Maybe you’re new to gardening. Or maybe you’re just an anxious gardener. Whatever the reason, you want to know what the quickest edible plants to grow in your garden are.
The quickest growing vegetables are radishes, which can be harvested about 25 days after planting your seeds. Zucchini squash is another vegetable that grows fast, about 50 days from seed to harvest, but is much larger in size.
Of course, there are tons of other fast growing vegetables you can grow, including growing your own sprouts!
You can grow and eat sprouts in about 14 days from seed to harvest.
Sure, aren’t exactly a full course meal – or even a fully mature vegetable, for that matter – but what do you expect from only a few days of growth in the garden?
Here are other vegetables that have a quick harvest time, including sprouts and how to grow them.
Radishes
Now if you’re looking for something a little more than just some sprouts to harvest.
Your next best bet, is most likely going to be radishes.
You can expect to harvest them in as little as 25-30 days for most varieties when starting from seed.
You can’t beet that!
Beets
Speaking of beets…..
Beets grow relatively fast with some varieties giving you a harvest around 50 days.
If you can’t wait to start eating from your garden, you can always harvest the leaves at around 30 days and use them in salads or, better yet, you can juice them or use them in smoothies.
Carrots (Baby Carrots)
Typically, most carrot varieties can take around 50-80 days for a mature harvest.
However, if you grow the “Baby Carrots” variety, you can harvest carrots in as little as 30 days!
This variety has an advantage over the others, if you’re looking for a quicker harvest.
Lettuce
If you grow a leaf variety such as romaine lettuce, you can start harvesting your lettuce leaves in as little as 30 days.
Head lettuce, such as iceberg lettuce, takes much longer to harvest because the head of the lettuce needs more time to grow to just the right density.
If you’re going to grow any type of lettuce variety, grow romaine lettuce.
Romaine is packed full of calcium, phosphorous, magnesium, and potassium – plus vitamin C, K, and folic acid.
So you’re not just eating water, like many other varieties, you’re actually nourishing your body.
Spinach
The beauty of growing spinach is that you can harvest baby spinach leaves at around 3-4 weeks.
Or, you can wait for the more mature leaves and begin harvest after 4 weeks.
Either way, you’re looking at one of the most rapid leafy greens that you can enjoy a harvest of, very quickly.
Arugula
If you like a little more spicy flavors, the arugula is the choice of greens for you!
In just 25 days you can begin to harvest the baby leaves, which aren’t as bitter nor as spicy.
Later on, in about 50-60 days, you can start eating the more mature leaves that have a more bold spicy flavor.
Peas
In about 2 months you can begin to harvest some peas if you started from seed.
60 days isn’t that bad to start eating something out of your garden.
However, if you’re looking for a quicker harvest, you can also grow and consume your peas as sprouts.
Peas need about 10 days to sprout and a few more days for them to get about 2-4 inches tall.
At that point, they’ll be ready to eat in a sprout and avocado sandwich.
In a moment, we’ll get back to growing sprouts.
Kale
Kale is a nutrient dense, powerhouse vegetable.
If you’re eager for a harvest, you can pick baby kale leaves in as little as 25 days or wait it out around 50-60 days for the leaves to mature.
Either way, you’re looking at some nutrient super packed food only a few feet away from your kitchen.
Bok Choy
Bok Choy is a really great choice for gardeners who are looking for a quick growing plant from the cabbage family.
This variety has been increasing in popularly in recent years, being used in many asian cuisines.
The great thing about Bok Choy is that you can harvest some baby leaves in as little as 30 days, from seed to harvest.
That is just insane if you ask me!
If you let it mature longer, the leaves will become more dense and wrapped up, the same way a cabbage would.
It will also become more nutrient dense as it matures.
It’s a win-win.
Broccoli
60 days is a relatively short time frame when you compare that to how nutrient-packed your very own homegrown broccoli can be.
While you might have to wait 3-4 months for a harvest from some of your other vegetables plants, in just 2 months you can start eating some deliciously fresh homegrown broccoli.
You’ll be glad you “waited so long”.
Cucumbers
Okay, so we’re getting toward the end of the list and some of these vegetables might take a big longer than the others to grow.
However, they’re still relatively fast compared to other vegetables such as corn or most tomatoes.
Cucumbers, in this case, take around 50-70 days to harvest, depending on the variety you are growing.
Squash (Zucchini)
There are many squash varieties that can take over 3 months to give you a harvest.
Zucchini squash, however, is a rapidly growing variety that you can begin to harvest around 50 days.
When compared to winter varieties such as spaghetti and butternut squash, the zucchini squash and other summer squash really take the lead when it comes to a fast harvest.
It’s also worth noting that zucchini squash is also an extremely abundant plant that can truly start feeding you, and filling you up too!
Sprouts
Prepping Your Sprouts (The Soaking Process)
Now sprouts are the obvious choice for something quick you can eat from your garden.
Depending on what you’re growing, you can harvest your sprouts anywhere from 7 to 14 days.
Of course, there’s also the soaking time to consider (how long you need to let your seeds soak in water before planting).
After soaking the seeds for about half a day (12 hours) you’re gonna want to drain the water and repeat the process of soaking for 12 more hours, making sure you are keeping them soaking in a dark place and checking them until they begin to barely sprout their little tails out.
You will probably only need to do this 2-3 times before they start to sprout. Once they do, they’re ready for planting.
Planting Your Sprouts
Usually on day 2-3 (after 2-3 rinse cycles) your seeds will start to sprout and that’s when you’re gonna want to plant them in a very thin layer of soil (about 1 inch). Make sure you use a nice shallow container without any drainage holes. They also sell long plastic containers specifically for growing sprouts, but anything similar should work.
Harvesting Your Sprouts
When your sprouts are about 2-4 inches tall and have their green leaves, it’s time to harvest. Cut your sprouts just above the soil level. It’s important to harvest your sprouts BEFORE your sprouts start showing any “true” leaves (the leaves that appear at the center of the first 2 leaves) because the sprouts will start to have a more bitter taste.
Types of Sprouts to Grow
Sunflower Sprouts
The variety used for sunflower sprouts are called “Black Oil Sunflower” seeds, which are the same variety of sunflower used for the production of sunflower seed oil. These little sprouts have large-sized chlorophyll-rich leaves and are a great source of folic acid.
Broccoli Sprouts
Broccoli sprouts were popularized late in the 90’s when researchers from Johns Hopkins University isolated glucoraphanin, a cancer fighting chemical.
This compound is common in all member’s of the cabbage family vegetables such as kale, collard greens, broccoli, cauliflower, bok choy and of course cabbage along with many others in the Brassica sub-family.
However, it is mainly concentrated in the sprouted seeds of broccoli.
As if that wasn’t cool enough, broccoli sprouts contain tons of vitamin C and fiber.
Alfalfa Sprouts
Alfalfa sprouts are probably one of the most popularly known type of sprout as they were one of the original types of seeds used for sprouts and were largely used in sandwiches. Today, you see restaurants using a variety of different types of sprouts in their vegetarian and vegan meals.
Onion Sprouts
Onion sprouts have gained a lot popularity in more recent years.
They are easy to grow and are readily available. Not to mention, if you plant one onion bulb, you will get a generous amount of seeds after the onion flower has blossomed and has been pollinated.
Besides being able to have an endless supply of these seeds by growing your own, their light nutty and onion-y flavor is most likely what has people talking about this one.
Radish Sprouts
When sprouting radish, the red radish or daikon radish seeds are typically used. Being a part of the cabbage family, radish sprouts have similar antioxidants like broccoli sprouts, such as glucoraphanin which makes them a great choice for growing sprouts. Not to mention, they can add a bit of spicy flavor to your meals.
Wheatgrass
Okay, although wheatgrass is not technically a sprout, I thought I’d add it on here because it’s an excellent quick growing “veggie” for juicing your own wheatgrass shots at home. Plus you save yourself the $8 that the juice spots charge you!
So, What Are You Waiting For?
The longer you wait to plant, the longer you wait for your harvest.
So now that you have an idea of how fast you can start eating stuff from your garden, it’s up to you to plan accordingly.
My advice would be to stagger your plantings to grow at different times.
Grow some sprouts for a quick harvest, but also grow some kale. Grow some spinach to harvest baby leaves, but also grow some full-sized spinach leaves for larger harvests.
This way, you can always guarantee that you’ll have something to harvest from your garden.