This fifth installment in our Business Planning process is where your boots really hit the ground. After setting a good foundation, clarifying your motivations, working big-to-small to set up your goals, and making a market for your plan, it’s time to Plant your Plan.
I almost called this “Plan to Plant your Plan” because that really needs to happen before you plant… but Plant your Plan is wayyy catchier. ???? The truth is, you have to have well-prepared ground before you plant, and you have to have *enough* ground to plant in, so while I’m presenting these 5 steps as linear, I feel it’s very important to work through all of them on paper (or in a spreadsheet program) before beginning to act.
When you’ve reached the point that you know what you want to sell, and when, back up your plan even further to think about what you need to plant in order to have stems available at the right time. ????
We generally plant for about 20% extra in our fields to cover unexpected pest damage or loss (and this is almost never a waste – you’ll be equipped for the lovely surprise of mid-season sales growth or can invest time in creating fantastic flat lays or installations with the extras for marketing purposes or personal creative refreshment!), so factor that into your planning.
For a simplistic example: if you know you need 100 one-cut (one seed= one stem) sunflowers each week for a 20-wk season, then figure out about how many days they take to open and plant about 120 of them each week, starting about that many days before the first delivery date. (Try ProCut series for fairly reliable 60 days from seed.) Earlier in the season, our flowers grow slowly, and it seems everything speeds up later in the summer, so depending on your temps and amount of daylight available, you may need to plant about 70 days before your first delivery and move closer to 50 days as the summer progresses. This is another example of how keeping detailed records will serve you well as you continue farming on the same land. I know the season is incredibly busy, but having all the planting dates and days-to-flower for your crops is an INVALUABLE tool, so I challenge you to make a plan that will enable you to collect vital info throughout the season.
For a reblooming (cut-and-come-again) flower that you’ll use all summer, you might want to schedule 3 or 4 replantings throughout your season so that you have vigorous growth to cut from. Look at your records or the seed-sellers’ growing info to find out approx. how many days to flowering, and back up your plantings/germination from there.
Following this method, you should be able to make a solid plan for planting that will provide the blooms you need for your global Plan. It may seem like a lot of planning, but I promise it’s worth it and will serve you well as a valuable tool for years to come.
