MICROGREEN BUSINESS GUIDE · HOUSTON, TX

Start a microgreen business in Houston, TX.

Most Houston chefs do not know their microgreens were cut six to nine days before service. The product sitting in their walk-ins traveled from greenhouses in central Texas or further out, and the freshness gap is what a Houston-based grower walks straight into. The operator who plants close to the kitchens, inside the Loop or in the Heights, is the one who locks the steakhouse and fine dining accounts.

Quick Answer

You can start a microgreen business in Houston with under $400 in initial equipment and grow it into a $2,500 to $7,500 per month side income within 90 days, even from a 600 square foot apartment. Here is the local demand picture, the unit economics at Houston wholesale prices, and the operating system used by working microgreen farms.

If you walked through ten chef-driven restaurants in Montrose or Rice Village on a Tuesday and asked where their microgreens came from, how many do you think would say a grower inside Houston? The honest answer is almost none, and the chefs are aware of it.

What Houston buys today

Houston is one of the most diverse food cities in the country, with steakhouses, Gulf seafood houses, Tex-Mex flagships, Vietnamese pho counters, and a James Beard caliber chef scene anchoring neighborhoods from EaDo to Rice Village. Microgreens land on plates in all of those formats, and most of the product currently moves in through regional distributors that are days away from harvest by the time the box opens.

The buyer profile is unusually layered for an aspiring grower. Between fine dining, the modern Tex-Mex and Latin concepts, the cold-pressed juice and acai bowl shops, the Whole Foods and Central Market caliber grocery accounts, and the smoothie chains expanding across the metro, there are more potential buyers than a one person operation could ever supply. Add the Urban Harvest farmers market network on Saturdays and a wellness-curious population, and direct-to-consumer is a real second channel.

The catch most aspiring Houston growers miss is that the climate works in your favor when you grow indoors. Houston summers are brutal outside, but a climate controlled spare room runs the same temperature year round, your heating bill is zero, and a 5 by 10 foot footprint can produce more weekly revenue than most side businesses do in a year.

Every week you delay, another fifty trays of restaurant revenue gets locked up by a distributor truck rolling in from Austin or Dallas. What does it cost you to be the second grower in your zip code instead of the first?

The math, in Houston prices

Houston restaurant wholesale prices for microgreens sit in the mid to upper national range, with the chef-driven Inner Loop accounts paying meaningfully above standard wholesale because of the freshness gap. Here is what the unit economics look like at conservative Houston 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 Houston pricing.

Break-even week

Week 4

First positive cash week. Most growers hit it.

What that looks like in Houston 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 Houston 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 and Friday are restaurant deliveries within a 15 minute drive, Saturday is the Urban Harvest market, and the system on your phone tells you exactly which trays to cut and when. What changes about the rest of your week when the income side is on autopilot?

Three things every working microgreen farm in Houston 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 Houston 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 Houston. 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 Houston 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 Houston farm on. The growing happens in your basement.

Try Grown Like A Pro free for 30 days →

Houston microgreen FAQ

How much can I make growing microgreens in Houston?
A working microgreen farm in Houston 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 Houston?
Sunflower, pea shoots, and radish are the three highest-volume sellers in nearly every U.S. city, including Houston. 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 Houston?
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 Houston's climate. Vertical shelving is the fastest path to higher revenue per square foot.
What is the best app for tracking microgreen production in Houston?
Grown Like A Pro is the operating system used by working microgreen farms in Houston. 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 Houston 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 Houston?
For farmers market and direct-to-consumer sales in Houston, 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 Houston?
Restaurant wholesale in Houston 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 Houston restaurants currently buy.

Related guides

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

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