Lone Star Lettuce Growers

This interview details Lone Star Lettuce Growers, an indoor farming company based in the United States. The interview is with Kyle Massey, Owner & Founder of Lone Star Lettuce Growers.

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What is the origin story of Lone Star Lettuce Growers?

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Lone Star Lettuce Growers started in my backyard back in early 2020. We had just moved back to the Austin, TX area and I was still working remotely for my corporate finance job. 

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After building a backyard, organic aquaponics system I realized that 1) I really enjoy doing this and 2) It can work very well. I started doing market research in the area & it turns out there is a high demand for locally grown, organic produce…specifically greens. I spoke with retailers, farmers markets, and multiple wholesalers/distributors to learn about the market.

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After a couple of months of research, many visits to other aquaponic/hydroponic farms, and some deep family discussions, I decided to purchase a small plot of land in Georgetown, TX and started to build a commercial-sized (90’x132’) greenhouse. Once built, we started growing with a USDA organic aquaponic system in winter of 2021; however, after about a year of aquaponic operation, I decided to make the permanent switch to Organic Hydroponics. Although I believe Aquaponics can work great for a commercial operation, the system I built was not sufficient to successfully maintain a consistent ecosystem.

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It had a lack of filtration and did not have enough technology built into it for the scale that we were growing. During the transition, we also had to increase our growing capacity and add in many additional features that I had come to realize we needed (water chilling/heating ability, seedling grow room, improved storage, more defined business processes, etc.)

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We have been successfully growing and selling as a USDA organic Hydroponics operation for about a year. We sell most of our produce to wholesalers and operate at a couple large farmers markets around the Austin area.

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What are some of the biggest challenges facing Lone Star Lettuce Growers in the future? 

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With such an operational-focused business, we will always face challenges. First, is system health. We are constantly monitoring our system’s water quality and our vegetables' health, but surprises can always pop up. Since we are a USDA organic-certified operation, we are very limited on what we can and cannot put into our system.

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Second, pest control is always a challenge, especially in the spring. Even inside a climate-controlled greenhouse, pests can always find their way inside…so we must be always monitoring and tracking what kind of pests we are dealing with. Again, we are limited by what we can use for pest control, but the best method to keep pests in check is to 1) keep our plants healthy as pests tend to show up when plants are already struggling, and 2) early detection. 

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Third, it can be challenging for Lone Star Lettuce Growers to find our niche in the market. We are just under a 12K square foot facility, so we don’t have the sheer volume that many other hydroponic operations do. We tend to do best with smaller, regional-sized wholesalers vs. larger customers who can service nationally.

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What is unique about Lone Star Lettuce Growers compared to competitors? 

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We are unique in that there are very few USDA Organic Certified hydroponic operations. It is very challenging to get certified when growing hydroponically, but we believe that it is something that sets us apart. Additionally, we are also Global GAP food safety certified, which allows us to sell to some larger customers.

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We are also unique in the types of produce we grow & sell. Everything we grow is “Living”, meaning the roots are still attached giving it a superior shelf life. We do grow some of the staples that are common in hydro operations (living green butter lettuce), but we also grow some unique varieties such as red little gems or our “mixed” cases (green butter, red butter, green oakleaf, red oakleaf, and lollo rossa). We’ve found that our customers typically like a variety of colors and textures in their lettuce.

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What are some other relevant metrics of the company (growing area size, production quantity, team size, etc.)?

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Our greenhouse size is 11,880 sqft, and of that area, we utilize just under 9,000 sqft of grow space (deep water culture ponds). Our entire system is deep water culture using Beaver rafts to float down one of our three ponds. Our production quantity has a large range depending on the season. During peak summer, we can have an output of around 6,300 heads/week, whereas during short Winter days weekly output can drop to as low as 3,700 plants. 

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In terms of team size, we are now fully operating with 1 full-time employee and 3 part-time employees. We have implemented many new operational processes that greatly reduce the manpower needed, which is very important for Lone Star Lettuce Growers as labor is by far our largest expense.

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What are some goals in 2024 and beyond for Lone Star Lettuce Growers?

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In 2024, we would love to have a full year of solid growing and selling. In 2023, we really only sold at a large scale for 2/3 of the year, so we are looking forward to seeing what a full year will look like. Additionally, we might try to dip our toes into the retail market, but that work is ongoing and we are in no huge rush as we have a great wholesaler customer base that we enjoy working with.

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How can people connect with you or learn more about Lone Star Lettuce Growers?

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Please check out our website at: www.LoneStarLettuceGrowers.com and follow us on Instagram: @LoneStarLettuceGrowers.

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Additionally, if anyone is interested in learning more in-depth about our system/business, please reach out to us! We occasionally do tours/classes and we’d be happy to accommodate.

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