Fruiting Vegetables: A Grower's Guide

Fruiting crops reward attention to timing, balance, and care--with harvests that can anchor a whole season

Tomatoes, peppers, squash, cucumbers, beans, and melons are among the most productive--and demanding--crops in a garden or market farm. Fruiting Vegetables: A Grower's Guide offers clear, practical guidance for managing these crops successfully, using proven biointensive methods that support strong plants, steady yields, and healthy soils.

Rooted in The Market Gardener Method, this highly accessible, beautifully illustrated guide focuses on decisions that make the biggest difference: variety selection, timing, fertility, and crop care. Rather than treating each crop in isolation, it shows how fruiting vegetables fit into a well-planned, human-scale growing system.

What this Book Offers

• An overview of major fruiting vegetable families, including cucurbits, legumes, and nightshades


• Practical guidance on sowing, transplanting, spacing, and crop maintenance


• Jean-Martin Fortier's preferred varieties, selected for productivity and flavor


• Proven strategies for irrigation, fertility, pruning, and trellising


• Clear advice on harvest timing, storage, and maintaining crop quality

This guide emphasizes working with plant biology and seasonal rhythms, helping growers reduce stress on crops while improving consistency and output.

Who this Book is For

• Home gardeners growing a wide range of fruiting crops


• Market gardeners refining production of high-value vegetables


• Growers seeking reliable methods without high inputs


• Readers of The Market Gardener wanting crop-specific information


• Anyone aiming for healthier plants and more predictable harvests

Jean-Martin Fortier is a farmer, educator, and internationally respected voice in regenerative, small-scale agriculture. His experience managing diverse crops in challenging conditions informs every recommendation in this guide.

Fruiting Vegetables is part of the Grower's Guides from the Market Gardener series--compact, visually rich manuals designed to help growers build resilient, productive systems.

If you want fruiting crops that perform consistently and fit smoothly into a balanced growing plan, this guide shows you how.

Jean-Martin Fortier, a distinguished farmer, author, and educator, has been spearheading a movement in ecological agriculture for over twenty years. Since 2004, he and his wife have been operating Les Jardins de la Grelinette, an efficient and productive 2-acre microfarm. This farm is often referred to as a blueprint for effective human-scale organic farming.

In 2015, Jean-Martin established La Ferme des Quatre-Temps, a research farm dedicated to training apprentices and developing new strategies for market gardening, including year-round production. His pioneering methods are taught worldwide through the Market Gardener Institute, which is present in more than 90 countries.

Jean-Martin is the author of The Winter Market Gardener and The Market Gardener, which have sold over a quarter of a million copies in nine languages. His contributions to organic farming and regenerative agriculture have earned him the Meritorious Service Cross from the Governor General of Canada. He farms and lives in Quebec, Canada.

Pierre Nessmann was born to a family of Strasbourg market gardeners and holds a degree from the École d'Horticulture de Genève, in Switzerland. He has worked as a landscape gardener and a journalist for over 40 years. He is the assistant editor of the popular French gardening magazines Rustica Pratique and Rustica Weekly, covers gardening and DIY stories for the French television Network TF1, and currently hosts a gardening segment on the show Nous Voilà Bien, on the French radio station RTL. He is the author of several books about vegetable growing, gardening, and landscaping. Pierre lives in Paris, France.

Flore Avram is a freelance artist and graphic designer specializing in scientific and botanical illustration. She has collaborated extensively with the French language children's publisher KiloWatt Editions, and with Inserm Magazine, a quarterly journal which explores health and biomedical research. Flore has earned several professional certifications in graphic design and scientific illustration from L'Ecole Estienne, the Municipal Graduate School of the Arts and Printing Industry. She also works as a Médiatrice en botanique at Jardin des Serres d'Auteuil, a unique French natural heritage site and eco-garden. She is based in Paris, France.