Pros and Cons of Overplanting the Flower Farm
December 11, 2023
When deciding how much to plant on your flower farm, the numbers can be daunting, especially in your first few seasons. There are a multitude of factors that go into deciding quantities of plants to grow on your flower farm, which we will touch on below. The main discussion I want to have in this post is my experience with overplanting my flower field this past season — I found there were both pros and cons to putting too many plants in the ground and I would like to share my thoughts. I hope this will be of help for your future crop planning for your flower farm.
Related: Flowers We’re No Longer Growing, Part 1 and Part 2
First, lets briefly discuss factors that go into the QUANTITY of plants you need on your flower farm.
factors for deciding plant quantities for the flower farm
The most important factor for determining quantity of plants is your sales outlet(s) and sales projections for the year. Obviously you won’t know this until you have been in business for several years and keep good records. This is an incredibly broad topic that could cover several blog posts on its own, but for the purpose of this discussion, just keep in mind that your sales outlets are mostly what will determine your quantities of plants needed, along with varieties. For instance, if you are selling market, grocery or CSA bouquets, you might grow larger quantities of fewer types of flowers compared to a wedding farmer-florist, who would need lots more varieties of flowers in (perhaps) smaller quantities.
Soil fertility may also factor into the quantity of plants you put into the ground. Healthier, well balanced soil will produce bigger, more productive plants with more blooms (in which case, you can plant LESS for the same yield). I highly recommend getting regular yearly soil tests (we use Logan Labs) so you can monitor and adjust nutrient needs for bigger, more productive plants.
Related: Why is Tilling So Bad?
Growing space (square footage) will most obviously determine the amount of planting you can do.
The most important thing to keep in mind is that every growing operation is different from the next. We all have different abilities, sales outlets and life goals. We cannot simply copy another grower and assume we will be successful just because they are. What you can do is figure out all of the above through setting actionable goals, being a keen observer of yourself and your farm and, perhaps, doing a bit of soul searching to figure out what it is you really want to do with a farm business. Nothing about farming is quick and easy, including planning, I can promise you that!
I overplanted my flower farm and this is what happened
2023 was our first full growing season on our new flower farm in Burt, NY. We are in Zone 6b in Western New York, sandwiched between the Great Lakes Erie and Ontario. For the previous five seasons, I had been growing a flower farm on someone else’s property about 20 minutes away. Despite the seemingly close proximity, these two farms are completely different in soil composition — so much so that I had to learn how to grow in denser, clay soil that holds water, as opposed to the sandy loam soil that not only efficiently drained water, but also nutrients. I’ll be learning for awhile.
Related: How to Cover Crop a Flower Farm
Thankfully, it turns out that our new farm produced more flowers per plant than I ever could have imagined, thanks to its balanced soil fertility (soil test! soil test!). I had been growing on a much smaller, less fertile plot for the previous five seasons. Between my wedding floral business and selling wholesale flowers to local florists, I never had enough flowers and foliage to do both successfully. So this past season, I decided to plant a ton more flowers than I ever had before — I definitely OVERPLANTED — so that I’d no longer experience a flower deficit.
reasons for overplanting flowers
My reasons for overplanting the flower farm were straightforward:
In previous years, I never had enough flowers to sell to other florists. They were always asking for more than I could supply on the growing space I had. I knew in order to satisfy their needs (and for me to make actual money selling wholesale flowers), I needed to scale up.
Likewise, I only sort-of had enough flowers to supply my own wedding designs. By planting way more flowers than I ever had before, I thought I would finally be able to supply 100% of my weddings with 100% of my own flowers. For the most part, I was able to.
I had a lot of leftover dahlia tubers so I figured I might as well plant them instead of compost them.
I had the space, so I figured what’s the harm in just growing a shit ton of flowers for once?
Related: PODCAST: “Starting Your Flower Farm Business” with Empowering Entrepreneurs
pros of overplanting flowers on the flower farm
There were some obvious benefits to overplanting the farm and one benefit in particular that had never crossed my mind:
I was able to sell WAY more flowers to other florists and more than doubled my wholesale income from the previous year.
I was able to supply nearly all of the flowers I needed for wedding designs and slashed my fresh floral/greenery outsourcing expenses by 82% from the previous year. EIGHTY TWO PERCENT! (This only considers the actual cost of fresh material I purchased in 2022 and does not consider the backbreaking amount of harvest hours I put in to cut all of my own stems).
With lots of varieties of annual and perennial flowers, I felt able to make a fresh design every time.
Related: What’s in my Flower Farming Toolbelt
Overplanting actually saved my butt in 2023. We had a drought for three solid weeks from the end of May through mid-June and a ton of my annual transplants died due to extreme heat and lack of enough water to establish their baby root systems. Had I not overplanted, I would have lost too many plants and not only would the above “Pro” reasons for overplanting be null and void, I could have been really screwed with not enough plants to produce any of what I needed.
The most exciting part of overplanting my flower farm was that it revealed itself, in a way, as a climate change mitigation strategy. By overplanting, I had enough plants survive through a period of severe drought. Thank the mother!
Cons of overplanting the flower farm
More money spent on plugs, seeds, seed starting supplies, fertilizers, and labor.
More space, growing lights, shelving units, trays, etc. needed for seed starting.
More time spent babying transplants during seed starting, hardening off, and more time spent transplanting (all labor costs).
More bed space required on farm means that during the season, more time is required to weed the growing area. This is the biggest risk factor for us for overplanting. Having more growing space, and therefore, having to manage more weeds, is our biggest headache on the farm.
More bed space also means setting up more irrigation lines; more time spent fertilizing, staking and DEADHEADING. Especially for dahlias, cosmos and zinnias, the deadheading was a huge time suck for me when I overplanted the farm.
how i feel about planting too much on the farm
Honestly, there is benefit to overplanting your flower farm, but to a point. How does one determine that risk factor needed for possible transplant death, whether its due to drought, flooding, animal pressure, unpredictable cold snaps, hail, or any other number of factors that are out of the farmer’s control?
Related: Regenerative Agriculture Books & Podcasts
A good rule of thumb for overplanting is a 10% risk factor — figure out how much you need to supply your sales outlets, then plant 10% more to cover losses. That might not be enough, or it could be too much if you have a perfect growing season (we all know that doesn’t exist, though).
The first step to “perfecting” the number of plants you put in the ground starts with a big old guess during your first year. Then during that first year, make the best observations you can and record them — either in a notebook, take photos in your phone, video yourself talking into your phone, etc. You will never know how much you need to plant until you make good records.
Obviously this post does not present a perfect solution for any grower (myself included!) but it hopefully presented some points to help you in your flower farm crop planning process.
peace, love, and lots of plants but not too-too many plants,
Fran Parrish
