One way to ensure a quick and bountiful harvest is planting fast-growing crops from seed directly in your outdoor beds. Whether you are a seasoned gardener or just starting out, planting fast-growing crops can be a fun and rewarding experience. Not only do these crops provide a quick return on your investment, but they also offer a variety of benefits, such as not waiting long for results. reducing the risk of pest and disease, making space to replant more diverse crops and increasing your harvest when space is limited. Fast-growing crops typically germinate quickly and will be ready for harvesting in just a few weeks.
Fast growing veggie benefits and tips
Learn more details about our Transformational Gardening method of planting seeds from our two blog posts Seeds and Seedlings - Beginners AND Seeds & Seedlings - Next Level. Keep in mind that our method of Biodiversity Planting helps reduce pests.
When planting your seeds it is important to follow the instructions on the seed packet closely. This will help to ensure that your seeds are planted at the correct depth and spaced appropriately. We recommend filling your seed furrows with our microbe-rich compost and worm castings.
Keep soil evenly moist: To help your seeds germinate and to help your seedlings grow strong and healthy, water them regularly and keep the soil evenly moist. Water everyday when it doesn’t rain until the seedlings are 2 weeks old. Don’t over water. Learn more about watering in our blog post moisture and mulch.
Organic or conventional seeds: It’s best to buy organic seeds. But conventional seeds are usually okay too if they are grown under organic conditions.
Soil: Ideally, we recommend you use our microbe-rich compost as your soil and microbe-rich worm castings as your fertilizer. We highly recommend using raised beds or containers, which can help to improve soil quality and provide better growing conditions for your crops. Use the “No till, No dig, No pull” method to build healthy soil microbes. Learn more about healthy soil in our blog post Transformational Gardening Basics.
Multiple harvests from a single planting: Plant a crop of radishes and harvest some small, leaving the remaining plants to mature for a later harvest.Plant multiple crops of lettuce, and other greens throughout the growing season to ensure a continuous supply of fresh produce. Crops like spinach and lettuce thrive in cool temperatures and don’t like the heat of summer. Plant new lettuce seeds in a shaded area during the summer.
Protect your crops from pests and diseases to maximize your harvest. It is important to practice good gardening techniques by following Environmental Pest Management. This includes using appropriate pest control measures, such as Biodiversity Planting, floating row cover fabric, or organic biological controls. Safe sprays include OMRI approved organic fungicides, BT (Bacillus thuringensis), neem oil and pyrethrum.
Choosing the right seeds is the first step. There are many different varieties of fast-growing crops available, each with their own unique set of characteristics. When choosing seeds, it is important to consider factors such as the growing conditions in your area, the time of year, and the amount of light and water that your plants will receive. Below is our list of popular fast-growing crops including radishes, lettuce, spinach, arugula, and beans.
Save time watering your seeds
Direct seeding outdoors is far less work during the rainy and cooler weather of spring in Zones 5 and 6.
Drip-Irrigation with sprinkler emitters that spray low over about a foot diameter area make it possible for busy people to apply proper regular moisture. to seeds
A hose with a sprinkler head propped up on a stake and controlled by a timer can moisten seeds all day.
Use mulch or organic matter to help retain moisture in the soil and suppress weeds. We prefer a layer of compost covered with a layer of cut-up straw. To grow your own straw plant one Miscanthus prairie grass with lots of room to expand. Don’t use hay which has weed seeds. Don’t use wood chips,
Spinach seed tips: Reduce watering by planting spinach seeds in mid to late November. They will germinate in early spring. Spinach seeds and plants are very cold tolerant. The plants and the harvest are much bigger than from seeds planted in spring.
Carrot seed tips: Place a board or tile over carrot seeds to prevent evaporation and to prevent the rain from washing them away in a heavy rain. Check under the board daily. As soon as the first seed sprouts remove the board and regularly water gently.
Our favorite “short days to maturity” varieties
We recommend 13 fast growing veggies to direct seed outdoors: arugula, beets, broccolini, carrots, swiss chard, green onion, lettuce, greens, pea, pea shoots, radish, spinach. Blog posts are coming soon on growing tips for specific crops.
We provided links to Johnny’s Seeds company. Other seed companies we like are Bakers Creek and High Mowing. Search online for other seed companies and garden centers that sell varieties with shorter days to maturity.
Arugula: Arugula matures in about 40 days and is a great option for a fast and tasty green.
Beet: Babybeat (40 days to maturity) Fast maturing, scaled-down, but fully formed and full-flavored beet. Regular seed, not pelleted.
Beet Greens: Beet greens have a days to maturity of around 50 days and can be harvested just for their delicious and nutritious greens or allowed to mature for their root.
Broccolini: BC1611 (33 days to maturity) Fast maturing spring harvest mini-broccoli called “broccolini.
Carrot: Mokum (34 days to maturity) Baby carrots during an early harvest can be left in the soil for another month for full-size harvest. Loosen the soil about 8 inches down with a narrow stick directly under where you place the seeds.
Swiss chard: Bright Lights (55 days to maturity) Rainbow chard selection, develops all-season, just keep picking.
Green Onion: Guardsman (50 days to maturity) A short season scallion.
Lettuce: Milagro (54 days to maturity) Butterhead lettuce type. Pick the largest leaves as the plant grows.
Pea: Sugar Ann (51 days to maturity) A fast maturing sweet spring pea. Sugar Ann is a string-less pea that was an All-American Selections winner in 1984. The pods are 3 inches long (7.5 cm.) and bright green. It is a vine type, but the vines are short and compact and rarely need staking. Snap peas are plumper and thicker than snow peas, with a pleasant bite.
Pea Shoots: Any type of pea will suffice, but sugar pod peas are the easiest types to grow for shoots and tendrils since they tend to shoot up faster and stay light and crisp. Oregon Sugar Pod seed is readily available and great for shoots and tendrils
Radish: Rover (21 days to maturity) Fastest of all crops. This one is a brilliant red.
Spinach: Bloomsdale (30 days to maturity) Reliable early crop, full-leaved spinach. Get a larger crop with much less work if you plant the seeds in November for germination in the spring. Harvest before the warm weather starts.
Blog posts are coming soon on growing tips for specific crops.
“Grow Your Own Food” blog posts
See the full list of our Grow Your Own Food blog posts. Each post is assigned ”tags” which are under the post title. If you need a quick answer to a gardening question give us a call or send a text to our customer support team – support[at]deep-roots-project.org AND 708-655-5299.
Deep Roots online store
See our online store for details about prices, ordering and delivery of raised beds, planter boxes, microbe-rich compost, worm castings, leaf mulch and more. We don’t sell traditional soil, since we use 100% compost as our growing medium. Our online store has 2 sections – (1) raised beds and planter boxes and (2) compost, worm castings, fertilizer.
Please contact our customer support team before placing an order online so we can assist you with the details and answer your gardening questions. You can pay by credit card in the store or by check.
(708) 655-5299 and support[at]deep-roots-project.org
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