Commercial indoor garden, that is ready for the turn when the law changes

Ok so I've been kicking around this idea for an indoor garden and I wanted the peanut gallery's opinion on it (no offense/pun meant )

I would like to know if anyone else is doing this, and I presume they are since it does not seem to be too much of a light bulb idea that no one else would have thought of it.

So the idea is an indoor garden that would be initially for vegetable and be a size that it could produce enough vegetables to supply local restaurants that are interested in locally grown veggies and possibly any local small grocers that want the same thing.

Here's the kicker, the whole setup is ready and waiting for MJ laws to change so that one could just be waiting to "throw the switch" as it was, over to MJ.

My question is this, what would you all's suggestions be for the veggie crop as far as the most profitable and or productive? I have a buddy that showed me a friend of his that had an indoor hydro garden and he was growing, forgive me if i get this wrong, super greens or something of the sort. He described this guy's stuff as almost like grass, where he trims it and sells the trimmed material and it perpetually grows like that. He said the guy sells this stuff at a high dollar, calling it "green gold"?? Any ideas what this stuff is?? If so, what are the pros and cons to it?

Anyway, just wanted to see what the group's thoughts are on this. I know I'm probably not breaking ground here, so if I'm just re-hashing a dead horse I apologize.

That might work for a greenhouse, but it wouldnt be cost effective to set up a big indoor grow just to grow vegetables. Cannabis costs thousands of dollars a pound,so its not a big deal to buy all the lights and hoods and electricity, but vegetables cost like a few dollars a pound. Thats a competitive market and the people already in it have a lot of experience and could grow more produce for less money than someone trying to break in.

Yea its true... I would of loved to do this too but you would have to pump out alot of veggies and be damn good at it. Restaurants need alot of veggies every week. It would be stressful as hell to meet that demand and return on investment would take along time and at only if you are successful every year. The grass stuff is watercress, bean sprouts and lemon grass types. Of course it can be profitable in the right market. i.e. supermarkets, health food stores etc....but they are easy to grow and IM sure competition is high.

Why dont you just grow weed? Then you will be good at it too, when the law changes.

And sounds like your buddy's buddy was growing kale or spinach, those are super greens and a little pricier then say iceburg lettuce. Or he was using super greens as an innuendo, for weed.

Doing this in a greenhouse would be a better choice than indoors, at least then your veggies would be able to compete on cost. Nothing wrong with growing weed in a greenhouse... the high dollar crop could pay for improvements lettuce and cress don't need, like light deprivation covers or supplemental lighting.

Banana444 said:

And sounds like your buddy's buddy was growing kale or spinach, those are super greens and a little pricier then say iceburg lettuce. Or he was using super greens as an innuendo, for weed.

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Yeah no he is currently Legal, he just had told my buddy he's ready to flip the switch anytime, although he may be waiting a while here in Texas I watched an interesting movie last night called "Fixing the Future" it was all about how communities are taking into their own hands to change the economy locally, with coops, local currency, etc..

This kinda could be like what I'm proposing, I was thinking a vegetable garden/greenhouse that is supported and patronized by local businesses...it would take some serious leg work though to try to convince local businesses to buy your local grown stuff over say a more established big operation. As it was in the movie some of the coops were also set in place to provide employment for people too.

This group played a big role in some of the stories in the film: https://bealocalist.org/

I know this is old lol. But I grow veggies outdoors all the time and your neighbors will gobble them up, no need for a store to buy IMO. You can feed your whole neighborhood and make profit and still give away freebies. Since it is winter I have brought my veggie growing indoors and mixed in MJ.

you may try to argue led's usefulness in growing buds, you cannot argue its usefulness on agricultural crops, as far as efficiency goes and being able to lower your costs.

Honestly I would go for purchasing good quality greenhouse facilities, do a poly-culture of different vegetables and fruit, hell you can control and climate as long as you got electricity, and can even grow higher end things like avocados, olives, you would need a considerable amount of space to pull this off, but if you can supplement part of your energy through solar, combined with led's, heating wouldn't be too much of a problem, and you could produce year round supplementing winter with led's and heat. Love the idea.

rolledupdriver said:

you may try to argue led's usefulness in growing buds, you cannot argue its usefulness on agricultural crops, as far as efficiency goes and being able to lower your costs.

Honestly I would go for purchasing good quality greenhouse facilities, do a poly-culture of different vegetables and fruit, hell you can control and climate as long as you got electricity, and can even grow higher end things like avocados, olives, you would need a considerable amount of space to pull this off, but if you can supplement part of your energy through solar, combined with led's, heating wouldn't be too much of a problem, and you could produce year round supplementing winter with led's and heat. Love the idea.

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Avocados and Olives are produced on sizable trees that take like a decade to start fruiting, so maybe not the best use of leds

BustinScales510 said:

Avocados and Olives are produced on sizable trees that take like a decade to start fruiting, so maybe not the best use of leds

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lol I maybe should of precised with some dwarf fruit trees, and the leds are only providing the light in winter, get yourself a wertz little cado, wont grow past the ceiling hopefully.

rolledupdriver said:

lol I maybe should of precised with some dwarf fruit trees, and the leds are only providing the light in winter, get yourself a wertz little cado, wont grow past the ceiling hopefully.

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Figured you meant something like that, was just kidding you . I knew about olive trees cause a friend of mine bought a house in the 80s and planted an olive tree and it didnt really start cranking them out till several years ago.

Ive always wanted to try growing faster fruiting smaller tropical trees like bananas and papayas in a greenhouse. I can get them to grow outside here in california, but even a mild winter prevents them from producing good fruit.
I imagine rolling large pots into a heated greenhouse for those 2 or 3 months we have in the 40s would prevent the winter nap that usually disrupts fruit set.

yeah, at school in our greenhouse we have some cumquats and lemons fruiting very tasty, and very heavy set of fruit for the size they are, so dedicating a more then a few sq meters to that and various different things could prove to be profitable especially the more north you live, and the more restrained the growing season is.