When Are Plants Ready for Harvest?

Knowing when something is ready for harvest is determined on a plant-by-plant basis. Like everything else gardening, there is no real universal guide for when your food is mature enough to be consumed. Aside from plucking fruit or vegetable and giving it a taste test, you're going to need to research each of your plants individually.

Here are a few commonly considered factors that go into determining when something is ready for harvest.

Height of Crop

Some plants are ready for harvest when reaching a certain height. One great example of this is asparagus, which has an optimal harvest height of six inches. For plants like this, if you fail to harvest at a set height, you run the risk of losing the crop. After a certain point, the asparagus spears move past its tender state and begin to fern out, becoming woody and inedible.

Several cut-and-come-again lettuce varieties also taste better when harvested after a certain height. By collecting while the leaves are small, you are pushing the plant back into production, allowing you to have multiple harvests. And, it doesn't just have to be lettuce. Kale and collard greens are also best when harvested at a specific size. Even your herbs can also benefit from this harvesting, with basil performing better with regular clippings.

What are Some Harvesting Strategies?

We now know that every plant will give you some sort of sign that it is ready for harvest. Now it is up to you to fulfill your natural duty and eat that food. Here are some harvesting strategies that the Farmer's Almanac recommended. I found that they helped me make the most of my garden harvest.

Fruit and Vegetable Size Guidelines for Harvesting

We've already mentioned size for determining the maturity of a fruit or vegetable. What we found is that in some varieties, a smaller fruit or vegetable is more flavorful. Beets, summer squash, and various brassicas are a few plants that are more flavorful within a size-range. You don't want to spend a summer's worth of time and effort in your garden, only to be chewing on a wood flavored vegetable.

Some plants do have a typical size that they reach. For example, most sweet peppers will be roughly the size of a baseball when they are ready to be harvested. Knowing the average size of what you're producing will help you anticipate when a crop is ready.

Plant Differences When Harvesting

Different varieties will have different harvesting methods. As we have seen since we started with seeds, no two plants are identical. They will have different growing and harvesting strategies, and it is essential to know how to handle your plants.

Consider the difference between the tomato and the watermelon. Tomatoes can be purchased on the vine because even after harvest, the fruit continues to mature. On the other hand, watermelons do not function that way, and after the harvest, they stop developing.

Gentle Harvesting Strategies

Now, I'm guilty of not being gentle with my plants from time to time. Sometimes I believe the plant is tough enough to handle it, only to be reminded every time that a little too much zeal and I can lose an entire arm of a plant. Patience is fundamental when harvesting.

Plants are fragile, and even with ideal conditions, they still run the chance of breaking. The University of Illinois Extension mentions the potential for breakages to create openings for a disease to enter the plant. Whether it be from a weak stem, a force of nature, or our human hands, we don't want to lose productivity in our backyard grocer.

When harvesting, you'll want to firmly hold the stem in one hand and the fruit in the other. You won't need to rip it from the stem, so if it isn't giving away readily, it probably isn't ready. Though, this isn't true with all plants. Take eggplant, for example, which won't detach from the stem but needs to be clipped with a pair of garden shears.

Check for Ripeness Daily

Once your plants have started producing, it's time to be checking them daily. Producers like tomatoes will ripen at various times over the summer. Today you may have one tomato ready, the next day five, and after that two. You learn that every day's different, and your plants will keep you on your toes.

As discussed earlier, by harvesting the plant, you are encouraging it to produce more fruits or vegetables. You are telling it that it was successful in reproducing, and if it can create more, it should.

This concept of continual harvest also goes for the herbs in your herb spiral. Make sure you are pinching them back regularly to prevent them from bolting into flower.

Preserving Your Extra Produce

Finally, it's good to remember that sometimes, you may not be able to eat all the food you produce. One remedy for this is preserving your fresh vegetables. There are plenty of ways to do this, whether through pickling, fermenting, or even an old-fashioned root cellar.

Being able to prolong your harvest builds into your home a sense of food security and resilience. Planning a garden with this engrained can allow you to provide for your household over the winter months or lessen your grocery bills in the summer.

With excess produce also comes the ability to build relationships with those in the community as well. Permaculture believes in fair share and, trust me when I say, there is nothing better than giving garden-fresh veggies to friends and family. You may just inspire someone to grow a garden in their back yard!