MICROGREEN BUSINESS GUIDE · DALLAS, TX

Start a microgreen business in Dallas, TX.

Most Dallas growers do not realize the size of the wholesale microgreen gap sitting under their nose. Between Uptown, Bishop Arts, Deep Ellum, and the Knox Henderson corridor, hundreds of chef-driven restaurants plate microgreens every night, and most of them are buying from broadline distributors trucking in product from California or Arizona. The Dallas grower who closes that gap effectively writes their own ticket.

Quick Answer

You can start a microgreen business in Dallas with under $400 in initial equipment and grow it into a $3,000 to $8,000 per month side income within 90 days. Here is the local demand picture, the unit economics at Dallas wholesale prices, and the operating system used by working microgreen farms.

If you walked into five chef-driven restaurants in Bishop Arts or Knox Henderson on a Tuesday and asked where their microgreens were cut, how many would name a grower inside Loop 12?

What Dallas buys today

Dallas has built one of the deepest restaurant scenes in the Southwest over the past fifteen years, with chef-driven concepts spreading from Uptown and Deep Ellum out into Bishop Arts, Lower Greenville, and the Trinity Groves corridor. Steakhouses, modern Tex-Mex, sushi, and the rising wave of farm-to-table kitchens all plate microgreens as a baseline finish, and almost all of that volume currently rides in on broadline distributor trucks.

The farmers market network anchored by the Dallas Farmers Market downtown plus the Saturday markets across the suburbs gives a serious grower a direct-to-consumer channel that pays cash on the barrel. The demographic profile across North Dallas, Lakewood, and the M Streets is exactly the textbook microgreen buyer: higher income, health-aware, and willing to pay for visibly fresh local product.

For indoor growing, Dallas summer heat is the only real challenge, and a window AC plus an insulated garage or spare room handles it for under three hundred dollars in equipment. Once the temperature window holds between 65 and 75 degrees, the climate stops mattering and the operation runs year-round.

Every week you wait, another Uptown or Bishop Arts chef signs a 12-month supply agreement with a distributor pulling product from out of state. What does it cost you when the chefs you wanted to sell to are already on someone else's standing invoice?

The math, in Dallas prices

Dallas restaurant wholesale prices for microgreens sit at or slightly above the national average, with chef-driven and farm-to-table accounts paying premium for genuinely local cut-to-order product. Here is what the unit economics look like at conservative Dallas numbers.

Startup cost

$400

Trays, soil, seed, lights. Used gear cuts this in half.

Per-tray net

$20-$30

After seed, soil, packaging, delivery.

Trays per week

100

Target for $3K-$5K/mo at Dallas pricing.

Break-even week

Week 4

First positive cash week. Most growers hit it.

What that looks like in Dallas square footage

A 10 by 10 foot room with two vertical shelving units holds 60 to 80 active trays. That is enough to produce $3,000 to $5,000 per month in Dallas at standard wholesale prices. A two-car garage doubles it. A basement triples it.

Picture the version of your week where Sunday is the planting day, Tuesday is restaurant delivery through Bishop Arts and Knox Henderson, Saturday is the farmers market, and the system tells you exactly which trays to cut. What changes about how you spend the rest of your week when the income side runs on rails?

Three things every working microgreen farm in Dallas runs on

  1. A seed density and watering plan you trust. The number one cause of failed trays for new growers is over- or under-seeding. The cheat sheet inside Grown Like A Pro gives you grams per 10x20, soak hours, blackout days, harvest day, and watering for sixty-one varieties.
  2. A rotation tracker. Once you are running thirty-plus trays per week, you cannot remember what is in blackout, what is in light growth, what harvests Tuesday. A spreadsheet works for the first month. After that you need a system that pings you the day before each harvest and reorders seed before you run out.
  3. A customer + invoice layer. Restaurants in Dallas want predictable weekly invoices and net-15 terms. Farmers market customers want clamshell tracking. Both want consistency. The app handles both.

The IKEA test

If you can follow an IKEA instruction sheet without screaming at the family, you can grow microgreens at a commercial level in Dallas. The steps are about that difficulty: open the box, lay out the parts, follow the picture, repeat. Trays are the bookcase. Seed is the dowels.

If you ever did struggle with the IKEA bookshelf, that is exactly why Glappy lives inside the app. Glappy is the in-app coach that breaks every step down barney style, in your own language, from "how do I plant my first tray" to "why is this tray going leggy at day five and what do I do about it tonight." Type the question, get a step-by-step answer. There is no question too basic. The whole point is that a Dallas grower starting today is not on their own.

What you are not buying

You are not buying a course. You are not buying a hype product. You are not buying seed from us, and you are not buying trays from us. We do not sell either. Grown Like A Pro is the operating system you run your Dallas farm on. The growing happens in your basement.

Try Grown Like A Pro free for 30 days →

Dallas microgreen FAQ

How much can I make growing microgreens in Dallas?
A working microgreen farm in Dallas produces $3,000 to $8,000 per month within 90 days of starting. The math: 100 trays per week, $20 to $30 net revenue per tray, harvested in a basement, garage, or spare room. The ceiling is set by how many restaurants and farmers market customers you can serve, not by the growing setup.
Is it legal to sell microgreens in TX?
Yes. In most of Texas, microgreens fall under the state's cottage food law for direct-to-consumer retail at farmers markets and to private customers. Restaurant wholesale typically requires a basic food handler permit. Verify with the Texas Department of Agriculture before you sign a wholesale contract.
What microgreens sell best in Dallas?
Sunflower, pea shoots, and radish are the three highest-volume sellers in nearly every U.S. city, including Dallas. Broccoli is the highest-margin variety because of its sulforaphane reputation with health-focused buyers. Specialty varieties like amaranth and shiso command premium pricing from chef-driven restaurants.
How much space do I need to grow microgreens in Dallas?
A 10 by 10 foot room with two shelving units holds 60 to 80 active trays, which is enough to produce $3,000 to $5,000 per month. A basement, garage corner, spare bedroom, or sunroom all work in Dallas's climate. Vertical shelving is the fastest path to higher revenue per square foot.
What is the best app for tracking microgreen production in Dallas?
Grown Like A Pro is the operating system used by working microgreen farms in Dallas. It handles seed density math, watering schedules, harvest timing, inventory, customer orders, and the financial side. Free 30-day trial with no credit card.
How long does it take to learn to grow microgreens commercially?
Most growers in Dallas are selling their first trays within 30 days of starting. Commercial proficiency, meaning you can run 50-plus trays per week without losing crops to mold or under-seeding, takes 60 to 90 days. The seed density and watering math is the single biggest predictor of how fast you get there.
Do I need a license to sell microgreens in Dallas?
For farmers market and direct-to-consumer sales in Dallas, most growers operate under Texas's cottage food law with no special license. For wholesale to restaurants and grocery stores, you typically need a basic food handler permit, a sales tax permit, and depending on volume, an inspection from your county health department.
How do I price microgreens to restaurants in Dallas?
Restaurant wholesale in Dallas runs $1.50 to $2.50 per ounce for standard varieties, $3 to $5 per ounce for specialty varieties like shiso, micro basil, or amaranth. Sell by the pound for repeat accounts. Local fresh commands a premium over the shipped-in product that most Dallas restaurants currently buy.

Related guides

Once you have the Dallas math in your head, the next read is the density chart that drives every tray you plant.

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