MICROGREEN BUSINESS GUIDE · ST. LOUIS, MO

Start a microgreen business in St. Louis, MO.

Most St. Louis residents do not realize how thin the local microgreen supply actually is across the region. The Central West End fine dining rooms, the Grove and Cherokee bistros, and the brunch spots in Clayton and Maplewood all keep microgreens on the line, and most of it ships in from regional distributors. The St. Louis grower who plants close to the kitchens is the one who locks the accounts.

Quick Answer

You can start a microgreen business in St. Louis with under $400 in initial equipment and grow it into a $2,000 to $5,500 per month side income within 90 days. Here is the local demand picture, the unit economics at St. Louis wholesale prices, and the operating system used by working microgreen farms.

If you walked into five chef-driven restaurants between the Central West End and Clayton on a Tuesday and asked where their microgreens were cut, how many do you think would actually name a grower inside the St. Louis region?

What St. Louis buys today

St. Louis has a chef-driven independent restaurant scene that punches above the city's size, anchored by the Central West End, the Grove, Cherokee Street, and the inner-ring suburbs like Clayton and Maplewood. Microgreens are baseline on tasting-menu and brunch plates, and the regional food identity rewards a local-sourcing story.

The Tower Grove Farmers Market and the Soulard Market scene give you direct-to-consumer reach across a wide swath of the city, and the wellness, juice bar, and prepared-food retail scene fills in steady wholesale flow outside of restaurants. The cost of living also keeps your operating expenses lower than coastal markets while the wholesale price floor still holds.

For indoor growing, St. Louis basements are an unusually good environment. Steady temperatures, included heating in winter, and moderate indoor humidity make a 5 by 10 foot footprint easy to run year-round. Summer humidity is the only real constraint and is handled with a basic dehumidifier.

Every week another Central West End or Clayton kitchen signs a standing order with a distributor pulling product from out of state. What does it cost you when the chefs you wanted to sell to are already on someone else's invoice cycle?

The math, in St. Louis prices

St. Louis restaurant wholesale prices for microgreens sit in the mid range nationally, with chef-driven kitchens paying a clear premium for genuinely local trays harvested the morning of delivery. Here is what the unit economics look like at conservative St. Louis 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 St. Louis pricing.

Break-even week

Week 4

First positive cash week. Most growers hit it.

What that looks like in St. Louis 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 St. Louis 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 across the Central West End and Clayton, Saturday is Tower Grove, and the system on your phone tells you exactly which trays to cut. What changes about the rest of your week when the income side runs on rails?

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

Try Grown Like A Pro free for 30 days →

St. Louis microgreen FAQ

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

Related guides

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

Microgreens in nearby cities

← All cities