Quick tip-Pick often to boost your harvest

Sunday, July 23, 2023

Plants have a built in survival instinct.  For plants to survive, most veggies we grow must produce seeds.  They put the most they can into making as many seeds as possible.  Their seeds are contained in the fruits they produce, ie, the tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, squash, etc., that we harvest and eat.    

To get the maximum production from your plants, pick the veggies as often as they are ready.  This does a couple things to stimulate more "fruit" production.  I have found that most vegetable plants cannot grow their "fruit" to full size until one is picked; the plant can only support a finite number of developing fruits.  As soon as you pick a vegetable plant's "fruit", it now has the capacity to grow another to full size.  Since the plant is programmed to make sure it is making seeds for the next generation, it will continue to bring the next "fruit" to full size and ripeness.

Most vegetables and fruits are at their peak in the morning before the sun starts beating down on them and the heat gets going.  So, picking leaves and fruits first thing in the morning gives you the best tasting and crispest veggies.  The same can be said for picking right after a rain.

Most veggies you want to pick at the peak of "ripeness".  This varies by vegetable and fruit.  We are all familiar with a nice red, ripe tomato so that one is pretty easy.  I do like to pick my tomatoes about a day before peak ripeness to keep the birds and raccoons from sampling them before me!  They finish ripening on the counter by the next day.  Pick them too early and they will finish turning red, but the flavor will not be as good.    

For peppers, I wait until they are well into turning to their mature color.  You can pick when they are green as well.  Keeping them on the plant longer gives them a more complex flavor, but they are still tasty green.  

For eggplant, you pick them when they are at full size and still shiny.  When they start turning dull, it is past time to pick!  The longer you wait on eggplant, the more tough the skin gets, the more bitter the fruit and the bigger the seeds.

For summer squash, the longer you wait, the bigger the seeds get.  As soon as they are either full size or as large as you need, pick and prepare.  For winter squash, it varies so read the seed packet.  Many like butternut and pumpkins are left on the vine until fall and the vine dies back.  Others like spaghetti squash and mashed potato squash are picked as soon as they are full size.

Cucumbers are similar to summer squash.  You can pick them at any size.  Read the packet on what the recommendation is.  The longer they stay on the vine, the larger the seeds and seed cavity becomes.  I haven't found the taste effected but the skin does get thicker and tougher the longer you wait.

Okra is similar to summer squash and cucumbers; there is no penalty for picking too young.  The younger pods are crunchy and can be eaten raw.  Wait too long and the pods become tough.  Check the seed packet for the optimal size for picking. 

For snap beans, pick when the seeds just start to swell in the pod.  Waiting longer can give you stringy, tough beans.  For shelled beans, remove the pod when the pod at its stem has turned brown.

For greens, pick the outside leaves to keep the center producing so you can harvest over months from the same plants.  For greens, it is critical to pick first thing in the morning or right after a rain for the crunchiest and sweetest taste.

Mediterranean herbs are the exception.  They have the most intense flavor at the end of the day.  So, pick them in the late afternoon or evening before the dew comes.

d where they normally are for this time of year.

If you want to save seed, choose the fruit you want to let use and let it ripen fully on the plant so you have the plumpest seeds.  You always want to chose the fruit that has the qualities that you want to propagate.  If you want early maturing, choose the earliest fruits that came on the plant.  If you want the biggest fruit plants next year, chose the biggest fruit the plant produces this season.  Letting them go past their prime for harvesting will slow down what the plant can produce for the time it takes to get a fully ripe or past ripe fruit, but I think it is worth it to take the best each year for next year.  You're creating plants that are ideally suited to your growing conditions and producing the traits you want most.