An emerging market is cropping up in the Portland area, local business owners say: grow shops selling everything someone might need to start their own indoor garden.There’s at least a dozen of these shops already that cater to people who want to grown their own food inside, and store owners say people are flooding in.
The industry’s boom seems to be correlated to the legalization of medical marijuana. With many people now allowed to grow their own cannabis, they are looking for shops with equipment and knowledgeable gardeners. "It would be a very smart and profitable thing to (start a grow shop),” said Jonathan Leavitt, the director of Maine Marijuana Policy Initiative. People will invest $1,000 or more in equipment to start growing, he said. At Urban Garden Center in Topsham, Stan Wakely, the general manager, says more and more people are getting into hydroponics, or growing plants indoors under lamps with nutrient-enriched water.
