MICROGREEN BUSINESS GUIDE · MARIETTA, GA

Start a microgreen business in Marietta, GA.

Most Marietta residents do not realize how much of the microgreen product served in their local restaurants started its trip on a refrigerated truck a week earlier. The chef-driven spots around Marietta Square and the wave of new concepts pushing into East Cobb are sourcing from distributors by default, not by preference. Nearly every U.S. city has a microgreen farm or two. The demand is bigger than the existing local supply, and the grower who shows up with consistent restaurant-quality trays gets the standing orders.

Quick Answer

You can start a microgreen business in Marietta with under $400 in initial equipment and grow it into a $2,500 to $6,500 per month side income within 90 days. Here is the local demand picture, the unit economics at Marietta wholesale prices, and the operating system used by working microgreen farms.

Walk into five chef-owned restaurants around Marietta Square on a Tuesday and ask where they currently source their microgreens. How often do you actually hear the name of a local grower instead of a wholesale distributor?

What Marietta buys today

Marietta sits inside the Atlanta metro but holds its own identity, with a historic square that anchors a steady restaurant scene and a Cobb County demographic that skews family-oriented, professional, and willing to pay for quality ingredients. The Saturday farmers market at the square has built a loyal weekly customer base over more than thirty years.

East Cobb and the corridor running toward Roswell Road carry a high concentration of casual upscale and farm-to-table concepts, alongside juice and smoothie shops that move serious volume on the wellness end of the demand curve. Those operators are the textbook microgreen buyer, and almost none of them are sourced locally today.

The Georgia climate works for indoor growing year round if you control humidity. A spare room, a finished basement, or a garage with a window unit holds the 65 to 75 degree window microgreens want, and once that is solved you grow the same 52 weeks of the year.

Every week you wait, another Marietta kitchen renews its standing order with a truck out of Atlanta. What does it cost you over two years when the chefs you wanted to sell to are already on someone else's invoice?

The math, in Marietta prices

Marietta wholesale prices for microgreens track the Atlanta metro mid tier, with chef-driven accounts paying a premium for genuinely local product cut the morning of delivery. Here is what the numbers look like at conservative Marietta inputs.

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 Marietta pricing.

Break-even week

Week 4

First positive cash week. Most growers hit it.

What that looks like in Marietta 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 Marietta at standard wholesale prices. A two-car garage doubles it. A basement triples it.

Picture the version of your week where Sunday is planting day, Tuesday is the delivery run from the square out to East Cobb, Saturday is the farmers market, and the app tells you exactly which trays to cut. What changes about how you spend the other four days when the business runs on a system?

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

Try Grown Like A Pro free for 30 days →

Marietta microgreen FAQ

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

Related guides

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

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