BELVIDERE, N.J. — Amid the whir of fans and the glow of soft white light, workers tended to bright green seedlings sprouting in a giant greenhouse.

Located about an hour's drive from Manhattan in the hills of northwestern New Jersey, the facility produces basil, chives, oregano and other herbs that are sold in grocery stores around New York City. But if Ken VandeVrede has his way the facility will one day be growing a much more valuable plant: marijuana. Vande Vrede is chief operating officer at  Terra Tech , a hydroponic equipment maker based in Irvine. The small company wants to double the five-acre New Jersey greenhouse operation. The aim is one day to supply the exploding U.S. medical marijuana trade and to prepare in the event that recreational marijuana ever becomes legal nationwide. 

"More and more people see the inevitability," said Brendan Kennedy, chief executive of the Seattle private equity firm  Privateer Holdings , which targets  cannabis-focused start-ups . "They see that the Berlin Wall of cannabis prohibition is going to come down."

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