Posted: 10/6/2016 1:11:02 PM EDT
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So I'm working on a project for school and got assigned to a group that is to write a business plan for selling a product to grow pumpkins vertically. It's basically a tower that you train the vines on with shelves for the pumpkins to rest.
My idea was some cheap plastic components that would be combined with a few cheap items from Home Depot (customer buys the Home Depot stuff) to build the tower. We'd just sell a kit with the hard to make at home components keeping shipping costs and product costs low with a target of Home Depot big box style retailers and online sales. I'm thinking get the components made in China and shipped in by the container load. Sell for like $25. My goal was to be so cheap that it wouldn't make sense for people to make it themselves. My group disagrees and wants sustainable wood build with artistic design and sell for like $150 to $200. My opinion is if you make it from wood then anybody could make it and your cost climbs with labor and materials being expensive. I grew up on a large farm so this urban gardening thing isn't my cup of tea. And in my mind pumpkins are too cheap to buy and you only grow your own because you can. There are much better vegetables to focus on. Anybody have any experience with this area or opinions on the project as I've laid it out? |
| Your group is stupid. Know your market. Nobody wants to have to build shit with nails or have it be heavy, especially in urban gardening. Look at the upside down tomato plant as an example. Look up the average dimensions of an apartment fire escape/balcony and make sure it fits the smallest dimension. |
| Could make a set of racks that are adaptable to different size ladders, so that each rack is located between the ladder legs and spaced to provide clearance between racks. The ladder provides the structure, you just make the containers and racks, which are bundled in a kit. |
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I'm in the nursery industry and they keep telling me millennials don't really like gardening. They'll buy stuff like pre-planted porch planters that are already in bloom and look good.
Like if you were having a pool party with fruit plates and wanted to spruce it up before everyone got there. Instant color, instant gratification, not necessarily a long term thing. once it looks ugly, it's trash. That said, it sounds like your group got a stupid ass idea. Vertical tomatoes are the shit, but pumpkins? wtf? Maybe mini-pumpkins and gourds. And mother nature doesn't give a shit that your shelf is 32" tall and needs to be balanced on both sides. |
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OP, you're right and the rest of the group is wrong. What they want is an artisanal product that would sell to high income hipsters. For a one or two man shop that would work, for real production that will make it into 50 states worth of garden centers you are spot on. Pumpkins are a weird market though based on size, I would think. Could the project be redone to make a pepper growing device? With the rise of ethnic and spicy foods, being able to grow your own specialty peppers would seem to be a better market niche to go after. |
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Trust me I was pretty much completely against it until we set down and talked about it and I think in a polymer we actually have a patentable idea and you can mold things easily that you can't make in wood.
I also wanted to make it smaller and focus on cucumbers or some other useful vegetable. |
that's how disconnected I am from this.
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Are you asking for feedback on the two ideas?
Nobody is going to buy a $200 thing JUST to grow pumpkins. You could buy an entire pallet of pumpkins for that much. However, don't discount the value of aesthetics. As a principle, I don't buy cheezy cheap stuff made in China. I like your idea of selling DIY kits, but why not come up with something that's good quality and looks nice? Pumpkins are huge, and your product would likely be the visual center of any garden it's put in. It needs to look nice. |
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That is a inherently bad idea because it would be hard to support the fruit. I would build a wire mesh structure to support the vine, over a metal frame, and use cloth sashes to hold the pumpkins underneath the vines. Actually not true. The vines will support the weight just fine as long as they grow that way instead of suddenly need to support it. My friend grew pumpkins near a 50' pine tree and had pumpkins hanging like christmas ornaments all through the tree. It was actually pretty cool |
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Actually not true. The vines will support the weight just fine as long as they grow that way instead of suddenly need to support it. My friend grew pumpkins near a 50' pine tree and had pumpkins hanging like christmas ornaments all through the tree. It was actually pretty cool Quoted:
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That is a inherently bad idea because it would be hard to support the fruit. I would build a wire mesh structure to support the vine, over a metal frame, and use cloth sashes to hold the pumpkins underneath the vines. Actually not true. The vines will support the weight just fine as long as they grow that way instead of suddenly need to support it. My friend grew pumpkins near a 50' pine tree and had pumpkins hanging like christmas ornaments all through the tree. It was actually pretty cool I like that idea, we'll just sell pumpkin trees 
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Are you asking for feedback on the two ideas? Nobody is going to buy a $200 thing JUST to grow pumpkins. You could buy an entire pallet of pumpkins for that much. However, don't discount the value of aesthetics. As a principle, I don't buy cheezy cheap stuff made in China. I like your idea of selling DIY kits, but why not come up with something that's good quality and looks nice? Pumpkins are huge, and your product would likely be the visual center of any garden it's put in. It needs to look nice. I just think if it's not ridiculously cheap in price then any DIY'er will make their own and IMO people who raise their own veggies are DIY'ers. |
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Actually not true. The vines will support the weight just fine as long as they grow that way instead of suddenly need to support it. My friend grew pumpkins near a 50' pine tree and had pumpkins hanging like christmas ornaments all through the tree. It was actually pretty cool Quoted:
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That is a inherently bad idea because it would be hard to support the fruit. I would build a wire mesh structure to support the vine, over a metal frame, and use cloth sashes to hold the pumpkins underneath the vines. Actually not true. The vines will support the weight just fine as long as they grow that way instead of suddenly need to support it. My friend grew pumpkins near a 50' pine tree and had pumpkins hanging like christmas ornaments all through the tree. It was actually pretty cool Hard to imagine how they would keep their fruit during a high wind. We get 40-50 mile an hour winds through here ever year just when Pumpkins would be at their largest. Not storms mind you, just seasonal winds. |
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So I'm working on a project for school and got assigned to a group that is to write a business plan for selling a product to grow pumpkins vertically. It's basically a tower that you train the vines on with shelves for the pumpkins to rest. My idea was some cheap plastic components that would be combined with a few cheap items from Home Depot (customer buys the Home Depot stuff) to build the tower. We'd just sell a kit with the hard to make at home components keeping shipping costs and product costs low with a target of Home Depot big box style retailers and online sales. I'm thinking get the components made in China and shipped in by the container load. Sell for like $25. My goal was to be so cheap that it wouldn't make sense for people to make it themselves. My group disagrees and wants sustainable wood build with artistic design and sell for like $150 to $200. My opinion is if you make it from wood then anybody could make it and your cost climbs with labor and materials being expensive. I grew up on a large farm so this urban gardening thing isn't my cup of tea. And in my mind pumpkins are too cheap to buy and you only grow your own because you can. There are much better vegetables to focus on. Anybody have any experience with this area or opinions on the project as I've laid it out? Get both. Limited marketing on the cheap one in appropriate venues (infomercials, yout tube vid etc). Or you could partner with a big box store to sell the shit there. Then do the fancy I'm fucking idiot hippie/yuppie/soocermom eco friendly bullshit. Market that shit in appropriate venues. Then when your cheap one makes 87 times as much profit as the envirofags, you can give them a nice fat HA HA! |
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Get both. Limited marketing on the cheap one in appropriate venues (infomercials, yout tube vid etc). Or you could partner with a big box store to sell the shit there. Then do the fancy I'm fucking idiot hippie/yuppie/soocermom eco friendly bullshit. Market that shit in appropriate venues. Then when your cheap one makes 87 times as much profit as the envirofags, you can give them a nice fat HA HA! Quoted:
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So I'm working on a project for school and got assigned to a group that is to write a business plan for selling a product to grow pumpkins vertically. It's basically a tower that you train the vines on with shelves for the pumpkins to rest. My idea was some cheap plastic components that would be combined with a few cheap items from Home Depot (customer buys the Home Depot stuff) to build the tower. We'd just sell a kit with the hard to make at home components keeping shipping costs and product costs low with a target of Home Depot big box style retailers and online sales. I'm thinking get the components made in China and shipped in by the container load. Sell for like $25. My goal was to be so cheap that it wouldn't make sense for people to make it themselves. My group disagrees and wants sustainable wood build with artistic design and sell for like $150 to $200. My opinion is if you make it from wood then anybody could make it and your cost climbs with labor and materials being expensive. I grew up on a large farm so this urban gardening thing isn't my cup of tea. And in my mind pumpkins are too cheap to buy and you only grow your own because you can. There are much better vegetables to focus on. Anybody have any experience with this area or opinions on the project as I've laid it out? Get both. Limited marketing on the cheap one in appropriate venues (infomercials, yout tube vid etc). Or you could partner with a big box store to sell the shit there. Then do the fancy I'm fucking idiot hippie/yuppie/soocermom eco friendly bullshit. Market that shit in appropriate venues. Then when your cheap one makes 87 times as much profit as the envirofags, you can give them a nice fat HA HA! That was the original plan but then it got overruled by a premium only concept |
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I just think if it's not ridiculously cheap in price then any DIY'er will make their own and IMO people who raise their own veggies are DIY'ers. Quoted:
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Are you asking for feedback on the two ideas? Nobody is going to buy a $200 thing JUST to grow pumpkins. You could buy an entire pallet of pumpkins for that much. However, don't discount the value of aesthetics. As a principle, I don't buy cheezy cheap stuff made in China. I like your idea of selling DIY kits, but why not come up with something that's good quality and looks nice? Pumpkins are huge, and your product would likely be the visual center of any garden it's put in. It needs to look nice. I just think if it's not ridiculously cheap in price then any DIY'er will make their own and IMO people who raise their own veggies are DIY'ers. Yes and no. Out in suburbia there would be a limited market. You get a lot of cidiots that move to a subdivision and decide to do small gardens or plant a few plants and raise a horse or two. Most of them are well meaning idiots with no clue. They think they are do it yourselfers when they successfully put together some furniture from Ikea. Cause they like built it themselves n shit. Some figure that shit out. A lot do not. But that is ok for you, because they also throw fuck tons of money at shit before they quit. Selling the expensive one would appeal to the more eco friendly types, not a huge market but some $ to be made. |
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In most cases, I would think the OPs position would be the better business plan. But when you think about it who in their right mind would want a pumpkin tower to grow pumpkins vertically on a shelf. Not anyone sane. Your market is rich urban hipsters. Make it as expensive as possible and market it with every buzz word you can. Sustainably Harvested, Organic, Artisan, Vegan, Cruelty Free, non-GMO, Gluten Free Pumpkin Grower. Put a piece of tropical wood trim on it so you can throw in the Fair Trade lingo also. Sell in for around $200. What you loose in volume you will make up with a 500% profit margin.
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Pumpkin vines grow in 10's of feet. They branch out over and over. There's no way you're going to get that onto a porch or balcony. Unless you find a pumpkin that is more of a determinant variety rather than indeterminant. Maybe something like this:  I've grown squash vertically, but they don't go very high. Cucumbers to 6'-8'. Tomatoes, 10"+. But pumpkins? Never use nails as they will have to be dismantled every year or made permanent. PVC or metal pipe would be better, and would be able to be dismantled, but wPVC ould still need to be replaced at some point. Twine would have to be replaced each year (or two at most). Actual pumpkins are heavy and would add up quickly as they ripen. Structure would have to be pretty darned sturdy. The neighbor had pumpkin plants come through the chain link fence, and grow along it both way for a total of about 60'. I got 9 pumpkins on my side. The vines mostly grew large enough to hold the pumpkins as they grew but they failed as they began to ripen. Splashed a couple of them. It would have sucked to have one konk me on the noggin as it took a dive. |
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Pumpkin vines grow in 10's of feet. They branch out over and over. There's no way you're going to get that onto a porch or balcony. Unless you find a pumpkin that is more of a determinant variety rather than indeterminant. Maybe something like this: http://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e165/Hautions11/tomatotree.jpg Train the vine up then train the vine back down, so on and so forth |
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That was the original plan but then it got overruled by a premium only concept Quoted:
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So I'm working on a project for school and got assigned to a group that is to write a business plan for selling a product to grow pumpkins vertically. It's basically a tower that you train the vines on with shelves for the pumpkins to rest. My idea was some cheap plastic components that would be combined with a few cheap items from Home Depot (customer buys the Home Depot stuff) to build the tower. We'd just sell a kit with the hard to make at home components keeping shipping costs and product costs low with a target of Home Depot big box style retailers and online sales. I'm thinking get the components made in China and shipped in by the container load. Sell for like $25. My goal was to be so cheap that it wouldn't make sense for people to make it themselves. My group disagrees and wants sustainable wood build with artistic design and sell for like $150 to $200. My opinion is if you make it from wood then anybody could make it and your cost climbs with labor and materials being expensive. I grew up on a large farm so this urban gardening thing isn't my cup of tea. And in my mind pumpkins are too cheap to buy and you only grow your own because you can. There are much better vegetables to focus on. Anybody have any experience with this area or opinions on the project as I've laid it out? Get both. Limited marketing on the cheap one in appropriate venues (infomercials, yout tube vid etc). Or you could partner with a big box store to sell the shit there. Then do the fancy I'm fucking idiot hippie/yuppie/soocermom eco friendly bullshit. Market that shit in appropriate venues. Then when your cheap one makes 87 times as much profit as the envirofags, you can give them a nice fat HA HA! That was the original plan but then it got overruled by a premium only concept Then I predict your business plan will fail drastically in the real world. Combined you can make some money. Just the inexpensive do it yourself you will make money. Doing only the high end, as a first offering? You're fucked IMO. Now if some one else introduced the cheap one, then there might be a market opportunity for some one else to come in with a high end premade one. 1. You are starting with a very limited customer base. The number of people wanting to grow pumpkins vertically for space savings is limited. The number of people with more money than brains that will buy a $150 - $200 is more limited. 2. About two weeks after your product hits market and sells some, some one is going to make a plastic version like you originally suggested. They are gonna make a lot more money with their crap than you do. About a week after that, some redneck is gonna be selling used bakers racks converted to vertical pumpkin growers with about $5 worth of material and selling them at the flea market for forty-fifty dollars. His slightly smarter female cousin will be selling them on ebay for $87.87 plus shipping. Their really smart second cousin will be spending a little more money and selling them on etsy to your primary market group for about $10 shipped less than what you want. While both things in #2 will happen eventually, no matter what you do, if you bring both to market first, you get name recognition. That will help more with the high end, where you need the most help to turn a profit. By partnering with Lowes or Home Depot, you secure a decent market niche on the low end to that allows you to make decent profits despite the copycats. JMHO YMMV |
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In most cases, I would think the OPs position would be the better business plan. But when you think about it who in their right mind would want a pumpkin tower to grow pumpkins vertically on a shelf. Not anyone sane. Your market is rich urban hipsters. Make it as expensive as possible and market it with every buzz word you can. Sustainably Harvested, Organic, Artisan, Vegan, Cruelty Free, non-GMO, Gluten Free Pumpkin Grower. Put a piece of tropical wood trim on it so you can throw in the Fair Trade lingo also. Sell in for around $200. What you loose in volume you will make up with a 500% profit margin. In addition to urban hipsters, there are suzi soccermoms in suburbia that have a brains to income ratio fucked up enough to buy it. But it is a small market and I don't know about urban hipsters but Suzi SOccermom loves her some fucking flea market and etsy deals. |
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Then I predict your business plan will fail drastically in the real world. Combined you can make some money. Just the inexpensive do it yourself you will make money. Doing only the high end, as a first offering? You're fucked IMO. Now if some one else introduced the cheap one, then there might be a market opportunity for some one else to come in with a high end premade one. 1. You are starting with a very limited customer base. The number of people wanting to grow pumpkins vertically for space savings is limited. The number of people with more money than brains that will buy a $150 - $200 is more limited. 2. About two weeks after your product hits market and sells some, some one is going to make a plastic version like you originally suggested. They are gonna make a lot more money with their crap than you do. About a week after that, some redneck is gonna be selling used bakers racks converted to vertical pumpkin growers with about $5 worth of material and selling them at the flea market for forty-fifty dollars. His slightly smarter female cousin will be selling them on ebay for $87.87 plus shipping. Their really smart second cousin will be spending a little more money and selling them on etsy to your primary market group for about $10 shipped less than what you want. While both things in #2 will happen eventually, no matter what you do, if you bring both to market first, you get name recognition. That will help more with the high end, where you need the most help to turn a profit. By partnering with Lowes or Home Depot, you secure a decent market niche on the low end to that allows you to make decent profits despite the copycats. JMHO YMMV Quoted:
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So I'm working on a project for school and got assigned to a group that is to write a business plan for selling a product to grow pumpkins vertically. It's basically a tower that you train the vines on with shelves for the pumpkins to rest. My idea was some cheap plastic components that would be combined with a few cheap items from Home Depot (customer buys the Home Depot stuff) to build the tower. We'd just sell a kit with the hard to make at home components keeping shipping costs and product costs low with a target of Home Depot big box style retailers and online sales. I'm thinking get the components made in China and shipped in by the container load. Sell for like $25. My goal was to be so cheap that it wouldn't make sense for people to make it themselves. My group disagrees and wants sustainable wood build with artistic design and sell for like $150 to $200. My opinion is if you make it from wood then anybody could make it and your cost climbs with labor and materials being expensive. I grew up on a large farm so this urban gardening thing isn't my cup of tea. And in my mind pumpkins are too cheap to buy and you only grow your own because you can. There are much better vegetables to focus on. Anybody have any experience with this area or opinions on the project as I've laid it out? Get both. Limited marketing on the cheap one in appropriate venues (infomercials, yout tube vid etc). Or you could partner with a big box store to sell the shit there. Then do the fancy I'm fucking idiot hippie/yuppie/soocermom eco friendly bullshit. Market that shit in appropriate venues. Then when your cheap one makes 87 times as much profit as the envirofags, you can give them a nice fat HA HA! That was the original plan but then it got overruled by a premium only concept Then I predict your business plan will fail drastically in the real world. Combined you can make some money. Just the inexpensive do it yourself you will make money. Doing only the high end, as a first offering? You're fucked IMO. Now if some one else introduced the cheap one, then there might be a market opportunity for some one else to come in with a high end premade one. 1. You are starting with a very limited customer base. The number of people wanting to grow pumpkins vertically for space savings is limited. The number of people with more money than brains that will buy a $150 - $200 is more limited. 2. About two weeks after your product hits market and sells some, some one is going to make a plastic version like you originally suggested. They are gonna make a lot more money with their crap than you do. About a week after that, some redneck is gonna be selling used bakers racks converted to vertical pumpkin growers with about $5 worth of material and selling them at the flea market for forty-fifty dollars. His slightly smarter female cousin will be selling them on ebay for $87.87 plus shipping. Their really smart second cousin will be spending a little more money and selling them on etsy to your primary market group for about $10 shipped less than what you want. While both things in #2 will happen eventually, no matter what you do, if you bring both to market first, you get name recognition. That will help more with the high end, where you need the most help to turn a profit. By partnering with Lowes or Home Depot, you secure a decent market niche on the low end to that allows you to make decent profits despite the copycats. JMHO YMMV Perfect |
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Quoted: Train the vine up then train the vine back down, so on and so forth Quoted: Quoted: Pumpkin vines grow in 10's of feet. They branch out over and over. There's no way you're going to get that onto a porch or balcony. Unless you find a pumpkin that is more of a determinant variety rather than indeterminant. Maybe something like this: http://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e165/Hautions11/tomatotree.jpg Train the vine up then train the vine back down, so on and so forth Saying it is one thing...keeping that shit up over an entire season is easier said than done. I can see in my mind a support for smaller items in any number of materials. Most of the materials are sold at the garden store now, but would need Rube Goldberging together, which is what I'm best at. I use a piece of heavy wire fence for one of my pole bean supports, and 6" hog wire fence for my other one. 4' fence posts for peppers and squash. 10' t-posts for tomatoes. A piece of wire closet support for cucumbers works pretty good. But I'm not sure you can expect people with a short attention span to keep everything tied up and pruned long enough to get much out of it. I usually let stuff go during the heat of the summer and get always get my motivation back after it cools down. |
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Saying it is one thing...keeping that shit up over an entire season is easier said than done. I can see in my mind a support for smaller items in any number of materials. Most of the materials are sold at the garden store now, but would need Rube Goldberging together, which is what I'm best at. I use a piece of heavy wire fence for one of my pole bean supports, and 6" hog wire fence for my other one. 4' fence posts for peppers and squash. 10' t-posts for tomatoes. A piece of wire closet support for cucumbers works pretty good. But I'm not sure you can expect people with a short attention span to keep everything tied up and pruned long enough to get much out of it. I usually let stuff go during the heat of the summer and get always get my motivation back after it cools down. Quoted:
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Pumpkin vines grow in 10's of feet. They branch out over and over. There's no way you're going to get that onto a porch or balcony. Unless you find a pumpkin that is more of a determinant variety rather than indeterminant. Maybe something like this: http://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e165/Hautions11/tomatotree.jpg Train the vine up then train the vine back down, so on and so forth Saying it is one thing...keeping that shit up over an entire season is easier said than done. I can see in my mind a support for smaller items in any number of materials. Most of the materials are sold at the garden store now, but would need Rube Goldberging together, which is what I'm best at. I use a piece of heavy wire fence for one of my pole bean supports, and 6" hog wire fence for my other one. 4' fence posts for peppers and squash. 10' t-posts for tomatoes. A piece of wire closet support for cucumbers works pretty good. But I'm not sure you can expect people with a short attention span to keep everything tied up and pruned long enough to get much out of it. I usually let stuff go during the heat of the summer and get always get my motivation back after it cools down. I agree but then I just bought a 40lb pumpkin and pie pumpkin for $18 at a seasonal apple orchard. Cheaper at Walmart. |
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Guessing they also don't live in the city Quoted:
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My Amish neighbors grow ass loads of pumpkins, and they do not grow them on trellises. Guessing they also don't live in the city If you have about 12 square feet you can grow 3 or 4 large pumpkins on a single vine. The trick is to remove all but the fruit you want to set. |
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So will they ship fully grown or do you have to grow it?
How many will you lose in transport? It's all perishable, and those you don't lose to bumpy roads and forklift drivers, will need a certain amount of time in the sun at the proper temperatures (can't leave it in a hot truck over the weekend) and then someone has to water properly on a regular basis. Can you see why there's no money for a smaller guy in ag commodities? |
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So will they ship fully grown or do you have to grow it? How many will you lose in transport? It's all perishable, and those you don't lose to bumpy roads and forklift drivers, will need a certain amount of time in the sun at the proper temperatures (can't leave it in a hot truck over the weekend) and then someone has to water properly on a regular basis. Can you see why there's no money for a smaller guy in ag commodities? Definitely, my concept was an online company with an app that made money through advertising. I wouldn't want to get into the business like this and my undergrad degree is ag related. This is only a stand for people to grow their own. May ship with seeds. |
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I'm in the nursery industry and they keep telling me millennials don't really like gardening. They'll buy stuff like pre-planted porch planters that are already in bloom and look good. Like if you were having a pool party with fruit plates and wanted to spruce it up before everyone got there. Instant color, instant gratification, not necessarily a long term thing. once it looks ugly, it's trash. That said, it sounds like your group got a stupid ass idea. Vertical tomatoes are the shit, but pumpkins? wtf? Maybe mini-pumpkins and gourds. And mother nature doesn't give a shit that your shelf is 32" tall and needs to be balanced on both sides. +1 internets for slipping in fruit plates |
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I'm sure the marketing department will come up with something catchy like "Pumpkin Tree" to replace that with. Quoted:
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"Vertical Pumpkin" is one of those phrases I am NOT typing into my search bar...  I'm sure the marketing department will come up with something catchy like "Pumpkin Tree" to replace that with. Here's a link to one. http://offbeathome.com/vertical-pumpkin-patch/ |
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Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: "Vertical Pumpkin" is one of those phrases I am NOT typing into my search bar... I'm sure the marketing department will come up with something catchy like "Pumpkin Tree" to replace that with. Here's a link to one. http://offbeathome.com/vertical-pumpkin-patch/ Damn. That's actually kinda' cool. |
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Damn. That's actually kinda' cool. Quoted:
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"Vertical Pumpkin" is one of those phrases I am NOT typing into my search bar... I'm sure the marketing department will come up with something catchy like "Pumpkin Tree" to replace that with. Here's a link to one. http://offbeathome.com/vertical-pumpkin-patch/ Damn. That's actually kinda' cool. And cheaper than what we want to do 
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