Well-marketed cut flowers can offer existing farms an increase in income per acre compared to traditional vegetables, according to Robin Trott, a seasoned Extension educator at the University of Minnesota and owner of Prairie Garden Farm, a cut flower operation in Starbuck, Minnesota with 15 years of production.
Trott was the main presenter on Feb. 14 for the first in a series of webinars held by the University of Minnesota Extension He was providing guidance for cut flower farming in Minnesota. Subsequent webinars, which aim to provide the knowledge and skills to thrive in the cut flower market, are scheduled for March.
The series started on Valentine's Day, which Trott said is the biggest flower holiday of the year, followed closely by Mother's Day. Prairie Garden Farm has no holiday flowers and starts selling in May and goes through Halloween, if possible. The farm's decision not to sell in the winter is because the cost of heating a greenhouse would be more than what they could make back in flower sales.
"When you're thinking about what your markets are going to be, that's going to determine how much you're going to need to grow," Trott said. "Your customers don't care what your costs are and they only care what their costs are, so you have to price (flowers) so they sell at the maximum price that people are willing to pay."
Read more at agweek.com