MICROGREEN BUSINESS GUIDE · UNION SQUARE, NY

Start a microgreen business in Union Square, NY.

Most Union Square shoppers and workers do not realize how thin the truly local share of restaurant produce around the park actually is. The chef-driven kitchens ringing Union Square and the prepared food spots on the avenues running into it are mostly buying microgreens trucked in from out of state, cut a week before they hit the plate. The Union Square grower who shows up with consistent restaurant-quality trays gets the standing orders.

Quick Answer

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

Walk into five chef-driven restaurants ringing Union Square on a Tuesday and ask where the microgreens come from. How often is the answer a Manhattan grower instead of a distributor truck, even with the Greenmarket two blocks away?

What Union Square buys today

Union Square is the symbolic heart of the New York local-food story, with the Union Square Greenmarket running multiple days a week and a strong chef-driven dining culture along the park's edges and the side streets bleeding into the Flatiron and Gramercy. The neighborhood has a deeply food-aware customer base that already understands the difference between cut-to-order microgreens and trucked-in product.

Most Union Square kitchens 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, and Union Square is one of the few neighborhoods where the Greenmarket itself offers a direct-to-consumer retail wedge most other markets do not have.

Indoor growing in Union Square is a layout problem, not a climate one. A high-rise spare room, a sub-leased commissary corner in the Flatiron, or a basement utility space will hold the 65 to 75 degree microgreen window year round with minimal HVAC effort. The grower who solves the floor plan first gets the head start.

Every week you wait, another Union Square kitchen signs a 12 month produce agreement with an out-of-state distributor. What does that cost you in walked-away revenue when next year's growers are the ones with the standing accounts ringing the park?

The math, in Union Square prices

Union Square wholesale microgreen prices sit at the top of the Manhattan premium tier, with chef-driven and Greenmarket-aware accounts paying for genuinely local cut-to-order product. Here is what the unit economics look like at conservative Union Square 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 Union Square pricing.

Break-even week

Week 4

First positive cash week. Most growers hit it.

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

Picture the week where Sunday is planting, Tuesday is restaurant delivery around Union Square, Saturday is the Greenmarket retail, and the app tells you exactly which trays to cut. What changes about your other four days when the business runs on a system?

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

Try Grown Like A Pro free for 30 days →

Union Square microgreen FAQ

How much can I make growing microgreens in Union Square?
A working microgreen farm in Union Square 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 Union Square?
Sunflower, pea shoots, and radish are the three highest-volume sellers in nearly every U.S. city, including Union Square. 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 Union Square?
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 Union Square's climate. Vertical shelving is the fastest path to higher revenue per square foot.
What is the best app for tracking microgreen production in Union Square?
Grown Like A Pro is the operating system used by working microgreen farms in Union Square. 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 Union Square 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 Union Square?
For farmers market and direct-to-consumer sales in Union Square, 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 Union Square?
Restaurant wholesale in Union Square 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 Union Square restaurants currently buy.

Related guides

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

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