When summer reaches its peak, different vegetables that you have been putting your efforts on to grow for months are all set to be harvested and brought inside the home. No doubt, harvesting your hard-earned vegetable garden counts for a rewarding part of gardening. However, a beginner gardener may find it difficult as to when vegetables are ready for picking.
In essence, it is the type of vegetable mainly that determines the right time to pick them from the garden. Thus a stem vegetable has to be picked at a time during its growing period that varies from that of the leafy vegetables. To get the optimum output from your hard-earned vegetable garden, learn when to pick vegetables in their growing time.
1. Leafy vegetables
Harvest leafy vegetables before allowing them reach full maturity. You can pick them almost any day after planting. The earlier you harvest during the growth period, the sweeter the taste will be. When harvesting, use a pair of scissors or a pocket- knife to cut the plant just above the ground so that it will grow again in the same growth period.
As far as cabbage is concerned, you can pick it before it carries hearts in the early summer. But if you allow your cabbage to keep growing till it makes its hearts, don’t delay harvesting to the point it starts producing flower stalks.
2. Root Vegetables
Root as well as bulb and tuber vegetables can be picked from the garden right after they are big enough to eat. As of growing vegetables such as turnips, beets and carrots, harvesting them will provide you with “baby” vegetables that are smaller in terms of size but edible in terms of taste.
Carrots have got a special characteristic: you can leave them in the garden for a number of months after they have reached full maturity and pull up round the winter season in accordance with your family requirements. But this does not work if your region comes under a hard frost.
3. Vegetables with Seeds
The harvest time for vegetables that bear seeds significantly varies from one another depending upon the type of plant.
Eggplant and Summer squash can be picked when they reach full maturity and are ripe enough to give the best flavor along with tenderness. On the other hand, pumpkins and winter squash need to be harvested after they reach full maturity. However, cucumber can be picked at various times in consonance with what you are intending to use them for. Small cucumber is ideal for making sweet pickles; medium sized for dill pickles; and large for eating.
Tomatoes should also be picked at varying times during their growth period. Since they continue to mature despite they are detached from the plant, they can be picked as soon as they are about to ripe. You can leave them on the vine for strong flavor until they are in full bloom given that you plan to use them right away. However, in this case, you need to be vigilant as fully ripened tomatoes are vulnerable to damage caused by rain and rain.
Asparagus and rhubarb take a much longer period to get ready for harvesting than ordinary vegetables. Asparagus should be picked only when its stalks are six to eight inches long, and to reach this length the plant needs three years at minimum. Besides, the harvest period for asparagus plant is just four weeks. On the other hand, rhubarb should be picked when its leafstalks reach twelve to fifteen inches and increase in the thickness of crispy leaves. Only two-year-old rhubarbs should be harvested for two weeks maximum.
In the nutshell, make sure you are aware of when you have to harvest different types of vegetables from your garden in order to get the best taste. Since the harvest time significantly differs from one vegetable type to another, it is pertinent to learn about the different characteristics of various vegetables.
Jackie is a devoted mother with a passion for writing and baking. She writes about gift baskets at GoToGiftBaskets.com.