Developing a Seed Crop Plan

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Blog Post #13: Identify Market Trends

My target market will be local hobby vegetable gardeners.  There has been a small-scale seed supplier in the area for the past 5-10 years and I would initially start with interviewing her and identifying some of her trends over the years.  She doesn't grow her own seeds that she sells, but she brings in heritage varieties and sells them locally.  Another identifier of trends in the area would be to just look at the varieties that are sold in all of the local stores targeting my audience.  They bring in a lot of the basics.  I think that would be a great place to start.  Facebook has become a great tool to create market research.  I could start a survey and send it out within the Facebook groups pertaining to different local gardening groups and see what kind of response I get back. Understanding what the customer wants will have a huge impact on what I grow.  I would start with that information and plan to grow what the people want.  I...
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Blog Post #12: Storage Requirements and Provisions for Seed Crop

Storage: For the most part I imagine at this point attempting to store seeds for 3-5 years.  Therefore, I will be able to get away with drying the seeds at room temperature.  This limits me to being able to store the dried seed in paper envelopes.  Which means that I risk insect and rodent contamination.  I think I will be okay as long as I set up a mouse trap nearby with some peanut butter on it.  I will store the seeds in a cool dry area in our house.  That would be one of the spare rooms that isn't fully heated throughout the winter and kept closed in the summer. If I ever want to get experimental we do have an Excalibur dehydrator which I could use to dry the seeds down even more and then I would be able to freeze them or store them in plastic or glass containers. I looked up the Germination Standards: Carrots are 60% minimum Spinach is 65% minimum Beets 65-75% minimum depending on the grading classification As for purity.  I wasn't able t...
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