Have you recently purchased a greenhouse? Or are you planning to invest in one?
A greenhouse is usually rewarding for home gardeners. You can cultivate favorites from your prevailing landscape or jump start on your new flower or vegetable garden entirely indoors.
A greenhouse provides a controlled environment that you can manipulate depending on your plants’ needs. Likewise, you can cherish summer, winter, autumn, and spring plants year-round.
Harvesting in a greenhouse can be overwhelming for beginners, as they may have to go through a lot of trial and error before getting the hang of things.
With that in mind, we have compiled a list of ten delicious, easy-to-grow plants for novice gardeners, avoiding headaches.
Reasons to Choose Easy-to-grow Plants for A Greenhouse
Many home gardeners prefer greenhouses, as these indoor settings offer a controlled environment.
In summer, your garden blooms into beautiful colors and textures that captivate hummingbirds and butterflies.
On top of that, you won’t feel plums and apricots sweeter than ever.
However, when the winter pops in, the summer beauties are replaced by peaches and apricots. This is when the greenhouse is handy! You can grow any plant in a greenhouse, but note that some plants may need more care than others.
Several factors influence a plant, such as the seed type and age, water supply, pH level, temperature, amount of sunlight, and humidity level. Slight alterations in any of these factors can retard growth.
Thus, it’s best to begin with easy-to-grow plants because you don’t have to follow strict needs and are tolerant of setbacks.
Also Read: 7 Best Greenhouse Kits to Buy in 2022
15 Easy-to-grow Greenhouse Plants for Beginners
Let’s look at the variety of easy-to-grow plants that novice gardeners can choose to propagate in their greenhouse garden. We hope you will make the very most of your garden this year.
1. Raspberries
The first in our list of easy-to-grow plants are Raspberries. These summer fruits are easy to maintain and grow in a greenhouse all year round. Their fruits bloom within the first year.
The best thing is that raspberries don’t need added light sources to germinate and withstand cool temperatures. Maintaining nearly 20 degrees Celsius within the greenhouse will be ideal for raspberries.
Also Read: How to Heat Greenhouse in Winter? Explore 7 Innovative Ideas
Pro Tips:
- Avoid overhead watering for potted raspberries.
- A drip irrigation system will be perfect to avoid rotting.
- However, the harvest season lasts nearly 8 to 10 weeks.
2. English Lavender
Seeing gorgeous English Lavender flourishing in your garden with an alluring aroma is soothing for the eyes. So it will please beginners to know that English lavender is among the easiest plants to propagate.
This perennial herb is tolerant of drought and requires trimming just once annually. In addition, you won’t need fertilized soil to grow English Lavender.
Moreover, many of you might know the medicinal benefits of this herb.
Aromatherapists use Lavender to treat nervous disorders, exhaustion, and headaches. Herbalists use this herb to treat skin problems like eczema, acne, and wounds.
English lavender is also helpful for muscle and joint pain.
Well, this medicinal plant is resistant to some diseases and pests. And morning is the best time to harvest it.
Pro Tips:
- It’s recommended to grow English lavender in areas with plenty of sunlight or sufficient light.
- You can even compel it to grow or flower faster under specific conditions, like maintaining a greenhouse temperature of 17.7 to 20 degrees Celsius.
- The soil should be well-drained.
3. Carrots
Plant carrots anytime, any season, in your greenhouse. Carrots are among the most popular and accessible root crops to plant. No worries if cold winds have popped in, as this crop can tolerate frost.
You must prepare loose, deeply tilled, sandy soil to let the carrot plant dive without pressure. However, be sure that the soil isn’t too thick. Otherwise, you will be left with rounded and dwarf carrots on hand.
Most carrot plants are resistant to most diseases and pests.
This crop can take 2 to 4 months to ripen, depending on the type and germinating conditions. However, some varieties can take even more time.
Carrots get ready to reap within 75 days.
Pro Tips:
- Avoid pulling carrots, as you may end up with only a few leaves.
- Thus, use a garden fork to lose the soil first and then pick carrots.
4. Tomatoes
Nothing can probably surpass the year-round production of organic tomatoes.
Gardeners know how easy it is to plant tomatoes. However, novices will be happy to know that this crop is even easier to grow in a greenhouse.
Tomatoes can’t tolerate chilled weather as they are heat-lovers. Without adequate light, these plants can grow frail and pale. You can go for the full-grown tomatoes’ size based on your planned greenhouse garden.
However, you will come across a lot of tomato varieties to choose from.
Pro Tips:
- Starters should choose a tomato variety resistant to diseases like verticillium and fusarium.
- Plant tomatoes in adequately drained soil. However, don’t immerse the soil in water.
- The best harvesting temperature should be between 70 and 75-degree F.
- Plant one seedling in each pot to grow healthy and strong.
- Fertilize the soil when the second set of leaves sprouts.
5. Nigella
Spice and a plant-to-be, all in one! Nigella loves to grow in sunny areas; however, they germinate well in shady areas. First, you must sow its seed over a prepared naked soil bed. Then, put them meticulously into the surface, and you will see Nigella seeds blooming in no time.
This blue beauty requires nearly 10 to 14 days to sprout.
Nigella is pest-free as they don’t survive long and also don’t lure insects.
Pro Tips:
- Keep the soil moist until this plant germinates.
- Moreover, if you sow seeds directly rather than transplant them, Nigella propagates better.
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6. Chillies
If you have invested in a tiny greenhouse, then chilies would be a great addition. These incredible ingredients kick off stir-fries, curries, and almost everything.
In addition, chilies are one of the best plants to grow in greenhouses, as they prefer bright light, warmth, and shelter.
If your greenhouse is not heated, begin planting the seeds in a warm propagator or on a sunny windowsill, shielded using a plastic bag. As it germinates and leaves crop up, move the seedlings into separate pots.
Pro Tips:
- It’s recommended to keep chilies at a temperature between 60 and 64-degree F.
- Water these plants regularly
- The best time to propagate chilies is from late winter to mid-spring.
7. Kale
Here’s another easy-to-grow plant that needs no attention at all – Kale. It is an antioxidant plant that adds a kick to salads and other delicious dishes.
Interestingly, kale can tolerate various weather and is resistant to diseases.
However, dig out the weeds routinely to ensure the kale plants in your greenhouse grow healthy. Also, eliminate any yellow leaves from or near the plant’s base.
Pro Tips:
- Put these plants in areas that get partial sunlight.
- Pick out the leaves from the bottom first as new leaves continue to grow for months.
8. Tarragon
Want to make your greenhouse colorful? Then, tarragon would be a perfect choice!
Tarragon shows beautiful and appealing flowers.
Besides seeds, this herb also sprouts from cuttings and seedlings. However, tarragon has a robust root system that makes them tolerant of dry and desert-like weather.
Pro Tips:
- Plant up to six seeds in a pot, putting on a moistened mix.
- You should put the pot under direct sunlight. And there should be enough airflow.
- Moreover, you can rip off the flowers and leaves while harvesting.
9. Cherries
Another fruit that you can quickly grow in a greenhouse is the cherry. You can fit potted cherries in a small greenhouse and move them from one place to another.
The most accessible cherry variety to grow for beginners will be the ones that don’t require cross-pollination.
Like outdoors, potted cherries in a greenhouse will fruit with the perfect temperature, soil, nutrients, and water.
Implementing helps good airflow, clipping, and cleaning to prevent pests and diseases.
But harvesting cherries will require a lot of patience. You may ruin the fruit by cultivating them before time. However, cherries usually take nearly three years to flourish good fruits.
Pro Tips:
- Make sure to ventilate your greenhouse properly.
- Cherry trees should be fertilized once every year.
- You must ensure that the temperature isn’t rising quickly in summer.
- Use scissors to cut the plant lightly. However, be sure to clear every dead or broken branch.
10. Cantaloupe
It’s so satisfying to grow cantaloupe in a greenhouse. If your greenhouse is small, you can train its vines with a trellis. However, cantaloupe prefers well-drained and sandy soil to germinate. And bees can help in pollination and produce fruit.
Thinning reduces water, space, and nutrient competition to ensure healthy growth. Well, how to know if your melon has ripened? First, you will see a crack in the cantaloupe’s stem where the fruit is attached.
Interestingly, sun-ripened fruits are rich in vitamin C and antioxidants. They are a perfect blend of great nutrients and fantastic flavor.
Pro Tips:
- Companion planting allows you the best defense from pests and diseases for cantaloupes.
- Choose planting dill to eliminate the bugs. First, however, check out the plants at least two times a week.
Also Read: 6 Best Greenhouse Evaporative Coolers (Buyer’s Guide)
11. African violets
These beautiful flowers keep blooming even during the cold winter months.
African violets prefer a warm environment, ranging from 65-degree F to 85-degree F. This all-time favorite flowering plant can propagate in moistened soil with bright but indirect sunlight.
Fascinatingly, African violets sustain well in artificial lighting. So no worries about their development if winter pops in and days become shorter.
Pro Tips:
- Ensure the African violets in your greenhouse get sufficient light and the soil is entirely dry. Otherwise, they will bloom less to no flowers.
- Avoid applying cold water as it forms spots on the leaves.
12. Begonia
Begonias can be quickly taken care of by any gardener, professional, or starter. You just need to water them occasionally and even less watering during winter.
Get beautiful pots, containers, or hanging baskets to replant them. Begonias are available in a variety of foliage designs and colors. However, you can get a tuberous or fibrous variety.
Begonias will bloom quickly and dull with proper light and heat. They will keep growing even on the cloudiest days in summer.
So if you are planting these flowers, improve airflow and adjust humidity. Begonias are receptive to powdery mildew.
Pro Tips:
- Water your begonias first in the morning as it will simultaneously prevent the burning of leaves on scorching summer days and water spots.
13. Green Onions
Green onion is one of the most straightforward crops to propagate. One reason is that they are maintenance free. Green onions grow fast in a climate-controlled greenhouse.
Therefore, they are the most recommended and perfect crops for amateur gardeners to grow in greenhouses.
Green onions can grow from sets or seeds. However, the best way is to grow them from locations as they can tolerate every condition, including cold greenhouses. Then, prepare well-drained soil to plant the bulbs.
Green onions are highly resistant to diseases and pests. However, you can reduce the disease probability by sanitizing the containers with a 10% bleach solution before adding the soil.
Pro Tips:
- It would help if you watered the green onions at least once regularly after setting them in the greenhouse, especially during the hot summer days.
- Once they swell up, stop watering.
- You can uproot them after the foliage turns yellow and dies.
14. Mint
Thanks to their invasive and lively characteristics, mint is easier to grow. They compete simultaneously with the surrounding plants for light, nutrients, and water. Well, plant them for nearly 2 inches below, keeping 12 inches apart and putting bricks 1 foot deep throughout the garden bed.
However, you can cultivate mint in a container or pot and put it on a shelf. A big plastic canister immersed in your garden will also work. Mint leaves have many uses. For example, you can use them to garnish chilled drinks or brew them into tea.
Spearmint is mainly employed to make mint jelly or flavoring. Savor mint leaves’ unique taste by sprinkling raw or dried leaves on foods while cooking.
Pro Tips:
- When you see any signs of mint rust, eradicate it right away. They spread quickly to other crops and influenced new crop growth.
15. Cilantro
This herb can propagate in well-manicured gardens, having well-drained, loose soil. Cilantro thrives in the sun and soil with organic materials, growing nearly 3 feet tall. This herb is easy to grow with consistent watering.
Flowers bloom and create seeds in warm weather. However, the seeds germinate typically within 7 to 10 days and between 50 and 85-degree F temperature.
Pro Tips:
- Don’t transplant this herb as they have a fragile taproot. If it gets damaged, the plant won’t grow.
- It’s advised to wash Cilantro leaves regularly to disrupt the usual spore-releasing cycle.
- You can apply organic compost and avoid using nitrogen.
- The best harvesting time is early morning.
- However, washing the leaves will lose their fragrant oils. So avoid it!
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Conclusion
Greenhouses offer a controlled environment to grow native plants or crops all year round. If you are using a greenhouse first time, then it’s recommended to propagate easy-to-grow plants, as mentioned above.
They require minimal attention and maintenance, saving you from headaches.
In the meantime, you will get the time to learn and get the hang of things.
However, remember that every plant needs different temperatures or settings. So you can’t place all greenhouse plants in one place.