The crop everyone overlooks
If you’ve been growing lettuce or basil and wondering what’s next, microgreens are the answer you haven’t tried yet. They’re not a gimmick — they’re baby vegetable greens (sunflower, pea, radish, broccoli) harvested just 7 to 14 days after sowing, and they sell for some of the highest prices per square foot of anything you can grow at home.
Restaurants pay a premium for them. Health-conscious neighbors will too. And because the grow cycle is so short, you can turn a tray over almost every week — which means faster cash flow than anything else in your mini farm rotation.
What you need to get started
- Shallow trays (10×20″ nursery trays work great, no drainage holes needed for the soil tray)
- A light growing medium — coconut coir or a seed-starting mix, about 1 inch deep
- Seeds — sunflower, pea shoots, radish, and broccoli are the easiest and most profitable to start with
- A grow light or bright windowsill — microgreens need light only after the first few days
- A spray bottle for misting, since you’re not using a hydroponic reservoir for most varieties
The 5-step grow cycle
- Soak larger seeds (peas, sunflower) for 8–12 hours; smaller seeds (radish, broccoli) don’t need soaking
- Spread seeds densely and evenly across the moistened medium
- Cover and weight the tray for 2–3 days to encourage strong, even germination (this step is what separates leggy microgreens from thick, sellable ones)
- Uncover, move to light, and mist daily for 5–10 days
- Harvest with scissors right at the soil line once the first true leaves appear
What microgreens actually sell for
A standard 10×20″ tray costs $1–$3 in seed and produces 8–12 ounces of microgreens. Sold at $3–$5 per ounce — which is the typical going rate to neighbors, small restaurants, or at a farmers market table — that’s $24–$60 of revenue from a few dollars of seed and a week and a half of windowsill space.
Run two or three trays on rotation and you’ve got a weekly harvest without ever needing more space than you already have.
Who to sell to first
Skip the idea that you need a storefront. Your first customers are almost always: neighbors who already buy your lettuce or herbs, a local small restaurant or café owner (bring a sample — chefs love microgreens for plating), and any local “buy nothing” or homesteading Facebook group in your area.
Make it part of your mini farm system
Microgreens are the perfect complement to a hydroponic setup, not a replacement for it — they fill the gap weeks when your lettuce or basil is still growing out. If you’re running an Indoor Mini Farm System, add a microgreens tray on the same shelf and you’ll have something to harvest and sell almost every single week.