Tools · Interactive

Season planner — from field to market

One set of assumptions runs the whole chain: your planting calendar decides the harvest window, the window shapes the peak pick, the peak pick sizes the dryer, and drying capacity caps your net. Change any input and the whole chain recalculates — then refine each stage in its own calculator.

Wires the planting-date, drying and feasibility calculators together · all figures are typical-range estimates — confirm locally

The chain Planting date → day-length trigger → harvest window → total fresh calyces → peak daily pick → required drying area → dried kg sold → net. The link most planners miss is the one this page exists to make visible: drying capacity is production capacity — if you can't dry the peak pick, the yield (and the net below it) doesn't materialize.

1 · Calendar & location

Negative = south. Drives the short-day trigger.
Safe window is computed; leave empty to plant at the earliest safe date.

2 · Harvest & season shape

Dried basis, before handling losses.
Sets the fresh-to-dry ratio (~7.4:1 at 88% → 12%).
Heaviest day ÷ average over the window. Calibrate with a weigh log in year one.

3 · Drying assumptions

Sets the base rate (kg water removed per m² per day).
30–50% per the drying chapter.
0 = unknown. If filled in, the planner checks your area against the requirement and caps yield — and net — accordingly.

4 · Economics

Context: ~$1.5–2.5 local · ~$2.5–4 wholesale · ~$5–8 organic export.
Sorting rejects, mold, breakage, moisture shortfalls.
Leaves, fresh festive sales, seed.

Your season, end to end

Refine any stage in its own calculator

How the chain works

Calendar — the planting calculator's model: the short-day trigger (day length falling below ~12.5 h) sets flowering, calyces follow ~30 days later, and the harvest window runs to frost or ~90 days. Harvest shape — dried yield converts back to total fresh calyces through the moisture ratio ((1 − target) ÷ (1 − fresh)), spread over the window with a peak-to-average factor to estimate the heaviest day's pick. Drying — the drying calculator's sizing math turns that peak pick into required tray area (water per day ÷ rate × margin). Economics — the feasibility calculator's model turns dried kg sold, price and cash costs into net, break-even and ROI.

Every number inherits the caveats of its source tool — see the planting-date, drying and feasibility calculators for the full assumptions, and the Economics and Drying Engineering chapters for the underlying logic.

Only as strong as the weakest link The chain's most fragile numbers are the peak-to-average ratio and the drying rate — both are field-calibrated estimates. One season of honest weights (every pick, every dry lot) turns this planner from a guess into a forecast.
The three calculators →