Try These Mini Vegetables and Fruits in Your Garden This Year

Whether you have space for a big garden or not, growing mini vegetables is fun and easy. Plus, you get to eat what you grow!

Pepper Pot A Peno ContainerCOURTESY ALL-AMERICAN SELECTIONS

Growing Mini Vegetables and Fruits

With so many varieties of vegetables that thrive in containers and small spaces, “I don’t have room for a vegetable garden” is no longer a viable reason for not growing something good to eat.

If you have access to a sunny spot and water and choose suitable mini vegetables, you can grow edible produce on a small patio or balcony, or in a hydroponic system indoors.

Mini vegetables offer these benefits over standard-size vegetables:

  • Need less room to grow;
  • Can be grown in containers;
  • Require less tending.

If you decide this is the year to grow some mini vegetables, you may be overwhelmed by all the choices. Here are some helpful hints:

  • Choose vegetables you already love to eat.
  • Choose varieties you can eat as you pick them. There’s nothing better than a fresh sun-warmed cherry tomato right off the vine.
  • Grow a vegetable you don’t like and see if your version tastes any better.
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Cabbage Katarina Extra3
Courtesy COURTESY ALL-AMERICAN SELECTIONS

Cabbage: Katarina

It’s surprising how large a homegrown cabbage plant can grow and how much better it tastes than store-bought.

For a mini cabbage, try Katarina, which produces a small but tasty head and grows well in larger containers. To keep cabbage butterfly larvae from eating the leaves, you may need to cover it with a light horticultural cloth.

You should have mature cabbage heads ready to harvest in about six weeks. This particular variety was an All-America Selections winner in 2016.

  • Sow seeds indoors four to six weeks before transplanting outdoors or buy transplants in early spring.
  • Cabbage tolerates light frost, which means it can be planted outside several weeks before your frost-free date.
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Tomato Patio Choice Yellow Square
Courtesy All-America Selections

Tomato: Patio Choice Yellow F1

Cherry tomatoes are the perfect small vegetable to pick and eat, but not all plants are small. Patio Choice Yellow F1 is a small All-America Selections winner from 2017 that, as its name implies, does well on a patio in a container,

To keep your tomatoes and all mini vegetables in containers healthy and growing, give them a liquid fertilizer regularly. Nutrients can quickly leach out of the soil with regular watering.

  • Start seeds indoors six to eight weeks before your frost-free date or purchase plants in late spring.
  • Harden off seedlings by placing them outside in shade for a few hours a day when temperatures are above 60 degrees.
  • Plant seedlings in their permanent container once there is no risk of frost.
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Bean Mascotte
Courtesy All-America Selections

Green Bean: Mascotte

Another vegetable that tastes better freshly picked is the green bean. If you don’t have room for a big row of beans, try the drawf Mascotte, which produces beans up to five inches long. It was named an All-America Selection winner in 2014.

If you pick the beans as they mature — generally 50 days from sowing — the plants should keep flowering and produce more beans for several weeks.

  • Sow seeds in containers when there’s no danger of frost, spacing according to instructions on the packet.
  • Seeds should germinate in a few days.
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Little Napoli Tomato
Courtesy Ball Horticultural Co.

Tomato: Little Napoli

Not all mini tomato plants produce cherry tomatoes. Little Napoli yields the Roma-type common in tomato paste and sauce.

Little Napoli grows best in a large container with support, generally a small tomato cage or sturdy stakes. Tie the vine loosely to the stakes or gently guide them to grow up through the cage. This helps the plant grow upright, ensuring good fruiting. Like most tomatoes, it needs full sun. If you’re growing a Little Napoli plant in a container it also may need daily watering.

  • Start seeds indoors six to eight weeks before your frost-free date, or purchase plants in late spring.
  • Harden off seedlings by placing them outside in shade for a few hours a day when temperatures are above 60 degrees.
  • Plant seedlings in their permanent container once there is no risk of frost.
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Pt3
Courtesy All-America Selections

Tomato: Lizzano

If you’re looking for the classic red cherry tomato to grow in a container on your patio, try Lizzano, an All-America Selections winner from 2011.

This particular variety produces fruit over a long period and resists late blight. In a container on the ground, it will need a cage or other support. But it also does well in a large hanging basket where it can dangle from the edges. Just don’t hang it so high the delicious ripe cherry tomatoes are out of reach.

  • Start seeds indoors six to eight weeks before your frost-free date, or purchase plants in late spring.
  • Harden off seedlings by placing them outside in shade for a few hours a day when temperatures are above 60 degrees.
  • Plant seedlings in their permanent container once there is no risk of frost.
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Citrullus Crimson Suits
Courtesy All-America Selections

Watermelon: Cal Sweet Bush

If you’ve ever seen a watermelon vine growing in a garden, you may think there’s no way you can grow one in a container. But you can!

Cal Sweet Bush, an All-America Selections winner in 2019, grows well in containers because it’s compact with short vines.

Let it grow all summer, and in about 90 days you’ll have your own homegrown watermelon. Just remember it needs full sun and keep it watered throughout.

  • Sow seeds directly in a large container.
  • Thin to one seedling, the strongest, by carefully pulling out other seedlings.
  • One seedling should produce one watermelon.
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Patio Snacker Cucumber Cuc11 12853
Courtesy Ball Horticultural Co.

Cucumber: Patio Snacker

Patio Snacker can be grown in a large container. If you decide to try this, add a small trellis to give the vines something to climb up.

Although smaller than most cucumber plants, this one produces cucumbers up to seven to eight inches long in a relatively short 50 days or so.

As with many vegetables, pick the cucumbers frequently to encourage the vine to keep flowering. Also, plant flowers nearby to attract bees. Cucumbers produce separate male and female flowers and need bees to pollinate them.

  • Sow seeds directly in a large container.
  • Thin to one or two seedlings by carefully pulling out other seedlings.
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Pepper Just Sweet Plannt
Courtesy All-America Selections

Pepper: Just Sweet

There are many varieties of mini peppers to choose from, including Just Sweet, an All-America Selections winner in 2019. These plants can grow up to three feet tall but don’t need to be staked to stay upright.

The peppers are sweet and good for snacking. When mature, they turn yellowish-orange. Keep picking them and the plant should keep flowering and producing more peppers throughout the growing season.

  • Start seeds indoors six to eight weeks before your frost-free date, or purchase plants in late spring.
  • Harden off seedlings by placing them outside in shade for a few hours a day when temperatures are above 60 degrees.
  • Plant seedlings in their permanent container once there is no risk of frost.
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Pas Pepper Pot A Peno Green And Red Fruit
Courtesy All-America Selections

Pepper: Pot-a-Peño

The name says it all. Pot-a-Peño, an All-America Selections winner in 2021, is a jalapeño-type pepper that grows well in a container or a hanging basket.

Pick the peppers while green or let them ripen to red. Not only will the color change, but the flavor will, too. Try them both ways to decide which you prefer.

  • Start seeds indoors six to eight weeks before your frost-free date, or purchase plants in late spring.
  • Harden off seedlings by placing them outside in shade for a few hours a day when temperatures are above 60 degrees.
  • Plant seedlings in their permanent container once there is no risk of frost.
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Quickfire pepper
Courtesy All-America Selections

Pepper: Quickfire

Round out your mini vegetable collection of peppers with a hot Thai-type pepper called Quickfire. An All-America Selections winner from 2022, it produces hot peppers on smaller plants, perfect for containers. The hot peppers show above the foliage so they’re easy to harvest when you need one to spice up a favorite dish.

One question some gardeners ask: Will hot peppers grown next to sweet peppers make the sweet peppers hot, too? Thankfully, no. You can grow hot peppers next to sweet peppers without affecting the taste of either one.

  • Start seeds indoors six to eight weeks before your frost-free date, or purchase plants in late spring.
  • Harden off seedlings by placing them outside in shade for a few hours a day when temperatures are above 60 degrees.
  • Plant seedlings in their permanent container once there is no risk of frost.
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Eggplant Patio baby
Courtesy All-America Selections

Eggplant: Patio Baby

Even if you don’t like eggplant, grow this dwarf variety, Patio Baby, and try cooking the small fruit it produces. Because the plants top out at less than two feet tall, they do well in large containers in full sun.

An All-America Selections winner in 2014, this variety differs from other eggplants because it doesn’t have thorny leaves or calyxes, i.e. the green cap where the fruit attaches to the plant. This is a big plus at harvest time.

  • Start seeds indoors six to eight weeks before your frost-free date, or purchase plants in late spring.
  • Harden off seedlings by placing them outside in shade for a few hours a day when temperatures are above 60 degrees.
  • Plant seedlings in their permanent container once there is no risk of frost.
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basil
Courtesy Ball Horticultural Co.

Basil: Emerald Towers

Although some basil plants are smaller than Emerald Towers, none are taller. It grows almost straight up, making it a good accent plant in a container with other edible plants. Plus, it’s slow to produce flowers, allowing you to harvest leaves most of the growing season.

It doesn’t need a large container but should be watered regularly.

  • Start seeds indoors four to five weeks before your frost-free date, or purchase plants in late spring.
  • Harden off seedlings by placing them outside in shade for a few hours a day when temperatures are above 60 degrees.
  • Plant seedlings in their permanent container once there is no risk of frost. You can also sow seeds in containers outdoors after your garden is frost-free.
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Siam Tomato
Courtesy Ball Horticultural Co.

Kitchen Minis

If all you’ve got is a sunny windowsill or small outdoor table, Kitchen Minis may be your best option for homegrown vegetables and fruits. These “tabletop vegetables” were bred to be grown in small containers.

Leave them in the container they came in and enjoy fresh vegetables for a few weeks. Once they’ve stopped producing, compost the plants and recycle the containers. You’ll find several varieties of sweet and hot peppers and cherry tomatoes available. This spring, Kitchen Minis expects to introduce a cucumber called Quick Snack to the series.

Carol J. Michel
Carol J. Michel is the award-winning author of five books of humorous and helpful gardening essays and two children’s books. With degrees in horticulture and computer technology from Purdue University, she spent over three decades making a living in healthcare IT while making a life in her garden. She grows vegetables, annuals, perennials, trees, shrubs and houseplants. In between tending her own garden and writing about it, she records a weekly gardening podcast, The Gardenangelists, with Oklahoma-based garden writer and coach Dee Nash.