13 Fast Growing Vegetable Crops for the Fall Garden

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.

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.
   

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4. 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!
   
   
5. 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.

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

(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

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. 

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!

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

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!

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. 

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.

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. 

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. 

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.

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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• Cut and Come Again Harvesting: Extending the Life of Leafy Greens
• What is No-Till Gardening or Farming (aka No-Dig): Benefits Explained
• How to Amend (Fertilize) Raised Garden Bed Soil Between Seasons, or Before Planting
• Composting 101: What, Why & How to Compost at Home