Minature veggies

[Jeannine Anne]

Hi, I am looking for more varieties of smaller varieties of veggies, gone are the days when I need a huge cabbage etc.

I have a couple of lettuces, a cauliflower I think, a pepper and of course tomatoes , but I would be interested in hearing about any others folks know about..

Thank you

Jeannine

[ilex]

Plant closer. That solves it many times. Planting late also helps. Things like lettuce, you can pick at any stage or pick leaves

[BackyardFarm]

I'm growing some early cabbage this year that is supposed to be smaller.

[BackyardFarm]

You could grow dwarf peas, the vines are very short so you get a smaller crop.

Tonda di pargi carrots are the size of radishes. Small and sweet. Great for containers too.

I LOVE Hakurei turnips. They're smaller, sweeter, and crisper than regular turnips.

[oakley]

A variety of early peas, a few varieties, will be ready to pick at different times. A small 3x3 ft bed with a teepee trellis is easy to grow. Pole beans can go in the same bed when the weather warms and come up as the peas die off.

Patty pan squash and eight ball squash or any variety can be picked small.

I grow the little lemon cucumbers and trying another small gherkin type this year. The lemon cakes have few seeds and thin skins and make great crisp fridge pickles.

A mesculin salad mix planted thick, just a 6in x 2ft row, then another row every two weeks will keep you in salad all summer. The first row can be cut with scissors and will grow back a few times. Just cut what you need. Just a few swiss chard plants are easy to grow and you can pick the small leaves to add to your salads.

I plant a variety of carrots thicker than usual and get 15-20 lbs of 4-6 inch carrot babies that store in the fridge through the holidays.

Lots of winter squash varieties are small and also store well for winter eating....

[jillian]

Great suggestions above. Also if you like eggplant try patio baby. For melons I am trying sugar cube this year which is supposed to be very sweet and personal sized.

[Starlight]

A few types:

Cabbage
Baby head... A small minature head that is only 3" across packed with flavor.
Carrots
Short n' Sweet, Tiny Sweet... Orange carrots ranging from 21/2" to 3" long.
Corn
Golden Midget... This cultivar only gets a few feet tall yet produces about 5" ears.
Cucumber
Bush Crop... A compact patio type plant with 8" cukes for slicing.
Eggplant
Hansel or Gretel...Compact plants where fruit can be picked from 3" to 10" lengths.
Bambino... Small, dark fruits that are great for shish-ka-bobs.
Peas
Sugar Daddy... A 2' tall plant that produces loads of snap peas.
Tomatoes
Tiny Tim and Tumblin' Tom... Cherry type tomatoes great in containers or hanging baskets.



If you google miniature or midget vegetable seeds, there are lots of them out there now a days.

[habitat_gardener]

Pixie cabbage
I grew it a couple years ago. Each one was larger than a grapefruit, just perfect for eating out of hand like an apple! For a while I was picking one every day or so, until one day I arrived at the community garden to discover the rats (I assume) had found them. At that point, I picked the remaining ones.
I planted more seed this year, but only got one.

Honey Nut butternut squash
I got some at a farmers' market. They're darker in color than typical butternuts, same shape, but a pound or less each. I've been meaning to grow these.

Mouse Melon
Not a true cucumber, and something of a novelty, but fun to grow. They're less than an inch long.

[Jeannine Anne]

HI, thank you all. regarding planting closer, picking leaves and staggering I do this all the time and of course it is all good, but there is a move on for smaller mature veggies which is what I am looking for. I have very little space now since I moved and some of my raised beds are in partial shade so it is harder to garden.

I do have a decent sized glass greenhouse which is not in the shade though so I have plenty of room for my tomatoes, cukes, peppers and eggplant.

There are some good named varieties given though and I am very pleased with them like the Pixie cabbage etc.

I have Tom Thunb lettuce, Little Gem lettuce and a miniature full hearted lettuce and I grow mesclun and sprouts so I have that one covered.

I have a long gravel strip at the side of my house that gets the sun. I have a range of soft fruit in tubs down there and I could get some more tubs in there so maybe some beans up poles etc would go there.

When I plant now it is always tempting to try t grow too much and then everything suffers and the shady bits don't help but if I am careful with my planning and my sizes It should work. I think concentrating on the minis would help. I have one raised bed that has the room to put a growing fence at the back so tall growing peas will go there.

I was interested that some one mentioned Hakurei turnips. I love rutabaga but have never been able to take the hot taste of turnips, they always taste like radishes to me. I have tried several types including Hakurei but have never found a sweet one..however.. I have just looked in my growing diary and the year I tried them was the year my garden was left to itself halfway through the season so they were neglected and that could have affected them so I may try them again. Can you tell me how sweet they are as my growing space is precious.

Thank you all for your help, there is some great info here.. and there must be other folks that could use it.

My Miniature Shaded Garden,( self sufficiency on a postage stamp )it sounds like the title of a book LOL

XX Jeannine

[Deborah]

Jeannine Anne, I'm so glad that you started this great thread! I'm going to be planting a balcony garden soon and everyone's suggestions are just what I need!

[Jeannine Anne]

Thank you.. I think there is a place for it.

I am going to go through my stash and just see what I have exactly. I know I had some mini brassicas shipped over from the UK 2 or three years ago, the germination won't be as good but I think I maybe should be OK for this year. Maybe then we can get a list together with named vareties.

There are some great posts about growing in tubs here but I have not yet found any that focus on smaller containers or small spaces. I think there is a need.

XX Jeannine

[oakley]

True that most plantings take up massive space even when the fruits are picked young for the babies.
Smaller varieties 'in mass', (grow out mass being small), are a good thing to look for. Meaning micros and minis that are also small plants themselves, seem to be more and more available.
I understand your search now.
Small plant as well as small fruits.
I can get a few melons in a small variety for a short season but they still seem to need 15 sq ft of growing room, lol.

[Jeannine Anne]

Hi, actually I guess really I am looking for both. I don't want a 5 pound cabbage but I would grab at regular beans that I can plant in a pot as I can pick as many as I need and clear Eg. there is a cauliflower that is ideal as baby but left it will make full size cauli them there is another that is a true baby veg... So I have two needs really, the size of a plant with some things and the size of the veggie with others. Just like tomatoes there are true mini veggies but they don't always have small plants, a good example would be some of the corns. Many mini corn is just regular corn picked early but there are varieties that produce many ears on 1 plant, the fruit is tiny but the plant may still need space.

Kabuki is a good choice for broccoli as the plant is only half the size of a regular one

[PNW_D]

Here's one I'm trying out this spring ..... Caraflex cabbage ........ West Coast seeds has them - but Johnny's has a better pic

http://www.johnnyseeds.com/p-7458-caraflex.aspx

[luigiwu]

I have some personal-sized melons called Minnesota Midget - if you would like to grow them I can send you some seeds.