Easiest Vegetable to Grow

Amanda Launchbury-Rainey wrote:

Sara Rosenberg wrote:
Additionally, I love planting onions and garlic because you just can't screw it up.
.

Hmmmm. The first time I grew onions they were a huge success. About 1990. Since then........ DISASTER!

what type of disaster? sometimes mine flower but not a big deal, just means i process & freeze more that year.

The most easiest is likely sunchoke. It just can't go wrong, just dig a few small holes, throw in 1-2 per hole (from a biological store), cover with earth and you are done. Once they are flowered and ready you can harvest whenever you want, even under snow. leave a few inside and next years sunchoke is prepared.

Chris Palmberg wrote:I find that the versatility and adaptablity of summer squash make them hard to screw up.  You can pretty much start a compost pile heavy in yard waste, throw seeds into the mix, and three months later, you're lurking in church parking lots in your community in search of unlocked cars and open pickup beds to leave your surplus because you...just...CAN'T anymore.

Me too, except with cucumbers, I guess it's a good problem to have though!

Of course, the variety you pick helps, not so much in getting better yields, but rather in avoiding zucchini the size of your leg.  Gold/Yellow Zukes, for example, are brightly colored enough to be easily found in the jungle of vines that sometimes seems obligatory.  Yellow Crookneck or Pattypans are similar, as are various types that lean closer to gray or are mottled.  The classic dark green varieties, however, can be hard to find, and as a result you're likely to be overrun.

Yeah, they are a lot easier to find when they are a different color!

Sara Rosenberg wrote:

Amanda Launchbury-Rainey wrote:

Sara Rosenberg wrote:
Additionally, I love planting onions and garlic because you just can't screw it up.
.

Hmmmm. The first time I grew onions they were a huge success. About 1990. Since then........ DISASTER!

what type of disaster? sometimes mine flower but not a big deal, just means i process & freeze more that year.

They just sit there, sprout slightly or rot. I have lived in a number if different places with different climates and soils but as soon as an onion set sees me it just gives up.
This winter even my broad beans failed.
Feeling got at.....

What I love about corn salad, miner's lettuce and some of the kale + relatives, is that when we get hammered with our "every 3-5 year" snowstorm or freezing spell, they generally bounce back and put out fresh growth even if the leaves you were about to pick, end up in the compost.
Yesterday I shoveled 20 inches of snow off a composted wood chip pile and found enough "new" potatoes to roast for dinner tonight.

Amanda Launchbury-Rainey wrote:

Sara Rosenberg wrote:

Amanda Launchbury-Rainey wrote:

Sara Rosenberg wrote:
Additionally, I love planting onions and garlic because you just can't screw it up.
.

Hmmmm. The first time I grew onions they were a huge success. About 1990. Since then........ DISASTER!

what type of disaster? sometimes mine flower but not a big deal, just means i process & freeze more that year.

They just sit there, sprout slightly or rot. I have lived in a number if different places with different climates and soils but as soon as an onion set sees me it just gives up.
This winter even my broad beans failed.
Feeling got at.....

ooooooh, i understand. Slicing tomatoes and snow peas do the same to me.

Meg Mitchell wrote:Leaf veg are probably easiest to grow, since leaves grow before flowers and fruit. Maybe chard? I spent two seasons trying to grow chard and mostly failed, then angrily threw the remainder of the seeds near my garden gate, and now there's a healthy little chard population there.

That's funny, yeah I've had that same experience, that some vegetables grow best when I give up on them and they do their own thing!

Steve Thorn wrote:

That's funny, yeah I've had that same experience, that some vegetables grow best when I give up on them and they do their own thing!

This is such a good reason for saving seed and then just spreading a mix of seeds around at different times of the year on any bare or thin patches - the seeds get to choose! Some of my favourite seeds/plants for that are: chard, kale (and close relatives), walking onion, parsley, diakon radish (the seed buds are quite edible even if you don't get a good root) and some of the good companion plants like borage.

Travis Johnson wrote:I think potatoes are one of the easiest. They do not even need soil, yet their biggest problem is potatoes bugs and they can be picked off by hand. Obtaining seeds is as easy as buying potatoes at the store of the variety you like, cutting them up and planting them. Harvesting I nothing more than a shovel...

Really the only problem is, they are so easy, they can be bought dirt cheap at the store so a person is really better off growing more expensive veggies.

Yeah, I love the red potatoes common in grocery stores. I buy the organic ones and use them as seed potatoes. They are comparable in price to buying good seed potatoes too from what I've seen!

Stuart Sparber wrote:Steve, I consider small tomatoes very easy and Hardy to grow.My last growing season I grew the seedlings in a tray then when Hardy I transplanted three in a coffee can.I had been collecting the 13 ounce coffee cans for a year.(we drink a lot of the stuff).I cut the bottoms off with a can opener and put the plastic lid on the cut-off  bottoms.I punched with an awl four holes in the plastic.I then filled the cans with rich soil.I poked holes and put in the Hardy young plants.All this was grown in house by a south window.When the plants were 5 inches tall Ieft the hardiest and let it grow to 10 inches.Then in my area N.Y. I dug a hole outdoors removed the plastic lid on the bottom and tamped down and the happy undisturbed root system flourished.When the lawn was mowed I spread the clippings around the tomatoes (this was May) and began clipping lower nodes and trellising.I had such an abundant and tasty crop that I had 5 gallon buckets of green tomatoes left in October.Which we made into green tomato jam with a touch of cinnamon ,allspice,sugar and hotsauce.Great for burgers!

Sounds yummy Stuart!

I'm going to plant a lot of tomatoes this year and am exited to make some homemade salsa with them hopefully!

Mini tomatoes are the one type I can manage to get to ripen in my climate. (I'm short on both sun and heat.) I know people who grow a variety of colours (red, yellow, orange) and shape (round and grape) and have an instant special treat to put out for guests. I try to grow a mini tomato plant in a 1/2 barrel by the front door so people can snack while waiting for me to answer - some of them look sooo... guilty when I get there and they've clearly been munching. They don't realize that's exactly why I plant them there. They are also great for drying. I cut them in half and put the cut side up on a tray and being small they dry faster than a full-sized tomato would.

Amanda Launchbury-Rainey wrote:Cabbage seems to be our easy grow here. Everybody loves it in every form. Probably because of the plague proportions of voles and weird molerats (not the bald ones) that decimate everything else given half a chance. And the fact that colorado beetle here is unavoidable. And wild boar. They love potatoes too. Gonna get me a gun. I love wild boar....

Mmm, I love some good cole slaw.

I haven't grown cabbage a whole lot, I need to plant some!

Dem Krebs wrote:Hmm, it depends in your area, of course, but I find peas to be easiest. Just give them a trellis and they're happy to go until the weather gets too hot. Just so long as you keep them picked, of course.

Peas also have good germination rates and are typically pretty forgiving of poor soil and cold, damp spring weather. They're pretty pest resistant too. I had aphids on them one year, otherwise no bugs bother them here. Just powdery mildew at the end of the season.

Of course, peas will grow from the end of May until usually the end of July for me. This year they went going right through August too, though. I imagine in a hotter place, peas are a right nightmare to time correctly for new gardeners and they wouldn't find them that easy to grow.

Peas are the only thing I have not worried about growing from the first year even if I only have 2 and a half months without frost. I also have poor  soil it mostly sand and I suspect it may be some ph issues but will have to wait till I can do a few at home test. Carrots also are easy enough.

Jay Angler wrote:Mini tomatoes are the one type I can manage to get to ripen in my climate. (I'm short on both sun and heat.) I know people who grow a variety of colours (red, yellow, orange) and shape (round and grape) and have an instant special treat to put out for guests. I try to grow a mini tomato plant in a 1/2 barrel by the front door so people can snack while waiting for me to answer - some of them look sooo... guilty when I get there and they've clearly been munching. They don't realize that's exactly why I plant them there. They are also great for drying. I cut them in half and put the cut side up on a tray and being small they dry faster than a full-sized tomato would.

Jay, I love this idea! That is hysterical that they look guilty :-) I'm going to steal this and put a cherry tom right outside my front door too!

Arugula and sunchokes will not fail you. Both have their limitations. Asparagus is easy in certain climates and with enough space to dedicate to it. Basil, leaf lettuce, parsley, and most vegetables do well if you plant them! That is the key! I have found the tiny “Matt’s Wild” Tomato variety to provide volunteers consistently and if one were to provide them their own space and be more intentional, I think you would have a permanent crop.

I suspect that chard has the widest adaptability of all--it was easy for me in Alaska, and it is easy in California. It also has the biggest yield of meals or servings  per sq ft of anything I've grown. Perennializes here with minimal water,as well. If you don't like the flavor of Swiss Chard, try the perpetual spinach types. They are more tender and mild-flavored. Chard is one of the only standard vegetables that is truly low-maintenance. Here, I put it in afternoon shade.

For me Chard is the easiest. Once I had it in my garden it re-seeded every time, so I always have green vegetables, without any effort! Winters here are fairly mild, so the Chard (and the Lamb's lettuce) survive the winter.

well, if your climate favors hosta, they are super tasty!!!

I just sauteed some up in bacon grease and they were amazing... definitely want more of them now.

Sara Rosenberg wrote:well, if your climate favors hosta, they are super tasty!!!

I just sauteed some up in bacon grease and they were amazing... definitely want more of them now.

I had no idea about this and a ton of hostas, do you just pick the newer leaves or what?

Stephanie Meyer wrote:

Sara Rosenberg wrote:well, if your climate favors hosta, they are super tasty!!!

I just sauteed some up in bacon grease and they were amazing... definitely want more of them now.

I had no idea about this and a ton of hostas, do you just pick the newer leaves or what?

nope, check out this link.

Site with info on what to harvest

Jeff Hodgins wrote:For subtropical or tropical I would say easiest leaf veggies are Aloe, Chaya,  and Opuntia other easy vegetables are cassava, yams and chayotes.

I've seen a lot of people around here growing aloe inside recently, looks worth trying!

Steve Thorn wrote:..... I've seen a lot of people around here growing aloe inside recently, looks worth trying!

I grow Aloe vera plants indoors since several years. Easy plants! They only needs large pots, because they're large plants and need extra space for the new plants (pups?) they grow at the side. During the summer I move them outdoors, but they stay in the pot. They love sunshine, they don't like rain / wet feet, and freezing temperatures kill them.

Aloes are perfect indoor plants, and most people I know never do take them outdoors, just leave them on the kitchen counter as first aid for burns. They are happy in a north window, so don't even need to have a premium sunny spot. I have seen them survive in the center of the room with no window at all, but survive is not thrive. In any case, they are easy. Another thing to know is that they like more water than cacti. They are native to the seashore fog belt. San Francisco has planted masses of them in the median strip on highway 1, and they grow so fast its scary.

The easiest to 'grow' may be the edible local plants... because all you have to do to eat them is harvest them responsibly and steward them to thrive.

In northern california this includes nettles, mallow, manzanita berries, madrone berries, acorns,  etc.

Wild harvesting responsible means taking < 1/5 of the total while you ask: "how may i help this plant and system thrive?", then stewarding in that way.

Efren Turner wrote:

The easiest to 'grow' may be the edible local plants... because all you have to do to eat them is harvest them responsibly and steward them to thrive.

I do that on my own property, but I side on the paranoid in wild areas. Person 1 may harvest only 1/5 of the total, but what if the next day another person comes by and harvests 1/5 of what's left, and so on...? On the other hand, if people actually help perpetuate the crop and are aware of who else may be harvesting an area, wild-crafting can improve the natural world. When possible, I encourage native edible plants in suitable locations along side useful non-native plants, both at home, at friend's places, and occasionally gorilla gardening.

For me easy to grow means that I planted seeds and the seeds germinated.  That is usually lettuce or cherry tomatoes since that is what I usually plant.

Easy to grow are also transplants as someone else got the seeds to germinate.

Right now I am having wonderful success with the walking Egyptian onions.  I thought I was buying the bulbis from a guy on ebay though he sent me the actual starts.  I got eight though I think I bought six.  I now have thirteen and three sets of "babies" from bulbis.

Easy to grow might also mean what is easy to grow in you area. Like what grows in wet terrains or the desert.

http://www.perennialsolutions.org/a-global-inventory-of-perennial-vegetables?fbclid=IwAR2HgBAZKWFnHE-q0zW9Gwz4NyrhZPAKeY9pIqzNr42DrSJXzpqcKUSnjt0

A Global Inventory of Perennial Vegetables
Hoping some people might find this useful )

I already posted earlier about the salad greens but wanted to add that perennial vegetables are also nice for beginning gardeners. Most people don't have a year-round growing season and if your annual plants don't quite make it to harvest stage before it gets frosty, you're usually just out of luck. If your perennials "just barely missed the boat" this year then they have another chance next year, and they'll be better able to take advantage of the beginning of the growing season than a seedling because of the bigger roots (and sometimes also leaves). Older plants also tend to be hardier and easier-going than seedlings because of the deeper root structure and stored nutrients.

So, if they want to try growing alliums, perennial walking onions/multiplier onions/chives/leeks may be easier in the long run than trying to grow annual onions from new sets each year. I currently have a few types of onions in my garden and the walking onions are by far the biggest and they're already developing bulblets. I'm always looking out for perennial versions of vegetables and perennial alternatives to annual vegetables. Some of the ones I currently have are multiplier onions, leeks, asparagus, artichoke, rhubarb, and jerusalem artichoke; most fruit is also perennial. I've heard that the variety Nine Star Broccoli is perennial so I'd like to try that one next year if I can find some seeds for it.

Susan Montacute wrote:http://www.perennialsolutions.org/a-global-inventory-of-perennial-vegetables?fbclid=IwAR2HgBAZKWFnHE-q0zW9Gwz4NyrhZPAKeY9pIqzNr42DrSJXzpqcKUSnjt0

A Global Inventory of Perennial Vegetables
Hoping some people might find this useful )

I would say this is worth its own post.

Steve Thorn wrote:What would you recommend to a brand new gardener as the easiest vegetable to grow?

For me and my area, I would recommend cucumbers!

These were one of the first things I personally grew, and survived when everything else didn't do so well.

Reasons I would recommend them...

1) They sprout easily from being planted directly in the soil.

2) They grow quickly, usually even in poor soils.

3) They can grow among weeds due to their fast growth and climbing vines.

Can you think of anything I've missed about cucumbers being easy to grow?

What would you recommend to a new gardener as the easiest vegetable to grow?

Easiest for kids are radishes.
They sprout in 2-3 days and harvest in about 3-4 weeks.

For ongoing crops, tomatoes are pretty easy.

Walt Chase wrote:Location dependent of course, but greens (turnip, collard, kale etc)

, radish, Leaf lettuces, and carrots

are usually a fairly easy veggie as well

 Are you talking about the tops or the root?  I never heard of using the top of carrots before.  Would you believe I am new to gardning.

Stefanie Chandler wrote:

Walt Chase wrote:Location dependent of course, but greens (turnip, collard, kale etc)

, radish, Leaf lettuces, and carrots

are usually a fairly easy veggie as well

 Are you talking about the tops or the root?  I never heard of using the top of carrots before.  Would you believe I am new to gardning.

I think he meant the root, but you can eat the tops too! I thinned out my carrots recently and took the thinnings and threw them whole in my blender for juice. A lot of edible vegetables have other parts of the plant that are edible that are yummy but not typically eaten in western cuisine for one reason or another, but if you eat these parts it can be a nice treat and it means you've grown more food just by virtue of eating more. Onion flowers and radish seed pods are some other examples. Onion flowers taste like onions but are very decorative and a radish plant that might produce one average-sized radish can produce a big bowl of radish seed pods.

I grow a kitchen garden in zone 8b. In my 24 raised bed that are 4 by 8 feet and filled in a layered or lasagna style with logs on the bottom,  easy crops are mizuna, icicle radish, flat Italian parsley, fennel, sugar snap peas, snow peas, oak leaf lettuce, rocket, potatoes, green onions, chives, asparagus, strawberries, cabbage, scarlet runner beans.   Later in the spring and early summer, Callaloo amaranth,  hot peppers, stevia, sweet bell peppers, sweet bananas peppers, tomatoes, basil, sage, and of course the cukes and Okra!  Mid to late summer it’s pears and peaches, corn and black eye peas, grapes, eggplant, edamame soybean, and in the fall I am harvesting the sweet potatoes, ginger, and turmeric which have been growing since early Spring.  Many of these foods are self seeding and some of them give me multiple crops, dying off and coming back in a cycle I do not know yet.  In foot tall 2 foot deep beds that run the length of the fence around the raised beds I grow mint, zinnias, marigolds, iris, lilies, glads, foxglove, black eye Susan vine, cantaloupe, mums, roses, nasturtiums, sunflower, watermelons, green beans, lemongrass, hosta salvia pomegranate, persimmon, flowering crab apple, citrus, nettle, thistle, (some of this is in pots).  I plant garlic in October and harvest in May.

Radishes, definitely!

However, I never properly appreciated radishes until I:

1. learned how good they are pickled
2. was informed that they are can be helpful for keeping squash vine borers from my squash plants.

I have no absolute proof yet that companion planting radishes and squash (below) will keep my squash vines safe, but it's definitely worth a shot! :)

Reading through all these posts I am amused to see people claiming a particular vegetable is easy, when I have constant problems with it, and conversely that ones considered difficult are easy for me.

Conclusion: it entirely depends on where you are! Not only the Zone (we're in 7b), but the patterns of rainfall, wind, pests, etc.

Example: here in the Virginia piedmont we have big problems with anything (lettuce, peas, etc.) which cannot stand heat. Suddenly in late Spring it gets so hot the greens all bolt, the peas fade, and so on.

Also many crops cannot handle certain sudden changes. Tomatoes, for example, produce distorted or split fruit if the weather alternates between very wet and very hot.

I would say that the answer to which are the easiest veggies go grow would be: those varieties adapted to your conditions. There are lettuce varieties which take the heat better, tomatoes which will produce in cool, cloudy weather, carrots which are short and stocky and can produce even in heavy soil, and so on.

Victor Skaggs wrote:Reading through all these posts I am amused to see people claiming a particular vegetable is easy, when I have constant problems with it, and conversely that ones considered difficult are easy for me.

Conclusion: it entirely depends on where you are! Not only the Zone (we're in 7b), but the patterns of rainfall, wind, pests, etc.

Example: here in the Virginia piedmont we have big problems with anything (lettuce, peas, etc.) which cannot stand heat. Suddenly in late Spring it gets so hot the greens all bolt, the peas fade, and so on.

Also many crops cannot handle certain sudden changes. Tomatoes, for example, produce distorted or split fruit if the weather alternates between very wet and very hot.

I would say that the answer to which are the easiest veggies go grow would be: those varieties adapted to your conditions. There are lettuce varieties which take the heat better, tomatoes which will produce in cool, cloudy weather, carrots which are short and stocky and can produce even in heavy soil, and so on.

About your tomatoes:

They like even moisture. Dry/wet cycles typically cause fruit splitting. Epsom salts can help keep the skins soft.

Have you tried Mykos yet?

Here in Kansas we have messed up weather.
WET springs followed by HOT dry summers.
Hard to keep things evenly moist even with a hugelgarden.

Perhaps you can try using Ollas next to your tomato plants?

My raised bed with the Ollas has HUGE tomato plants with pretty big tomatoes compared to my Hugelgarden - those are spindly, hardly any fruit, burnt leaves, etc. Seems any plants except Zinnias are struggling the closer they are to my hugelgarden.

Ollas can be used about anywhere.
You can even make your own to save money.

South.

Sweet potato
Radish
Tomato, but start early.
Seminole Pumpkin

The last grows like a weed, seems to outrun the squash borer and the pumpkin has a long shelf life (~ a year).

Victor Skaggs wrote:Reading through all these posts I am amused to see people claiming a particular vegetable is easy, when I have constant problems with it, and conversely that ones considered difficult are easy for me.

This is true, lots of people recommending radishes but this is my third year growing them and the first time I got any actual roots, probably due to high nitrogen. My lettuce always does great though. 😜

Meg Mitchell wrote:Leaf veg are probably easiest to grow, since leaves grow before flowers and fruit. Maybe chard? I spent two seasons trying to grow chard and mostly failed, then angrily threw the remainder of the seeds near my garden gate, and now there's a healthy little chard population there. If we're also looking at nontraditional veg, hosta are also pretty easy-care. They're called "shade lettuce" in some places. I haven't tried eating them yet but we do have some in our garden, leftover from the previous residents, and they grow pretty good on their own with zero maintenance.

I have had NO LUCK whatsoever with radishes or really any other root veg so far and it's starting to upset me a bit. I've gotten the 12-day radishes and I'll plant 'em out once I've gotten that perfect soil mix. But I didn't have to do that for hostas or chard!

Potatoes. Throw them down on a patch of lawn and cover with hay. It's impossible to mess it up.

Ryan Hobbs wrote:

Meg Mitchell wrote:Leaf veg are probably easiest to grow, since leaves grow before flowers and fruit. Maybe chard? I spent two seasons trying to grow chard and mostly failed, then angrily threw the remainder of the seeds near my garden gate, and now there's a healthy little chard population there. If we're also looking at nontraditional veg, hosta are also pretty easy-care. They're called "shade lettuce" in some places. I haven't tried eating them yet but we do have some in our garden, leftover from the previous residents, and they grow pretty good on their own with zero maintenance.

I have had NO LUCK whatsoever with radishes or really any other root veg so far and it's starting to upset me a bit. I've gotten the 12-day radishes and I'll plant 'em out once I've gotten that perfect soil mix. But I didn't have to do that for hostas or chard!

Potatoes. Throw them down on a patch of lawn and cover with hay. It's impossible to mess it up.

We did potatoes this year and it turned out pretty well! We planted ours in January and harvested a few weeks ago for new potatoes. Next year I'll leave them in longer and see how big they get at full maturity. I like the option to plant so early. They didn't come up until awhile later when the soil warmed, but it let me spread out the garden work a bit more throughout the year. Spring is already so busy without having to fuss with potatoes.