When diving into the vegetable and flower seed sector, what’s one thing you really need to have to succeed? Well, according to Robb Bauman, you need to have a lot of patience ready to go.
With trends constantly changing, unexpected events and long wait times for breeding, if you dive into the vegetable seed business like Bauman did, you need to be prepared for anything to happen.
“I thought you had to have patience in making a jet engine part with some of the complexities and some of the things that can go wrong,” Bauman, partner with True Leaf Market, says. “Man, that is just such a simpler world than the seed business — a million more things can go wrong. You have to have patience and know you don’t really control your life. The world controls your life, and you’re just along for the ride.”
And though some unexpected events — like a world pandemic — can be frustrating and inconvenient to deal with, Bauman says it’s opened doors in the gardening sector.
“So many people panicked and jumped in and started gardening,” he says. “One because they had time, and two, because the nervousness with the supply chains. Everybody became very conscious of food and where it came from and its availability. It was such a great opportunity.”
Though the sector wondered if the gardening trend would last, fortunately, in 2023, Bauman’s seeing that young people are staying in the gardening sector. Along with that, Bauman sees another trend — container gardening.
“A lot of younger people haven’t established a house yet,” he says. “They’re finding they can grow in a container setting — and the number of varieties people are getting creative about growing in containers continues to grow.”
Make sure to listen to Bauman’s full podcast above.
