Fast-Growing Indoor Vegetables: Ready in 30 Days

The easiest vegetables to grow indoors are the fast-growing ones. Whether it’s spinach, arugula, kale, pea shoots, or delicious microgreens, these crops are low-maintenance and can be harvested any time.

If you are new to indoor food growing, see how to get started with indoor vegetable gardening for recommended supplies and beginner tips.

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Quick Indoor Vegetable Growing

I started experimenting with indoor vegetable growing years ago and since then have tried all sorts of organic crops from simple leafy greens to giant cucumbers and beefsteak tomatoes.

While it is fun to experiment, most indoor food growing is neither economical nor practical. We’re much better off growing outdoors where nature does a stellar job providing the essential growing conditions (air, nutrients, water, light).

The problem with indoor food growing is, larger, slow-growing crops need a lot of time under the right conditions to flower and fruit. It takes long-term, consistent care and patience to get to the finish line. Don’t get me wrong—it’s quite an accomplishment—but not a viable way to grow much food.

The good news is, there is another group of vegetables that is faster and easier to grow—right in your livingroom, requiring nothing more than some shelf space and simple shop lights.

These are the cool season crops like lettuces, arugula, and spinach, which do not require pollinators, are entirely edible, and can be harvested at any point in the growth cycle.

If you’re interested in actually filling a salad bowl with homegrown food—grown indoors at any time of year—this is the place to start.

Additional Resources

• An Introduction to Indoor Vegetable Growing | Includes list of recommended supplies
• Growing Herbs Indoors | Options and growing tips
• Indoor Seed Starting For Beginners | Empress of Dirt ebook

Fast-Growing Vegetables to Grow Indoors

The vegetables that are easiest to grow indoors are edible leaves, stems, roots, and immature flowers. Because we harvest them before they ever flower or fruit, no pollination is required. And they can be consumed at any time.

These are many of the same cool-tolerant crops that we grow outdoors in spring and fall.

The time to harvest depends on what you’re growing them for: sprouts, microgreens, shoots, baby greens, or larger stems or leaves.

Lettuces & Salad Greens

If you love baby greens in salads, soups, or stir-fries, these are the ones to grow.

I like to sow a new tray of seeds every few weeks for continuous harvests. There are complete instructions in my ebook, Growing Salads Indoors.

Some of these crops are “cut-and-come-again” meaning you can selectively harvest outer leaves while the rest continue to grow.

These seeds are sold individually and in variety packs like Mesclun Mix containing an assortment of leafy greens that grow nicely together.

To keep it simple, a room temperature around 70°F (21°C) is fine for both starting the seeds and growing the plants.

Here are some suggestions:

Buy Seeds

These links go to Botanical Interests (US Shipping only).

You can find Canadian seed companies here.

• Mesclun Mix | Combo pack of various greens
• Gourmet Baby Greens | Includes buttercrunch, red oak leaf, and more
• Search quick-growing crops

Microgreens, Sprouts, & Shoots

What’s the difference between sprouts and microgreens?

• Sprouts are basically germinated seeds. You eat the seed, root, stem, and underdeveloped leaves, usually grown in dark, moist conditions (water).
• Microgreens are planted and grown in soil (or growing medium).  They are the edible seedlings of herbs, vegetables, or edible flowers. They are larger than sprouts and smaller than baby salad greens.

Many of these options are the same as the Lettuces & Salad Green group. They are just harvested earlier on.

Both microgreens and sprout seeds are sold individually and in variety mixes. They may include vegetables, herbs, and edible flowers and may be mild or spicy.

Microgreens and sprouts are traditionally grown indoors so your seed packets will have instructions.

Seed options include vegetables, herbs, and flowers:

Pea shoots are the tender stems and leaves of a pea plant with the flavor of peas and pods. I also grow peas indoors to maturity and you can harvest lots of shoots along the way.

You can also grow garlic greens—the leafy stem that sprouts from garlic cloves. Used like onion scallions, they offer a lovely garlic flavor to food dishes.

Buy Seeds

These links go to Botanical Interests (US Shipping only).

You can find Canadian seed companies here.

• Microgreen Seeds
• Seeds For Sprouts

This should give you a good, quick start for growing food indoors. I hope you’ll try a few options and explore more ideas from there.

If you want a longer project, you can also grow carrots indoors.

~Melissa the Empress of Dirt ♛