Best Vegetables to Grow Indoors

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15 Best Vegetables to Grow Indoors

If you think your garden’s growing season has to end because the weather outside isn’t conducive to growing, think again! There are plenty of delicious vegetables you can grow inside to continue eating fresh and healthy food. Learn more about the best vegetables to grow indoors so you can keep growing throughout the year.

Not sure how to get started with gardening inside? Then please be sure to check out our helpful guide on indoor gardening for beginners. It has everything you need to know to get started!

Tips for Growing Vegetables Indoors

Growing vegetables indoors offers a variety of amazing benefits. It helps you lower your food costs, eat healthier, and learn a new skill. It can also help extend your growing season no matter where you live. When you’re ready to start growing vegetables indoors, keep these important tips in mind.

Select a Large Pot

Since your vegetables won’t be growing in the ground, you need to make sure your pots offer enough room for them to grow. Your indoor vegetables also need well-draining soil.

Make sure your pots have holes in the bottom so the excess water can drain out. If your pots don’t have holes and you worry that drilling holes might break the pots, you can place a layer of rocks in the bottom of the pot before adding the soil.

If your pots do have holes, make sure you have a drainage container under the pot so the water that drains out doesn’t damage your floors.

Use the Right Soil

Once you have your pots, it’s time to get the right soil. You want to pick out indoor potting soil, which is specifically formulated to give indoor plants the nutrients they need but won’t get since they’re not outside.

Provide the Right Amount of Light

One of the hardest parts of growing vegetables indoors is making sure they have the right amount of light. Most of these best vegetables to grow indoors need a fair amount of sunlight and warmth throughout the day.

If you have some windows that get a lot of sun, you can place your pots there. However, if they won’t get enough light from your windows, you can get some grow lights.

These specialized lights give your plants the optimal light they need to grow, no matter what the conditions are like inside or outside.

Give the Right Amount of Water

Since your vegetable plants won’t be outside getting rain from Mother Nature, you’re going to have to water them.

The trick to watering indoor plants is to keep in mind that they won’t dry out as quickly inside as they do outside. Therefore, you don’t need to water them as frequently. Just make sure the soil stays damp.

Pick Your Plants Carefully

The final key to successfully growing vegetables indoors is picking out the right plants. Obviously, any plant that needs a pollinator won’t work (unless you’re up to the task of hand pollinating). However, self-pollinating plants and vegetables that require no pollination will do just fine.

Here are 15 of the best vegetables to grow indoors when the outside growing season where you live comes to an end.

1. Carrots

Carrots are one of the best vegetables to grow in a pot. While they don’t need a lot of room above ground, they do require large containers that let them grow deep.

My favorite carrots to grow indoors are these little finger carrots, which have a sweet flavor and crisp crunch. They taste amazing when you eat them fresh from the garden (after giving them a good rinse, of course)!

2. Lettuce

I absolutely love growing lettuce in my indoor garden. Since we have a salad with dinner pretty much every evening, I save a ton of money by picking lettuce straight from the garden instead of having to buy it at the store. It’s also one of the easiest vegetables to grow indoors.

Some varieties of lettuce do better indoors than others, so it’s important to do your research before you select one. I have plenty of luck growing this lettuce mix inside.

It includes seeds for buttercrunch lettuce, red salad bowl lettuce, Parris Island lettuce, red sails lettuce, and rouge d’hiver lettuce, so I also end up with a nice variety for our salads.

3. Spinach

Spinach is another leafy salad green that grows wonderfully indoors. It’s also packed with plenty of important nutrients, including vitamins A, K, and B2.

One great thing about spinach is that it can withstand a significant range in growing temperatures — from as low as 20 degrees to as high as 90 degrees Fahrenheit.

If you simply give it a roomy pot with good soil and regular waterings, you should have no problems growing this healthy and delicious vegetable indoors.

4. Microgreens

Microgreens might be small, but they’re packed with 40 times more vitamins and nutrients than many fully grown plants. You grow them the same way you grow other leafy salad greens, except you can harvest them 1 or 2 weeks after you plant them.

Not only does that make them an excellent vegetable to grow indoors, but it also makes them one of the best fast-growing vegetables for a quick harvest.

If you’re not sure what type of microgreens you might like, this microgreens collection comes with 5 different packs of seeds, which gives you a great variety to start trying right away.

5. Mushrooms

We realize that mushrooms are a fungus and not a vegetable, but we’re including them on this list anyway because they’re so easy to grow inside. Unlike the mold that grows in your bathroom that you can get rid of naturally, the mushrooms you can grow inside are healthy, edible, and go great in a variety of amazing vegetarian recipes.

Fortunately, if you have no idea how to start growing mushrooms, these mushroom growing kits come with everything you need. Simply start misting the kit with water, and in 6 to 10 days you’ll have gourmet mushrooms ready to eat!

If you don’t have the ability to forage natural mushrooms, or you don’t feel comfortable picking your own mushrooms without taking a mushroom course that can help you distinguish which ones to pick and which ones to leave alone, then growing your own mushrooms is ideal.

6. Scallions

Scallions are one of the best vegetables to grow indoors because they’re easy to care for. They’re also incredibly versatile. You can cook them, saute them, add them to different dishes, or eat them raw.

For repeated harvests, clip the greens about an inch above the soil surface so they’ll regrow. If you want the plants to produce a bulb, make sure you leave about 4 inches of space between each one.

7. Onions

We love to grow onions at our house because we use them in almost every dish we make. Fortunately, we can have a nearly endless supply of them because onions are easy to grow indoors when you can’t grow them outside.

To grow onions indoors, make sure your pot is wide enough to let the bulbs spread out and grow deep. I recommend growing short day onions, which only need about 10 to 12 hours of sunlight a day.

8. Peppers

Peppers thrive growing in the warm heat of summer, so they don’t mind growing indoors when the weather starts to get chilly. While peppers do grow a blossom, they’re self-pollinating. However, you might need to give each blossom a gentle tap to shake the pollen loose.

As for what type of pepper to grow, your options are almost endless. I love to grow these sweet peppers. While you can pick them when they’re green, if you leave them on the plant until they turn red, they’ll have more vitamin C than an orange, which is an excellent natural way to fight off a cold.

If you like your peppers hot, these bright and colorful cayenne peppers are a fantastic option.

9. Tomatoes

If you have grow lights or a spot inside that gets at least 10 hours of sunlight a day, you can grow tomatoes indoors. It sounds like a lot of sunlight because tomatoes are actually one of the best full-sun vegetables for your garden.

Once your plant starts blooming, you’ll need to gently shake the blossom stems to let the pollen to fall from one flower to another. If you don’t perform this type of hand-pollinating, you won’t get any fruit from your plant.

When the plant starts to grow tomatoes, it will become top-heavy. To help make sure the branches don’t break, you’ll need to get a tomato cage.

10. Herbs

There’s a reason you see so many herb gardens made for windows. Not only is it great to have fresh herbs for your favorite recipes right on hand, but herbs are also insanely easy to grow indoors.

If you don’t need an entire kit, some good herbs to consider for your indoor garden include:

11. Radishes

Radishes are one of the best vegetables for beginner gardeners because they’re easy to grow, very forgiving of mistakes, and ready to harvest in about 3 to 4 weeks.

The main thing to remember about radishes is that they like their soil moist but not water-logged. So make sure the pot you grow them in has plenty of drainage.

You also want to ensure their pot is large enough to give the bulbs plenty of room to grow.

12. Potatoes

If you have some potatoes that are starting to sprout, don’t throw them away. Instead, you can use them to grow your own potatoes indoors!

Simply cut the potatoes into chunks and lay them sprout-side-up on at least 4 inches of potting soil in a large pot or a potato grow bag. Cover them with another 4 inches of soil, and let them grow. In about 2 months, you’ll have your own crop of potatoes you can start harvesting.

13. Lemons

Growing fruit right inside your home instead of your backyard? Yes, it’s actually possible!

There are a variety of dwarf fruit trees that do just fine growing indoors. I personally love this dwarf Meyer lemon tree because it’s so bright and cheerful.

While the Meyer lemon often wins taste tests because it has less acid and a slightly sweeter taste, you can’t get them in grocery stores because their thin skin can’t handle shipping. Therefore, if you grow this miniature lemon tree inside, you can enjoy using a special lemon that you can’t find anywhere else!

14. Beets

If you love pickled beets, you’ll be pleased to know that beets are surprisingly easy to grow indoors. Make sure they have a large pot so the roots have plenty of room to grow.

These beets are great to grow indoors because they’re ideal for mild climates, they produce plenty of greens and flavorful beets, and they’re ready to harvest in just 48 days.

15. Eggplant

You might be surprised to learn that eggplant is one of the best vegetables to grow indoors, but it’s actually possible. This plant really loves warm temperatures, so make sure you can provide the heat it needs.

Like peppers and tomatoes, eggplant is a self-pollinating plant. When the plant is outside, the wind jostles the blossoms and helps spread the pollen. Since your plant is inside, you’ll want to gently tap each blossom to help out the process.

Once you have a nice harvest of eggplant, be sure to check out these delicious eggplant recipes so you can use them in plenty of unique and tasty ways.

Whether you don’t have a yard, or your weather isn’t conducive for gardening, you can still enjoy growing your own fruits and vegetables when you select some of these best vegetables to grow indoors.

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