opinion on plant buying

I need your honest opinion, no right or wrong answer here. I sell herbs and perennials at our local farmers market. Would you, as a plant buyer, prefer to buy plants in bigger pots..say 1 gal or 3 gal size for 2-5 bucks (depending on the plant) OR would you rather pay .50-1.00 for a smaller 4 inch pot. I might add to it that the larger plants look much better and stronger.

I always get the biggest pot that I can afford. Yours sound very reasonable...I'd buy the big ones.

Well,Lisa when I buy plants,I buy the smaller pots like that, especially for herbs as some do grow pretty fast. Now my DH thinks it best to buy the plants in the bigger pots but to me the bigger the plant sometimes, more apt to go into shock easier when transplanting than the smaller ones. I perfer buying the smaller pots and have the opportunity to watch them grow.
Just my opinion tho.

I buy big. I'm not only thinking of the plant, but also the pot I get as a bonus. If I was selling, I'd be shy of selling something in a 3 gallon for 2-3 dollars because of the price of the pot. Just me, I'm real cheap. I would gladly buy smaller for less than a buck!

Lisa, I would go with the smaller ones, but have some of the bigger ones on hand too. I have thought of this dilema also, was going to have a plant sale, and thought that people would be more inclined to buy more of the cheaper ones. you can price them accordingly.
good luck. what herbs will you be selling?

Lisa, I go with Pebble. About half the time I buy a small plant, especially if I know it will grow fast; other times I want a bigger plant to fill a big gap! I know this will add to your overhead; to have to get different sizes, but you might find it worth it in the end.

Kathy

I agree with pebble, have some of both. Your prices are more than reasonable, that's for sure. I would probably buy the 4" plant. Depends on how much you want to get for your dollar.

At our garden club plant sale we sold all sizes and they went pretty good. People were really looking for hostas this year. They sold out first,

In preparation for my sale (which I never had) I asked the landscaper of our office complex if he would give me the 4" pots that his annuals came in. I have about a hundred of them sitting in my garage....
Lisa, I relly think in herbs, 4" is your best bet. Thinking back at the herbs I've purchased at the store and or nurseries, most if not all were in 4" pots.
I have been looking high and low for dill, would you believe I havent been able to find any? I am going to sprinkle some seeds this weekend.

I'm sitting on the fence too! depends on the plant. and how I plan to use it. I like small plants because I can get more varieties.(size of the pot does not determine how fast I can kill them!):(

I always buy a smaller plant because the larger the plant the longer it takes for it to settle in the ground. I know a lot of people like the larger pots (here in the UK at least) but I also hear many complaints of the plant never doing well or dying and they paid xxxx money for it and how disappointed they are.

I agree with having a mixture of the two for both sets of customers but with the smaller pots you can fit more on a tray which always looks better on a stall IMHO.

big for me!!!

Lisa, I always buy perennials in the bigger pots...annuals by the six pack!!

"eyes"

Smaller for me too. I can get more kinds of plants for the money I have if I buy small ones. Have some bigger ones for those folks who prefer that size, but I would guess the small pots would outsell the larger ones by about 2-1. More important to me than pot size is that the plant is healthy.

Lisa I buy both but to be honest I look for the small pot first and they just don't hardly sell perennials around here in the small pot's . Your prices seem great wish I could buy from you.

Thanks folks for the help. This is why I was asking: last year at the market I didn't have any competition. THis year I do. There is a sweet little lady that is selling her herbs at a much lower price than mine. She has a really nice mixture of herbs-like mine :)- but she sells hers in much smaller pots than I do. I think my plants look a little better ( stronger, healthy) I was just wondering if I should start selling my herbs at an earlier stage, but I think I will keep it like it is. Ya'll were a big help, many thanks.

pebble, if I had some dill left I'd send you some, we can only grow it nice here in the winter. It doesn't like our humidity too much.

tiG-the price of the larger pots is not a factor here..lol..I have waaaaaaay more than I can use (landscaping business). This way I keep the pots moving and they don't clutter up the yard to much. If I had to buy all those pots it would cut into my $$$ for sure :-)

I usually buy smaller ones to save money. Sometimes getting one in a bigger pot isn't really gaining you much, because you never know if the plant was just recently potted up and the root system might not reflect the larger container. I'd rather stay small and cheap, except for my impulse buys, LOL. ;)

I am always looking at the law of averages, and if I buy several smaller ones, I should come out with at least a decent number of survivors. If I buy a single large pot and then disaster strikes, I am out of luck. But I am always careful to count the number of actual plants in a large pot, and take into consideration the amount of good soil included. I have seen sellers here with little pot markers that say things like "bouquet of 8 for only $4.79", when the small pots were going for 79 cents each. And the plants in the larger pot were usually larger, so I would be likely to buy that in a larger pot. But if there are 3-4 in the large pot, a six pack of smaller ones is almost cheaper and will catch up in a couple of weeks when they have been planted out. In tropicals, I go for larger most of the time. Lisa, I think you need a gimmick! I once saw a man selling a jasmine that is quite common here, for more than twice the price of the same plant on the other side of the market. He had simply made some little flimsy trellises to insert into the pot, but it was eyecatching. They were selling as fast as he could take the money. An Oriental seller chopped up bamboo, placed it into shallow pots with little parasols and a toothpick bridge, maybe a rock or two. He charged $15 for them all day long! A Mexican girl potted up common prickly pear with a little scene made with sand and rocks when it was small, and got $4 each for them.

Id bring both sizes...people are different in what they want.