MICROGREEN BUSINESS GUIDE · KEY WEST, FL

Start a microgreen business in Key West, FL.The app starts at only $3 a month.

Most Key West residents do not realize that the island's biggest produce weakness is also their biggest opportunity. Everything fresh has to cross more than a hundred miles of the Overseas Highway to get here, which means the microgreens on local plates arrive tired and expensive after a long haul up from the mainland. A grower right here in Key West can hand a chef greens cut that same morning, with zero road time. On an island that imports nearly all its food, being the local source is an unbeatable frame.

Quick Answer

You can start a microgreen business in Key West with under $400 in initial equipment and grow it into a $2,000 to $5,000 per month side income within 90 days. Here is the local demand picture, the unit economics at Key West wholesale prices, and the operating system used by working microgreen farms.

Have you ever thought about how every fresh green in a Key West kitchen has already traveled over a hundred miles of highway before it reaches the plate?

What Key West buys today

Restaurants are the prize. Key West is one of the most restaurant-dense places in Florida, and every kitchen on the island is paying a premium to import fresh produce up the Keys. A grower offering same-day local microgreens solves a genuine logistical pain point, which makes standing weekly orders surprisingly easy to win.

Markets and direct retail are strong too. The island and the broader Keys draw steady tourist and resident traffic, and microgreens sell at a premium because fresh local produce is genuinely scarce here. Stock Island and Big Pine Key buyers will pay for what nobody else can supply.

The indoor-climate angle is perfect for island life. Salt air, intense sun, and storm season make outdoor growing brutal in the Keys, but a controlled room in Key West produces clean, consistent trays every week regardless of the weather outside. While imports get stranded by storms, your harvest never misses.

If you were the only grower in Monroe County handing chefs greens cut that morning instead of trucked from Florida City, how much pricing power do you think that would give you?

The math, in Key West prices

Wholesale microgreens command roughly $35 to $50 per pound in the import-dependent Key West market, far above the cost to grow a tray.

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 Key West pricing.

Break-even week

Week 4

First positive cash week. Most growers hit it.

What that looks like in Key West square footage

A 10 by 10 foot room on shelving in Key West can hold enough trays to support a strong four-figure monthly income once your island restaurant accounts are steady.

With the island packed with tourists and restaurants competing on presentation, what happens to demand for fresh local greens when nobody else here is producing them?

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

Try Grown Like A Pro free for 30 days →

Key West microgreen FAQ

How much can I make growing microgreens in Key West?
A working microgreen farm in Key West 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 FL?
Yes. In most of Florida, 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 Florida Department of Agriculture before you sign a wholesale contract.
What microgreens sell best in Key West?
Sunflower, pea shoots, and radish are the three highest-volume sellers in nearly every U.S. city, including Key West. 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 Key West?
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 Key West's climate. Vertical shelving is the fastest path to higher revenue per square foot.
What is the best app for tracking microgreen production in Key West?
Grown Like A Pro is the operating system used by working microgreen farms in Key West. 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 Key West 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 Key West?
For farmers market and direct-to-consumer sales in Key West, most growers operate under Florida'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 Key West?
Restaurant wholesale in Key West 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 Key West restaurants currently buy.

Related guides

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

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