Farmer's Market/Stand Displays

[hammerpamf]

When selling at farmer's markets, I like to bring along a couple hydro systems to provide customers with the opportunity to see how the food is/can be grown - generally I do this with one or two small systems that are relatively lightweight and portable. Besides drawing the attention of potential customers, it is a great way to keep plants fresh (I sell plants/seedlings). Attached are a few photos of what I've brought in the past.

Just wondering if anyone else does this and would be willing to share their experience and/or photos.

[fintuckyfarms]

I don't do this yet but aspire to. What a great idea. I will be building an educational agriculture exhibit for our local fair on hydroponics in August. Kinda nervous about it but excited at the same time.

[GpsFrontier]

hammerpamf
Where do you get your display materials? What size containers do you use? I need display products myself. However I cant really find any manufactures that supply the sizes I need.

[hammerpamf]

GPS -

For my DWC, I just bought a five gallon tote from one of the big hardware stores and added an aerator. I drilled eight sites for 2" net pots/plants and use it to display plants for sale.

For the aeroponics system, I built the manifold and use an 18 gallon tote also from one of the big hardware stores; it has twelve sites and use it to display plants for sale.

The static, wick system is in a 2.5 gallon bucket that I painted black to make it light tight. Generally I put a pepper (bush) or tomato (dwarf) plant in there that I use to offer fresh samples to potential customers: many get a kick out of a mini pick-your-own display.

For me, the keys for creating an effective display are:
(1) Space is at a premium, so systems should be both small and functional; by functional I mean they shouldn't be idly sitting around as eye candy, rather operating to keep plants fresh and attractive.
(2) Diversity is key in system selection: display a variety of systems that will allow you to talk about different points (e.g. this DWC uses air pump, this aeroponic manifold uses water pump, this wick system is so easy a child could do it, etc).
(3) Power can be temperamental when several people are all plugged into a limited number of sources; thus, only bring fail-safe systems (or make backup plans) if you are using a shared source.

[GpsFrontier]

Sorry hammerpamf,
I was thinking of a completely different type of display products. I will be growing 9-10 inch tall live fresh herb plants for sale. They will be sold in small grocery stores/markets, as well as at local farmers markets, and even the swap meet. For the stores selling them for me, I need some counter top displays for them to put in their stores. Something like these Nursery Pot Carriers. I haven't found a good source for what I need yet. They need to be attractive, small because their shelf space is valuable, and the right size to fit the pots. With no holes in the bottom, or at least include a catch basin or their counters would get wet and dirty. I'm also not looking to buy them in bulk (100's), and needing to buy minimum quantities can be expensive.