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13 Fast Growing Vegetable Crops for the Fall Garden

By Deanna Talerico on August 28, 2020 /
Four raised garden beds full of fall and winter vegetables. Various greens and kale along with cauliflower make up the bulk of the plants.

Last Updated on August 24, 2024

Just because the summer garden is winding down, doesn’t mean your harvests have to! Come explore the fastest growing cool season vegetable crops for your fall garden, including leafy greens, root veggies and more. Even if you’re getting a late start or have a short growing season, there are plenty of vegetables that can be ready to harvest in as little as 30 to 60 days.

You could grow anything on this list from seed, or get a jump start and purchase started nursery seedlings too. Plus, most of these vegetables are cold-hardy and can survive frost or freezing conditions, growing right into winter in some zones. To help you make the absolute most of your season, I’ve also included five ways to accelerate plant growth for a speedy start! With these tips, you’ll be harvesting again in no time.

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RELATED: New to fall gardening? Visit our How to Start a Fall Garden 101 guide. It includes a list of ALL of favorite cool season vegetable varieties, not just the fast-growing ones!


When to Start Fall Garden Crops


While timing varies slightly with each crop and climate, mid to late summer is generally the best time to get your fall garden started – especially if you are growing from seed. Check your zone’s planting calendar to cross-reference when to start or plant each type of veggie. The earlier your first winter frost comes, the sooner you need to get planting!

Some classic cool season vegetables like cauliflower, broccoli, cabbage and Brussels sprouts require many months to mature. Therefore, they need a good long head start in order to get a worthy harvest before freezing weather hits. However, there are a number of ways to protect your plants from frost to help extend your growing season and give those plants extra time to grow.


A diagram of a planting calendar for Zone 10, there are various vegetables labeled on one side of the diagram and each one has various color coded lines that are associated with when to start seeds inside, transplant, plant seeds outside, as well as the first and last frost dates.
The Homestead and Chill garden planning toolkit includes planting calendars for every USDA hardiness zone, 2-12.


5 Ways to Accelerate Plant Growth


Feeling pressed for time? There are a number of natural ways to help encourage plants to grow quickly, leading to an earlier harvest. 


  1. Choose the Right Varieties. Read plant descriptions and pay attention to “days to maturity”, which can vary significantly between varieties! For example, many radish varieties may be ready to harvest within 30 days while others take 2 months or longer. Gardeners in northern climates with shorter growing seasons should select quicker-developing types.

  2. Start Seeds Indoors. Starting seeds indoors can give you a jump start over planting them directly outside. The temperature swings, varying moisture levels, and other environmental conditions often makes seeds germinate more slowly or unevenly outdoors. On the other hand, seeds that are provided steady ideal conditions indoors will readily sprout and grow fast. That way, you can also start your fall seeds while summer crops are still growing outside in the garden. (Keep in mind root veggies like carrots or radishes prefer to be directly sown outdoors though).

  3. Thin Seedlings Early. Don’t skip this critical step! Whether you start seeds indoors or plant them directly outside, be sure to thin your seedlings early. Crowded seedlings compete for nutrients, root space, water, light, and other resources. Just a week or two after sprouting, we thin our seedlings down to just one per container – and they explode with rapid growth thereafter! I prefer to carefully cut out extras at the soil line instead of plucking them out.


A white ceramic bowl full of thinned seedlings (microgreens) from various edible greens. Beyond the bowl are multiple raised garden beds full of young brassicas, asian vegetables, and radishes. There are also various flowering perennials such as salvia, lavender and yarrow. The furthest backdrop is a mixture of vines and perennials that create a wall of green with purple and pink flowers. Promote growth for fast growing crops by thinning seedlings to ensure each plant gets all the nutrition, moisture, and oxygen it needs to thrive.
Thinned radish sprouts. Don’t let thinned seedlings go to waste! Nearly all seedlings are edible as microgreens (with the exception of the nightshade family – like tomatoes, eggplant, and peppers)

continued….


  1. Start with Seedlings. No time for starting from seed? Or simply not interested? You can get over a month head start by buying already-started seedlings from your local nursery instead. See this guide on how to choose the best, most healthy seedlings at the nursery. Hint: bigger isn’t always better!

  2. Fertilize Seedlings. To give your fast-growing vegetable crops an expeditious oomph, be sure to feed them! Fertilizing baby seedlings too early can shock or harm them. Yet around 3 weeks after sprouting, you can use a gentle liquid fertilizer such as dilute seaweed extract or dilute fish fertilizer. We also amend our garden bed soil with fresh aged compost and slow-release organic fertilizer before spring and fall planting.


A hand holding a beaker of seaweed extract to feed to seedlings, shown in the background in trays in a greenhouse
Our seedlings love their seaweed extract!


Now that you’re armed with organic ways to make your quick-growing vegetables crops grow faster than ever, here is the list you came here for.


Fast-Growing Fall Vegetable Crops


Here is a quick list of the fastest-growing fall vegetables. All of these can be ready to harvest within 30 to 60 days, especially in their “baby” form. Keep reading below for more insight on each vegetable, such as their exact days to maturity, and tips on how to grow, use, and harvest each one.


  1. Radishes
  2. Turnips
  3. Carrots
  4. Beets
  5. Fava Beans
  6. Lettuce 
  7. Spinach
  8. Green Onions & Scallions
  9. Bok Choy
  10. Arugula
  11. Kale
  12. Mustard Greens
  13. Other Leafy Greens


A bountiful harvest melange is shown from a birds eye view. There are kale leaves, bunching onions, squash, lemons, fava bean pods, strawberries, radishes, salad turnips, carrots, mustard greens, chard, carrots, nasturtium, and fresh herbs arranged in an artistic manner.
Some of the fastest growing veggies: leafy greens, bunching onions, turnips, baby carrots, and more!


(Start these fast-growing crops from seed)


1) Radishes 


Days to harvest: 28 to 60+ days

Smaller radishes like classic red round varieties will grow most quickly. Early thinning is especially important to promote speedy and healthy radish growth. Check out the video below to see what I mean! A few of our favorite varieties include Pink Beauty, Easter Egg, White Icicle, and Sora red round. Ready in 30 days, you may have time to grow two rounds before the ground freezes!

In contrast, larger daikon radishes can take a couple months or longer – though they’re totally awesome to grow if you have the time. Daikon greens are incredibly nutrient-dense and tasty too, so don’t let those go to waste! Get creative with your radishes; they’re good for much more than just salads. Try them roasted, in soup or veggie sandwiches, sautéed, fermented into dilly radish pickles… 

Learn more: How to Grow Radishes, from Seed to Table



2) Turnips


Days to harvest:  25-30 days for turnip greens, 30-75 days for mature roots.

Like radishes, turnip maturation time will vary depending on the variety. Smaller tender “salad turnips” will be ready to harvest much sooner than larger varieties. Market Express is an awesome fast-growing, small, tender white salad turnip. I also love classic purple top white turnips. Don’t forget that turnip green tops are edible and nutritious too! We love to eat turnip greens sautéed with other seasonal veggies, in soups or frittata, and more.

Once they have at least a handful of leaves, harvest one or two of the oldest, outermost leaves per turnip to enjoy each week (a “cut and come again” harvest style) – or take the whole bunch when it comes time to pull up the turnip root! 

Turnips grow much like radishes – so feel free to follow the same tips in the radish article linked above. 



3) Baby Carrots 


Days to harvest: 40-50 days for baby carrots, 65-90 days for mature carrots.

Full-grown carrots do need more time than radishes or turnips do. However, if you space or thin them well to promote quick growth, you can totally harvest baby carrots in under two months time. Folks with short growing seasons should consider smaller, early-maturing varieties, though carrots can survive temperatures down to 15°F! For example, consider “Little Finger” baby carrots.

You may have seen this coming by now, but yes – carrot greens are edible too! Not just edible, but dang good. Make the most of your harvest and stock the freezer with carrot top pesto! Follow our Besto Pesto recipe, and simply replace the called-for basil with carrot greens. Carrot greens are also quite popular to use in fresh green juice or chimichurri recipes. 

Learn more: How to Grow Carrots Successfully, from Seed to Table


Two wicker baskets set along a gravel walkway, one is rectangular in shape and full of freshly harvest carrots of varying color. There are yellow, orange, and purple carrots with their green still attached. The other wicker basket is round and is full of freshly harvested chioggia beets. Two of which are cut in half along their equator, revealing the candy cane red striping set against white flesh within. There is yellow yarrow and lavender growing next to the pathway.


4) Beets 


Days to harvest: 25-30 days for beet greens and 55-65 days for mature roots.

Similar to carrots, the beetroot itself may take a few months to reach its fullest potential. Look for early-maturing varieties such as Early Wonder. Baby beets can still provide a worthy harvest, but fast-growing beet greens are where it is AT! As a matter of fact, I know some folks who grow beets primarily for their greens! Certain beet varieties are even marketed for their extra-tall tasty tops.

Beet greens taste reminiscent to swiss chard, are loaded with vitamins and minerals, and can be ready to harvest within 30 days. Use the cut-and-come-again method to remove a few leaves at a time, or harvest the whole lot when frost is near. We love beet greens in soup, or simply sauteed with olive oil or butter, salt, pepper, and garlic. A little squeeze of lemon is always welcome too. The youngest tender beet greens are also wonderful fresh in green salads.   

Of all root veggies, we’ve found that beets are the one that tolerate being started indoors. BUT only if they’re transplanted early and very gently, before the roots have a chance to become root-bound in the slightest. 


DeannaCat is holding a bunch of beet greens, they resemble a bunch or red chard. Long red stems, red ribs, and dark green leaves can easily be mistaken for chard.
Not Swiss Chard! This here is a handful of delicious beet greens, ready to get sautéed with some garlic, olive oil, salt and pepper.


5) Fava Beans/Greens (aka Broad Beans)


Days to harvest: 30-40 days for greens, 50 days for small beans, and 75-80 days for large mature beans.

If you haven’t grown fava beans before, you’re missing out! They’re all-around fantastic. Due to these legumes’ ability to fix nitrogen, fava beans are traditionally grown as cover crop to improve soil fertility, reduce erosion, and are also utilized as mulch. Yet they’re an incredibly versatile, delicious and nutritious edible crop as well. Not to mention the entire fava bean plant is edible! You can eat the leaves (similar to spinach), flowers, the outer bean pods or shell, and of course the individual inner beans. The main stalks are a bit tough, so save those for the compost pile.

All this combined makes fava beans low-risk, high-reward fast-growing crops for your fall garden. Even if freezing weather comes before the beans become massive, you’ll have something to harvest from these plants. Not to mention fava beans can withstand temperatures down to 10°F!

Small fava beans have super tender outer pods that can be eaten whole. Much of the flavor and nutrients are in the pods anyways! Also harvest leaves and the tender top portion of the beanstalk (topping the plants will simply make them branch) to use fresh in salads, soups, and sautés. Or, try our fava bean greens pesto recipe.

The simple act of growing fava beans will enrich your soil for next season. Be sure to leave the roots in place in the ground though! At the end of the season, cut the stalks out at the soil line and either let them decompose on top of the soil or in your compost pile.

Related: How to Grow & Use Fava Beans (Broad Beans) as Food or Cover Crop!


A three part image collage, the first image shows a hand holding a stalk of a fava plant. In the other hand is a pair of scissors which have their cutting shears wrapped around a portion of the stalk. The tender tips are being harvested to eat and encourage the fava plant to become more bushy. The second image is a hand holding a number of freshly harvested fava greens as one would a bouquet of flowers, the greens are harvested from the top six to twelve inches of the growing end. The third image shows a metal stainless steel colander full of tender fava green foliage, it can be eaten fresh, cooked, or made into pesto. They are a fast growing crop where every part of the plant is edible.
Harvesting fava bean greens to make fava pesto. The leaves are also awesome in salads and soups!
DeannaCat is holding three large fava bean pods, one of them has been cut open to show the fava beans that are hidden below the green pod. There is also five large fava beans in here palm as the pods are being held by her fingers. In the background there is a white ceramic bowl with copper lined rim that is full of shelled fava beans. It is sitting o. a skinny barn wood coffee table with a few scattered fava bean pods surrounding the bowl.
Huge fava beans! Bigger isn’t always better though. The larger they get, the more tough the main outer pods and peel covering the individual beans become. In contrast, smaller fava beans can be enjoyed whole – pod and all.


(Grow the fast-growing crops below from seed or started seedlings)


6) Lettuce


Days to harvest: 25 days (baby leaf), 60 days (full heads)

Days to maturity can vary greatly depending on the lettuce variety. Those marketed as baby-leaf lettuces can give you the fastest harvest of all! Keep in mind that lettuce seeds prefer cooler soil temperatures to germinate, and may not sprout at all over 80°F.  

We love to grow Jericho romaine, Nevada, Freckles, Magenta, Red Mist, and Muir. They’re all heat tolerant (slow-bolting) which is great for our warm fall days, and have an open head structure, perfect for prolonged cut-and-come again harvests. That way, you can continually harvest a few outermost leaves from every plant each week instead of waiting for them to ‘head up’ all at once.

Learn more here: How to Grow Lettuce from Seed to Table


A raised garden bed full of many plants of romaine lettuce that is quite full in growth. DeannaCat is pulling one of the leaves downwards at the base to harvest. In the background there are various trees and lavender bushes.
Yes, you can harvest just a few romaine leaves at a time! Gently pull off the outermost/oldest leaves. Before a hard frost, harvest the entire head.


7) Spinach 


Days to harvest: 25 days (baby leaves), 35-45 days (mature leaves)

Spinach does exceedingly well in the cooler, less sunny days of fall. Most types of spinach are fast growers, though you’ll get exceedingly early harvests with baby spinach, picking the leaves when they’re 2 to 4 inches long. Large or giant-leaf varieties are also known to grow quickly. Another one of our favorites is Flamingo spinach. Like lettuce, spinach will sprout most readily in soil temperatures between 60 to 70 degrees. Spinach is also known to become increasingly sweet in flavor after a light frost!


DeannaCat is touching the top of a spinach plant that is full and lush with green leaves. The plant has various tops of new growth, a chard plant and romaine lettuce can be seen hidden amongst the spinach. An orange-brown chicken is in the background, frozen as if the image being taken is of her. There is also a stone wall pollinator island full of flowering perennials and herbs.
Flamingo spinach


8) Green Onions & Bunching Onions (Scallions)


Days to harvest: 50-65 days for mature green onions or scallions

While full-blown onion bulbs need some time to grow, their green tops can be ready to enjoy in under two months time. ‘Green onions’ are simply the aboveground portion of young onions, harvested before the onion has a chance to form a bulb. Scallions (also known as bunching onions) are a slightly different type of allium. Those form little-to-no bulb at all, but the greens are used just the same. We particularly enjoy Red Florence and White Lisbon bunching onions.

Once green onions are at least 6 inches tall, you can either harvest just a few green shoots at a time, or wait and pull the entire young onion or scallion. For repeated harvests, green onions will re-grow if their greens are cut an inch or two above the soil line. Or, when the bulbous base and roots are placed in a glass of fresh water. 



9) Bok Choy 


Days to harvest: 21-30 days (baby greens) 45-50 (mature leaves, or full baby bok choy heads)

Baby bok choy (such as ‘Toy Choy‘) is the fastest growing type, but there are dozens of varieties of bok choy – sometimes also called pac choi. With its tight little head, baby bok choy is best to harvest all at once. Other more loose or open-headed bok choy are perfectly suited for cut-and-come again harvests, so you can get started on picking leaves even sooner. Joi Choi bok choy is my favorite leafy green to grow, ever. We also enjoy Prize Choy. Both have large thick stems and an open plant structure, perfect for prolonged harvesting.

Learn more about cut-and-come-again here, with a video demonstration of me harvesting kale, bok boy, and plenty of other greens this way. 


The understory of a garden bed full of bok choy is shown. Their thick white stalks against leafy green foliage make for a great fast growing crop. The tops of the leaves are lighter in color from the sun shining through them on the far side of the image.
Joi Choi is a larger, more open variety of bok choy that can last in the garden for several months with repeated harvested of individual leaves.


10) Arugula


Days to harvest: 21-35 days (baby leaves), 38-50 days (mature leaves) 

Arugula is perfectly suited for fall. When grown in spring, a sudden warm day can make it easily bolt. Yet the increasingly cool days of fall not only prevent bolting, but also bring out the best flavor of these fast-growing crops! Like other leafy greens, pinch off individual leaves as you need them – ready for salads, soups, pasta, quiche and more. 

A couple of our favorite varieties include Esmee arugula (more nutty than spicy, exceptionally cold tolerant) and Astro arugula (moderately spicy, excellent heat and cold tolerance, and good for cut-and-come-again harvest). 



11) Kale


Days to harvest: 30 days (baby greens), 50-65 (mature leaves) 

Oh kale, you’re kind of the best. Kale is the ultimate cut-and-come again crop. As soon as our baby kale seedlings have at least 5 or 6 small leaves, we start taking a couple of their outermost leaves each week. As long as you leave a few behind to photosynthesize, the more you harvest, the more new leaves will grow from the middle! Never cut from the middle or chop the whole head off, unless you’re done with the plant for good. 

Harvest small tender kale leaves to eat raw in salads, or of course any other way you’d normally use kale. As time goes on and winter nears, cold-hardy kale can easily outlast your other fast-growing fall crops. Kale not only tolerates light frost and snow, but gets even sweeter in flavor! However, do protect kale from hard frosts to keep it alive as long as possible. Different varieties of kale have varying levels of frost tolerance. 

Our favorite varieties are Dazzling Blue, Lacinato, Red Russian, and Scarlet kale, though curly varieties like Dwarf Green Curled kale and Meadowlark kale are even more cold tolerant. You can learn more about growing kale here.


Raised garden beds are set against a greenish blue house. There are radishes and summer squash growing in a couple of the beds, tall kale plants are towering above the other plants on the backside of one of the garden beds. Their naked lower stalks range from 2 to 3 feet tall showing all of the places where kale once grew. Lush kale leaves are shooting out of the tops of the plants. There are four chickens in the foreground who have been kept out by a fence that has been integrated into the garden bed layout.
If conditions permit, kale will just keep on growing! Every little notch along the stem represents a leaf that was harvested from the plant – hundreds later here! Also peep those perky radishes to the left.


12) Mustard Greens


Days to harvest: 21 days (baby greens), 40-45 days ( mature leaves)

Mustard greens are another cool season favorite in our garden! They come in an array of colors, sizes, and varying degrees of spice. If you like zesty, spicy, absolutely gorgeous mustard greens, Japanese Red Giant are a must-grow. Green Wave mustards (prolific and cold tolerant) and Red Splendor (spunky mustard flavor, frilly, slow-to-bolt) are other varieties we really enjoy.  Like the other greens on this list, they’re perfect for perpetual harvests of baby greens or large mature leaves. 


A birds eye view of red giant Japanese mustard greens growing in a raised garden bed. The mustard greens are purplish red in color with green ribs.
Japanese Red Giant mustard greens, a must-grow IMHO!


13) Other Leafy Greens


Days to harvest: 21 days (baby greens), 40-60 days (mature leaves)

Honestly, I could have called this article the “Top 20 Fastest Growing Vegetable Crops” instead of 13, and kept this on going! There are dozens of other leafy greens that grow quickly and happily in fall. Consider Swiss chard, collard greens, mizuna, sorrel, tat soi, or other asian greens – to name just a few! While all of these have the potential to feed you over many months (especially if you protect them from frost), greens are especially popular to harvest and enjoy young too. After all, microgreens and “baby leaf” salad mix are often a combination of Swiss chard, kale, and other asian greens. 


A small harvest picture is shown, single leaves from vegetables such as kale, bok choy, chard, mustard greens, and romaine are shown with the bottom of their stalks pointed towards the middle creating a circle where a few microgreen sprouts are scattered. They greens are pointing outwards in a circle, as if they are rays emanating from the sun in the middle.
Give me alllll the greens! Mustards, kale, swiss chard, spinach, arugula, radish sprouts, lettuce, tat soil, beet greens, dandelion greens, and more.


Protecting Plants from Frost


Most of the fast-growing cool season crops included on this list can handle a light frost, especially mature plants and varieties described as particularly cold-hardy. Even better, many of them become even more flavorful and sweet after a kiss of cold! However, young seedlings are susceptible to damage from frost, and even established plants can be killed from a hard freeze. 

Keep an eye on your weather forecast, and be prepared to protect your plants as needed. One popular option is to cover the plants with frost cloth, either lightly laid right on top of the plants or supported with garden bed hoops.

Learn 7 ways to protect your garden from frost here.


Several wood raised garden beds are covered with metal wire hoops and white cloth draped over them, with white frost visible on the cloth, and around the uncovered parts of the beds and soil.
We use these handy pre-made hoops and frost cover to protect our tender plants and seedlings from frost. We use the same hoops with insect netting to block birds and pests from getting to our young seedlings too!


Ready to grow a fast fall garden?


What do you say? Are you feeling more confident and excited about your fall garden now? I sure hope so! If you follow the tips and suggested fast-growing crops we explored here today, you should be harvesting some homegrown goodies in no time.

Please let me know if you have any questions or additional suggestions in the comments below. Also, please spread the love by sharing or pinning this article. Thank you for tuning in, and best of luck with your fall garden!


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Deanna Talerico (aka DeannaCat) is a garden educator and writer with over 15 years experience in organic gardening. She is a retired Senior Environmental Health Specialist, and holds a M.A. in Environmental Studies and B.S. in Sustainability and Natural Resources.

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10 Comments

  • Don

    August 27, 2023 at 7:12 am Reply

    Hello, I live in Fort Worth and we continue to have 105+ degree weather for months now. I’m ready to plant fall crops since nearly every other thing I have been growing has shriveled up from the heat, except for my zucchini plants which are surprisingly producing a lot. I’m just waiting until the heat gets at least below 100 for at least a week before planting. All those you write about are what I like to plant, but I’m just playing the waiting game now.

    • Aaron (Mr. DeannaCat)

      August 27, 2023 at 7:47 am Reply

      Hi Don, waiting until the weather cools a bit is a great idea. We use shade cloth on occasion to cover our fall garden when we get those hot October days when the plants are still small seedlings, it’s all about timing with the fall garden, you want to plant out while it is still warm so the plants will continue to grow, but not too hot where they may be prone to bolting. Good luck and have fun growing!

  • Rachele

    August 31, 2022 at 7:36 pm Reply

    Thank you for yet another most educational and helpful, useful article – oh, also motivational! I’m excited to try growing some more asian-variety veggies!

  • Val

    August 28, 2022 at 12:24 pm Reply

    Great article,love getting your emails always so full of great and useful information iam in zone 8 B I think lol so want to try some of these fall crops don’t have to much space for a garden but it sure all helps,enjoy the rest of the summer
    Val

    • Aaron (Mr. DeannaCat)

      August 29, 2022 at 7:36 am Reply

      Thank Val, you can really grow a lot in your zone through the winter, hope you can find a few of the veggies that do well for you. Good luck and have fun growing!

  • Eden

    August 20, 2021 at 6:00 am Reply

    Great article. Thank you for sharing the ways to grow the plants faster. This is very helpful to those who their plants to grow fast.

    • Aaron (Mr. DeannaCat)

      September 1, 2020 at 4:20 pm Reply

      Hello Lindsey, you should be able to plant any vegetable or flowers where your garlic once grew. We just try to rotate the crops so we aren’t growing the same vegetable in the same place season after season. Fava beans do a great job of enriching your soil while fixing nitrogen at the same time. Thanks and good luck!

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