MICROGREEN BUSINESS GUIDE · MARTINEZ, CA

Start a microgreen business in Martinez, CA.

Most Martinez kitchens serving microgreens are split between out-of-town distributors and a handful of local growers stretched thin. The restaurants along Main Street and the waterfront still rely on greens trucked in from distributors outside Contra Costa, cut days before service. The Martinez grower who steps up first becomes the obvious local name for the whole north county.

Quick Answer

You can start a microgreen business in Martinez with under $400 in initial equipment and grow it into a $2,500 to $6,000 per month side income within 90 days. Here is the local demand picture, the unit economics at Martinez wholesale prices, and the operating system used by working microgreen farms.

Walk into five restaurants on Main Street in Martinez on a Tuesday and ask where tonight's microgreens were cut. How often does the answer point back to anything inside the county?

What Martinez buys today

Martinez is the Contra Costa county seat and sits at the north edge of the East Bay, with a downtown that has held onto an old-California waterfront character. The restaurant base is concentrated and walkable, which makes a single delivery route highly efficient for a local grower.

The Sunday farmers market downtown is a community fixture, and the buyer base reads as steady and willing to pay for genuine local product. The juice and wellness culture across the central Contra Costa corridor and the natural grocery channel round out the direct-to-consumer leg.

For indoor growing, the climate works most of the year. Summer heat is the main consideration and is handled by a window AC in a garage or spare room. The rest of the year a small grow footprint stays inside the productive window with minimal intervention.

If a grower over in Walnut Creek or Pleasant Hill locks down the Martinez restaurant list in the next 60 days, what does that cost you over the next two years in walked-away revenue?

The math, in Martinez prices

Martinez sits in the standard to mid tier of California wholesale pricing, with central Contra Costa accounts paying a meaningful premium for genuinely local cut-to-order trays. Here is what the unit economics look like at conservative Martinez 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 Martinez pricing.

Break-even week

Week 4

First positive cash week. Most growers hit it.

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

What does your week look like when Main Street is on autopilot delivery, the Sunday market is a standing cash channel, and the planning runs through one app instead of paper notes?

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

Try Grown Like A Pro free for 30 days →

Martinez microgreen FAQ

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

Related guides

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

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