MICROGREEN BUSINESS GUIDE · SOHO, NY

Start a microgreen business in SoHo, NY.

Most SoHo residents do not realize how much of the microgreen volume on plates in the neighborhood's chef-driven restaurants, hotel kitchens, and rooftop bars was cut days earlier in a warehouse far from Broadway. The cast-iron blocks between Houston and Canal feed an enormous restaurant trade, and the supply behind it rides in on out-of-town trucks. The grower in SoHo who fixes that gets paid first.

Quick Answer

You can start a microgreen business in SoHo with under $400 in initial equipment and grow it into a $3,500 to $8,000 per month side income within 90 days. Here is the local demand picture, the unit economics at SoHo wholesale prices, and the operating system used by working microgreen farms.

Walk into five chef-driven rooms along West Broadway, Spring, and Prince on a Tuesday and ask the kitchen where the microgreens on the plate were cut. How often is the answer a local grower instead of a distributor truck?

What SoHo buys today

SoHo is one of the most concentrated restaurant zones per square block in Manhattan, with hotel kitchens, rooftop bars, chef-driven American and Italian rooms, and a year-round flow of tourist and local trade. The residential population in the lofts above the retail floors is finance, media, fashion, and tech, almost all of whom shop the same Saturday farmers markets the chefs do, and almost all of whom would prefer their garnish was cut that morning instead of last Thursday.

Most kitchens in SoHo serving microgreens are split between out-of-town distributors and a handful of Manhattan-based growers stretched thin. At least half are settling for sub-par quality because professional-grade local supply is still scarce. Nearly every U.S. city has microgreen farms. Manhattan has the demand to support several more.

For indoor growing, SoHo lofts are ideal candidates for vertical racks. Tall ceilings, consistent climate, and walkable delivery routes to Spring, Prince, and West Broadway mean the operational side handles itself once the trays are running.

Every month you wait, another SoHo hotel restaurant or chef-driven room locks in a 12-month supply agreement with a truck rolling in from elsewhere. What does it cost you when the kitchens four blocks from your loft are already on someone else's invoice?

The math, in SoHo prices

SoHo wholesale prices for microgreens run at the high end of the Manhattan range, with hotel and chef-driven accounts paying premium for local cut-to-order product. Here is what the unit economics look like at conservative SoHo 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 SoHo pricing.

Break-even week

Week 4

First positive cash week. Most growers hit it.

What that looks like in SoHo 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 SoHo 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 on Spring and Prince, Saturday is a Hester Street or Union Square market run, 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 SoHo 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 SoHo 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 SoHo. 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 SoHo 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 SoHo farm on. The growing happens in your basement.

Try Grown Like A Pro free for 30 days →

SoHo microgreen FAQ

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

Related guides

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

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