Can you make good money having a 5 acre garden?

[work2play2]

I dont plan on doing this. But a older guy up the street has i would guess a 5 acre garden. He sells everything in it. It's too of the line set up. But I always wonder does he really make a living doing this? Thoughts?

 

[Mexican Squealer]

5 acres grows a bunch of veggies. A lot of money is relative.

 

[NE GA Pappy]

my dad grows about that amount. Beans, squash, orka, tomatoes, cukes, and corn in the spring planting. Broccoli, brussell sprouts, onions, cabbage, turnips, and greens in the fall.

They put up all they want, give a bunch to family, and then he sells out of a road side stand. At the end of the year, off what he sells, he makes between 5 and 7 thousand dollars, depending on how the weather is that year.

He also has about 20 blueberry plants that brings in a few hundred dollars.

I would say if you did it just to sell, and really worked it, you might get 25k out of a 5 acre well cared for garden.

 

[misterpink]

I would grow straight tomatoes. Several heirlooms mixed in with your standards. Sell them to the local higher end restaurants first and farmers market/road side anything you have left. Easy money in metro Atlanta where we have lots of good restaurants that love local in season veggies.

 

[JackSprat]

If he crops it intensely and uses best practices, he should be able to clear $3000 an acre.

Especially considering that he probably paid for all of his equipment in 1980.

A true truck farmer would not rely on one crop. If for no other reason, it's bad for the soil.

There's some local people who grow nothing but herbs, and make a decent living. very labor intensive.

 

[brownhounds]

I would grow straight tomatoes. Several heirlooms mixed in with your standards. Sell them to the local higher end restaurants first and farmers market/road side anything you have left. Easy money in metro Atlanta where we have lots of good restaurants that love local in season veggies.

Easy money? You really have to enjoy it because there is easier money than farming. A man needs about 500+ tomato plants to make money at it.

 

[ugajay]

5 acres of vegetables is a really big garden. We plant around 3 acres. If you plant wisely and look after your stuff and have irrigation, it's possible to make good money. But you have to be willing to work. Once the plants start producing, it's an everyday job to pick, sort, sell, all the while knowing you have to do it again the next day. Back when I was in school, I learned the hard way how much work was required with just one crop, okra. Not to mention how bad it made me itch! Picking six 5 gallon buckets every day gets old in a hurry

 

[JackSprat]

5 acres of vegetables is a really big garden. We plant around 3 acres. If you plant wisely and look after your stuff and have irrigation, it's possible to make good money. But you have to be willing to work. Once the plants start producing, it's an everyday job to pick, sort, sell, all the while knowing you have to do it again the next day. Back when I was in school, I learned the hard way how much work was required with just one crop, okra. Not to mention how bad it made me itch! Picking six 5 gallon buckets every day gets old in a hurry

I was partners in a 1 acre garden in SE GA. The owner had heard of "zucchini" and he wanted to give it a try. I tried to talk him out of it. We planted a double row, 200 feet. In the middle of the summer, you could start picking, get to the end of the row, and go back and start picking again. We figured at least one PU truck load a day. People were not familiar with it, and we could only give so much away.

We didn't want to "waste food" so we kept picking until until we were worn out - ended up plowing it under and planting field peas, which we had no problem giving away.

Sweet corn is an easy seller, especially if you stagger your plantings to extend the harvest.

 

[brownhounds]

No money in corn. The only produce you can make money at is the produce that has to be hand picked........
Tomatoes, berries, and okra. Certain varieties of squash does ok too

 

[JackSprat]

No money in corn.

Really?

I used to sell a truckload of sweet corn every week at a local farmers market until my crop ran out. I was usually one of the first people gone.

The fresher corn is, the better it is, and people know this. You're not competing against corn that was picked a week ago in Fl. I used to have people waiting for me to pull up (and a couple of other fellows too). I didn't have the land to keep corn coming in all summer but wish I did.

BTW, back to the OP, the extension service (county agent) has some brochures on the economics of truck farming they are probably online.

 

[NE GA Pappy]

my dad picks about 12 dozen ears of corn every morning while it is in season.. When he runs out, he goes and picks another 12 dozen ears. It keeps the corn real fresh and people will pay for it. Last year he was getting `$5 a dozen... and people were happy to pay it. Some would come by 2 or 3 times a week and get a dozen or more ears.

 

[bilgerat]

My brother has a 3 to 4acre garden and grows a variety of peppers in the spring and summer, and fancy lettuce and greens in the fall, he sells to restaurants in the Athens area . He makes between 7 to 9 grand a year

 

[brownhounds]

Really?

I used to sell a truckload of sweet corn every week at a local farmers market until my crop ran out. I was usually one of the first people gone.

The fresher corn is, the better it is, and people know this. You're not competing against corn that was picked a week ago in Fl. I used to have people waiting for me to pull up (and a couple of other fellows too). I didn't have the land to keep corn coming in all summer but wish I did.

BTW, back to the OP, the extension service (county agent) has some brochures on the economics of truck farming they are probably online.

To me, no money in corn unless you have a lot of room to plant it. He's talking about a garden, not a field. I know without a doubt corn would bring in less money than the crops I listed above. Corn should just be the enticer to get them buying the other stuff

 

[ugajay]

If you plant a 3 to 4 acre "garden", and have most of that in sweet corn, there's money in that. Say you have 3 acres of sweet corn, and it gets plenty of rain, and you can get it all picked before it gets too hard. Let's say on the cheap side you sell the corn at $3.50 a dozen. The corn is good so you're getting 2 ears per stalk. Think of the corn in just even one acre. There's money to be made in sweet corn.

 

[Buck Dropper]

This is super interesting to me. I have access to several hundred acres. I am so tired of my desk job at the bank. Corporate America, ties and conference calls. I would love to make my own living in the outdoors.

 

[OmenHonkey]

I have a friend that plants and sells Sweet corn every summer (Probably 10 acres). He hires 3 high school kids to pick 3 truck loads on Monday mornings. All 3 trucks parked at different locations and all 3 are sold out by lunch. They sit there for maybe 3 hrs after they've picked the corn.

 

[NE GA Pappy]

To me, no money in corn unless you have a lot of room to plant it. He's talking about a garden, not a field. I know without a doubt corn would bring in less money than the crops I listed above. Corn should just be the enticer to get them buying the other stuff

if you put in 2 or 3 acres of that in corn, you could do well. an acre of tomatoes would be plenty, 1/4 acre of okra, 1/4 squash.

Green beans sell well up here. Around 30 per bushel for old time white half runners, but they are a bugger to stake up and pick. If you sell by the pound, they will bring ~1.75 to 2.00 a pound.

You can plant cool weather crops where you are planting okra, because okra needs really warm ground to germinate. The cool weather crops would be gone before you would need to plant the okra.

Depending on you location in the state, you should be able to plant and double crop the site. You would just have to plan it out so you can rotate the cool weather/warm weather stuff as it matures.

There was a pick your own strawberries on about 2-1/2 acres. It was irrigated and put up on plastic beds with drip tubing under. I was told he sold 20k per acre off it.
He offered pick your own, or already picked. He had some messican guys that could pick a gallon of strawberries in about 10 minutes. He charged $2 more per gallon for already picked. At that time, he was selling for $8 if you picked.

 

[Rick Alexander]

As a part time farmer

of about 1.5 acres total - there is a whole lot of easier ways to make money IMHO. I want to see if you guys that tout the wonders of all this money from 5 acres feel the same way after hoeing 3 100 yard long rows of peas, okra, corn or whatever your cash crop seems to be for a few days. I say 3 rows because that's just about the most my back can do in a stretch but keep in mind I've probably got 9 - 12 more rows to do before I'm done - oh and then we start all over again after a good hard rain. And let's not forget - it's hotter than heck out there in late July and August - which just so happens to coincide with trying to get a second crop of corn going because the dang deer, raccoons, rabbits, squirrels, possums, crows, worms, beetles, tress passers, and I believe pretty strongly unicorns ate the first crop TO THE GROUND just about the time it started getting ripe. Oh - and yes - I own 4 tractors (my other hobby) - and still have to hoe - A LOT. I get plenty of volunteer helpers all the time to plant or pick but hoe hands are few and far between. You can use chemicals but isn't that why we grow our own in the first place? Part of my problem is my garden is bottom land which stays wet if we have normal rain so it's a little worse for me than most. In a drought I'm golden. Lets not even get into mother nature having a pretty warped sense of humor at times.

 

[brownhounds]

if you put in 2 or 3 acres of that in corn, you could do well. an acre of tomatoes would be plenty, 1/4 acre of okra, 1/4 squash.

Green beans sell well up here. Around 30 per bushel for old time white half runners, but they are a bugger to stake up and pick. If you sell by the pound, they will bring ~1.75 to 2.00 a pound.

You can plant cool weather crops where you are planting okra, because okra needs really warm ground to germinate. The cool weather crops would be gone before you would need to plant the okra.

Depending on you location in the state, you should be able to plant and double crop the site. You would just have to plan it out so you can rotate the cool weather/warm weather stuff as it matures.

There was a pick your own strawberries on about 2-1/2 acres. It was irrigated and put up on plastic beds with drip tubing under. I was told he sold 20k per acre off it.
He offered pick your own, or already picked. He had some messican guys that could pick a gallon of strawberries in about 10 minutes. He charged $2 more per gallon for already picked. At that time, he was selling for $8 if you picked.

But, do you think he would make more per acre planting sweet corn or tomato plants? I know there is some money in corn. And I know the corn will sell out, but I think the other crops bring in more money. What do you think?

 

[NE GA Pappy]

But, do you think he would make more per acre planting sweet corn or tomato plants? I know there is some money in corn. And I know the corn will sell out, but I think the other crops bring in more money. What do you think?

I think that if you had a good year, you could do ok with 'maters, but if it turns off dry, your 'maters will get sunburned and spotty and you won't make nothing. Better to have 3 or 4 hens laying rather than counting on one to lay 4 times a day.