Microgreens Production

Microgreens farmers grow young vegetable greens harvested 7-21 days after germination, selling premium product to restaurants, grocery stores, and farmers markets.

Microgreens offer high value per square foot, quick turnaround, year-round indoor growing, and minimal space requirements.

Popular varieties include sunflower, pea shoots, radish, arugula, basil, and specialty mixes.

Success requires growing skills and crop timing, understanding food safety and handling, sales and relationship building with chefs, efficient production systems, and quality consistency.

Pricing ranges from $25-50 per pound for most varieties, $2-4 per ounce at retail, with restaurants as primary market buying multiple pounds weekly.

Successful growers can generate $40,000-80,000 annually from 400-1,000 square feet.

Startup costs include growing space (basement, garage, greenhouse, $0-5,000), grow shelves or racks with LED lighting ($1,000-5,000), seeds, growing medium, and trays ($300-800), food safety compliance, packaging and labels, delivery vehicle potentially, and initial marketing totaling $3,000-15,000.

Building customer base involves sampling with chefs and restaurants, farmers market presence for retail customers, targeting health food stores and co-ops, CSA or subscription boxes, demonstrating freshness and quality, offering variety packs and seasonal mixes, reliable consistent supply, and eventually wholesale to distributors.

Revenue comes from wholesale to restaurants (bulk pricing), farmers market retail sales (higher margins), grocery store consignment or wholesale, subscription deliveries, or potentially teaching growing classes.

Operating costs include seeds and growing medium (ongoing), utilities (lights and climate control), packaging and labels, delivery fuel, market fees if selling direct, potentially renting larger growing space, and labor time.

Challenges include labor-intensive harvesting and planting, food safety regulations (cottage food laws vary), competition increasing in urban markets, convincing customers of value vs regular greens, shelf life only 7-10 days requiring frequent delivery, and scaling production.

Success requires consistent high-quality product, reliable delivery and supply, building strong chef and buyer relationships, efficient growing and harvesting systems, potentially vertical growing maximizing space, offering variety and seasonal specialties, understanding food safety thoroughly, and treating it as business not just hobby.

Microgreens production is accessible entry to farming with low land requirements.