What Are the Most Profitable Market Garden Crops?
Farming, whether small or large-scale, requires thorough planning and research. The goal of a market garden, like any other farm enterprise, is to earn profit. But to optimize the small space in a market garden, choosing the most profitable crops is necessary, and we’ll review what these are in the article below.
The most profitable market garden crops are lavender, garlic, cherry tomatoes, herbs like basil, chives, and cilantro; salad mixes such as kale, spinach, arugula, peppers, and lettuce; vines such as cucumbers; and microgreens like peas. Consumers prefer these high-yielding crops that help a farmer make more profit.
Even if you know which crops are most profitable, you won’t earn as quickly if you don’t know if these crops will compatibly grow in your area. You must also know how to put a good price on your crops by focusing on producing quality crops. To learn more about how to make more profit from your market garden crops, keep reading.
Summary
- The most profitable market garden crops are lavender, garlic, and cherry tomatoes; herbs like basil, chives, and cilantro; salad mixes such as kale, spinach, arugula, peppers, and lettuce; vines such as cucumbers; and microgreens like peas.
- To determine which crops are most profitable, you must quantify the value of production by measuring the total sales of each crop and the space and time that it took to grow them.
- You can add more profit to your market garden crops if you focus on the quality and freshness of your crops.
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The Most Profitable Market Garden Crops
Whether you want to make your passion into profit or just simply want to earn a little on the side, knowing a few things about what market garden crops can earn you more money and how you can add value to your crops to sell more will give you an advantage in making the most out of market gardening.
Market gardening makes it easy to turn vegetables and crops into solid cash without the hassle of running large farm equipment or wide acres of land. There are two main requirements in market gardening - manual labor and a small piece of land.
The following are some of the most profitable market garden crops:
| Crop | Market price |
|---|---|
| Lavender | $10 per bouquet |
| Basil | $20 per pound |
| Chives | $15 per pound |
| Garlic | $10 per pound (standard garlic) |
| $16 per pound (gourmet garlic) | |
| Cilantro | $7 per pound |
| Spinach | $6 per pound |
| Microgreens | $6 per pound |
| Cherry tomatoes | $5 per pound |
| Peppers | $4 per pound |
| Kale | $2 per pound |
| Arugula | $2 per unit |
| Lettuce | $2 per pound |
| Cucumbers | $2 per pound |
From the table above, lavender bested all the others with how profitable it can be. Although sold at just $10 per bouquet, an acre of land can produce 10,000 to 12,000 bouquets of lavender each year. Aside from that, once it started producing, lavender can provide a continuous harvest for 10 good years.
Aside from lavender being the highest-yielding crop, it also tends to be the most profitable because it’s drought-tolerant, disease-tolerant and has a wide range of commercial use- either sold as fresh or dried ornamental, or as ingredients to soaps, lotions and perfume, lavender has such high demand.
Next to lavender are basil and chives. If you’re just new to market gardening and seeking to make a profit, basil and chives are good options to plant. Basil and chives can both be grown indoors, mature rapidly, and are everyone’s favorite herb for their culinary fiascos. While basil prefers a warmer and more humid environment, chives are hardier as they can survive harsher climates better.
Garlic is also one of the most common and profitable market garden crops. Standard garlic can be sold at $10 per pound, but if you are after more profit and less competition, you might want to consider planting gourmet garlic instead.
Garlic is highly profitable since it is used widely around the world as a culinary ingredient and even for medicinal purposes. On top of that, one acre of land can produce over 15, 000 pounds of garlic each year. What makes garlic profitable is also that they are easy to harvest and can grow well during dormant seasons.
Other most profitable market garden crops include cherry tomatoes which are easy to harvest and grow, cilantro which is also an in-demand culinary herb; kale, spinach, arugula, peppers, and lettuce which are all mixed salad ingredients; and cucumbers and peas.
Selecting The Most Profitable Crops for a Market Garden
The reason for knowing which crops are more profitable to plant in your market garden is because we cannot jump in on planting a vegetable, or plant that is not wanted by consumers, as well as crops that have a low market price.
To determine which crops are most profitable, you must quantify the value of production. The value of production can be calculated by measuring the total sales of each crop, and the space and time that it took to grow them.
Space refers to the acre of land used to grow crops. It is important to consider how much space has been used by a certain crop since space is a limited resource in a market garden.
Time is also being considered in determining the most profitable crops to plan out the succession of crops in the same beds. Also, time is essential in market gardening because the goal is a high-yield production over a small land area.
Adding Value to Your Market Garden Crops
The goal of a market garden is to gain profit. To make it more profitable, you can apply some strategies once you have harvested your market garden crops that will make your crops more valuable.
For example, not cutting out the leaves of carrots when selling them raises their price from $1.20 per pound to $2.50 per pound in grocery stores. The difference is that leaving the leaves attached to the carrots doubled their value because it indicates fresher produce.
Other tips to raise the value of your crops at the market are:
- Focusing on the quality of your product and keeping them as fresh as possible
- In root crops, do not remove the leaves so consumers can see that they are fresh.
- Crops with a long turnover time such as potatoes, parsnips, winter squash, and other storage vegetables must be avoided at all costs if you are after profit. They take long a long time to grow, takes up space, and aren’t as fresh after harvesting.
- Explore new varieties or cultivars of the crops in the list above to keep consumers hooked. For example, in tomatoes and peppers, you can try growing tasty or heirloom varieties.
- Grow crops that yield early in the season so you can have less competition in the market.
- Avoid overpricing your crops, if possible, only make little changes in pricing
- Before displaying them in the market, thoroughly wash your vegetables and arrange them in the neatest way possible.