Container Gardening For Beginners: A Guide to Growing Your Own Vegetables, Fruits, Herbs, and Edible Flowers by Wylie Tammy

Author:Wylie, Tammy [Wylie, Tammy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Rockridge Press
Published: 2021-04-06T00:00:00+00:00

Harvesting

One of the hardest parts of gardening is waiting for the proper time to harvest. I know you have been watching that tomato that has been on the vine taking 20 or 30 days to reach full size and an additional 20 or 30 days to ripen. It just takes that long for the crop to grow and mature. What a temptation to pick it before its time! However, to get the best crop, having patience and learning when to harvest will serve us best. We don’t want to pick crops too early or leave our vegetables on the plant for too long. If the fruits or vegetables are left too long, they start to rot, which invites disease and pests. Not to mention the fact that we then miss the opportunity to enjoy the fruits of our labor.

HOW TO TELL WHEN YOUR CROP IS RIPE

I can’t emphasize enough how valuable the information on your seed packets or plant stakes is. I could say you generally pick cucumbers when they’re 6 to 8 inches long, but that would not necessarily be true for every specimen of cucumbers. Pickling cucumbers are harvested at 3 to 4 inches long. Slicing cucumbers should be picked at 6 to 8 inches long. So, knowing what you have is the first key to a successful harvest.

The first information you’ll want to gather from your seed packets and other sources is the time from planting to harvesting. This will let you know if you are rushing into picking. You should also be able to garner at what size you should pick the particular variety that you have. Keep in mind that these are just guidelines, though. In the end, you will learn from experience if you picked too early or waited too long by the flavor and appearance of your harvest.

HOW TO HARVEST

Many crops can be picked by using just your fingers. These crops include green beans, blueberries, strawberries, just about all herbs, and peppers. Make sure you have a handy container such as a garden trug—a shallow basket used for this purpose—or even a kitchen colander to place your harvest in. Just pluck the vegetables and fruits off the plants, being careful not to crush them as you are pulling them off.

Root crops can be checked by digging around the plant a little to be sure it is completely formed. For example, if you wanted to harvest a radish, you would first dig around the outside of the plant a little to see if there is a well-formed radish there. Avoid disrupting the roots because that will damage them if you decide the crop is not ready to pick. Root crops and other crops harvested this way include beets, carrots, onions, and garlic. Once you’ve determined that the crop is ready to pick, grab onto the plant at the base of the foliage. Give it a gentle tug and the plant will begin to release. Be careful not to yank the plant, or you could end up breaking off what you want to harvest below the ground.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.