at least partially depend on your climate. Here in VA we can get away with planting cover pretty late or even get in a spring cover/green manure crop. Some folks plant cereal rye before pumpkins then terminate and crimp it for straw mulch before drilling pumpkin. Crimson clover, field peas, and vetch or a (mix of those) are all legumes and will provide N. The three crops you mentioned will all need supplemental N regardless of your cover crop.

@danradtke1663 Жыл бұрын

Pumpkins. Keep them coming all seasons. Good job.

@WoodsTreeFarm Жыл бұрын

You might remember we tried that our first year and failed. I've still got a bad taste in my mouth from that experience. There is a lot of competition in our area for Fall activity, so I'm just going to try continuing with the flower thing to see if we can make it bigger and bigger. Once we're deep in Fall, I need to start prepping for Christmas season anyway.

@danradtke1663 Жыл бұрын

I didn't realize you had other places for fall things. Competition. I knew you wouldn't give up for just 1 reason. Maybe that wet area would be ideal for pumpkins? Maybe a small patch just for yourselves. I know what you're saying Christmas will be here before we know it. Seems these years are flying by. How did the props do? Or are those more for photographers? Keep up the great work in learning new things and additions to keep them coming. To many places loss people by boredom. Things always changing at your place. Keeps them guessing. What is Phil and family up to this year. 🎄🌻⚘🌺 maybe one year a second try. 🎃.

@timarmstrong8860 8 ай бұрын

I live south east fla. Ferrel hogs ,wild life how do protect your flowers how do you protect yours .you have nice crop. Signed- khromedaddy

@petalsandpinesfarm Жыл бұрын

Phil and Stacey! I’ve been waiting for this video! Great job this year! I do have a question for you… did y’all pinch your zinnia plants or just let them grow naturally? Also, after our test year, we’re in the same boat. We’re planting so many different varieties of zinnias next year! Our cosmos didn’t do well at all. I’ve used branches for bouquets, but overall, we didn’t get many flowers at all. We grew the cupcake variety. I’ll look into the double click cosmos. Also, thank you for sharing what size cup/buckets y’all use. We are planning for our grand opening next year and we weren’t sure what sizes to go with. Thanks again for sharing your successes and failures with us so we can all learn.

@WoodsTreeFarm Жыл бұрын

We've never pinched zinnias, but we do deadhead as much as possible as soon as they start producing a seed cone. I don't know if it does anything, but the plants definitely keep shooting out new flowers. We already have cupcake cosmos seed for next year, so we'll see how they do.

@kathrynburgess8987 6 ай бұрын

I have a small scale flower farm. My first year selling was last year. I sold more cosmos than any other flower. They were like your zinnias. They just kept cranking out the blooms. I did cupcake, sensation mix and all the double click. So don’t be afraid to try them all.

@petalsandpinesfarm 6 ай бұрын

@@kathrynburgess8987we opened last year for our first yet in business and the cosmos were amazing! I’m so glad I have them another try. They were so pretty that I’m doubling them and putting them down the center rows for aesthetic purposes. They were gorgeous.

@KedeshFarm Жыл бұрын

Great video. Thanks for sharing. Do you guys do any transplants at all?

@TheHomesteadTrail 4 ай бұрын

Smart idea to use mammoths as a screen from the neighbors!

@mariaanaliereyes2956 Жыл бұрын

Hi glad to find your videos what fertilizer to you use for your flower farm. And when do you lay down your ground covers landscape clothes?

@WoodsTreeFarm Жыл бұрын

I mix my own fertilizer based on soil test reports. I used a combination of a slow release lawn fertilizer and 0-0-60, and 0-42-0. The ground cover was new to us last season and we put it down as we planted, and we did all direct seeding (no transplants)

@elithechamp6_yt474 Жыл бұрын

You could do a dove hunt over those standing sunflower plants. Charge admission.

@DonaldCole_Hampton_Roads Жыл бұрын

Catching up on your videos, so I may have missed it, but what did you do for soil testing and fertilizer? I'm going to be putting in about a half acre of sunflowers next year and am curious. Also, do you do any fall/winter prep on the soil? And, I saw you had minimal deer issues - was this without doing anything? The deer love my sunflowers where I am and I lost a whole patch to them.

@WoodsTreeFarm Жыл бұрын

We had a few sunflower sections this year that got hit by the deer when they were just emerging and I just replanted what I could. Soil tests we get done through our cooperative extension office, and I've done several seasonal cover crops including rye, buckwheat, clover, oats, rape, etc. All of those just get tilled back into the soil.

@scottseaner8937 Жыл бұрын

Can you share a drawing of your new spacing template?

@WoodsTreeFarm Жыл бұрын

I haven't made one yet, we're going to be doing flower season later this year and will show it once I get it done. Probably going with 12 in inch spacing rather than 8inch used here

@DonaldCole_Hampton_Roads Жыл бұрын

I like your videos, but please buy (or use) a tripod!

@WoodsTreeFarm Жыл бұрын

haha. OK.

@bennieschmith3397 Жыл бұрын

What kind of herbicides do you use that doesn't kill the flowers?

@WoodsTreeFarm Жыл бұрын

Glyphosate sprayed at low pressure directly at weeds with a backpack sprayer. It was never directed at the desirable plants, so no issues. Also be sure to spray when there is little or no wind as the spray can drift onto desirable plants and cause damage.

@Sneltz21 Жыл бұрын

Do you have issues with deer, especially with the sunflowers?

@WoodsTreeFarm Жыл бұрын

I usually say no, but we did have one section that got decimated this year. Don't know if it was deer or turkey, but something ate it up when sprouts were just emerging.