Carrots that have splitting due to weather that was too dry or wet often taste bitter. If your carrot tops break off when you pull them, try loosening the soil first with a digging fork. The heads should be compact, white, and firm—about 6 to 7 inches in diameter. The leaves should be bright green. If the head is soft or the leaves are yellow, the cauliflower is past its peak. Stalks should be harvested when eight-inches long. Look for a fresh aroma, firm stalks, a green and glossy hue, and healthy green leaves.
Corn is a tough one to gauge without looking inside the husk. First, look for a tightly attached husk that is pliable, healthy, and green. Then, select one ear, and peel back the ear to expose the cob and stab a kernel with your fingernail. The silks should be brown and dry.
For best results, pick and shuck corn ears close to the time you want to eat it or within 72 hours. To remove the ear, use one hand to hold the corn stalk and the other to pull the ear down and away from the stalk, twisting a little until it breaks off.
Cool the ears on ice and then refrigerate them. Or learn how to blanch and freeze your corn. Look for richly dark glossy green skin and a heavy, firm body and small seeds.
Small cukes are the sweetest and have the softest seeds. Turning yellow or dull is a sign that the fruit is overripe. Check vines daily because once cukes get going, they are prolific; the more you pick, the more that grows. Store in refrigerator in plastic wrap or a plastic zipper bag for 7 to 10 days or they will dry out quickly. Harvest at 4 to 6 inches in diameter when the skin of the fruit is glossy, smooth, shiny, and unwrinkled.
The color should be richly colored and the body should be heavy and firm. If you cut the eggplant open, it will have a sprinkling of white, immature seeds. Fruits with no visible seeds are immature, and hard, dark seeds are found in overripe eggplant. They taste most delicate and least bitter when they are still young, before the skins toughen and the seeds mature and darken inside. Avoid large-size eggplant. Store in the refrigerator for several days.
When harvesting, the tops will turn yellow. The bulb should be firm and plumb, not shriveled or spongy. Avoid sprouts. Harvest mature kale leaves when they are the size of your hand or a little bit bigger. As with spinach, younger leaves will be more tender. Start with the outer leaves of kale; be sure to leave seven or eight leaf crowns to regrow after harvest.
Pick before they flower or leeks will be too tough to eat! Head lettuce should be about 6 inches in diameter with a firm, compact head that slightly yields when squeezed. Look for clean, crisp leaves with healthy color. With leaf lettuce, pick any time, but the leaves are much more tender and flavorful when they are less than five inches long.
For mixed greens, such as arugula and mesclun salads, you can pick at any size. The cut crowns of the plants will regrow for a few good harvests before getting bitter. So, make successive sowings every few weeks for a constant supply of tender young leaves. Pick the pods when they are 2 to 4 inches long, or about 4 to 6 days old, after the flower wilts.
They get very tough and stringy if allowed to stay on the plant. Keep cutting the pods every day or two, and okra will keep on coming! They start at the base and move up the plant which can get up to 6 to 8 feet tall in the South. If the pods get too big to eat, pick those off, too. Some warm-weather gardeners will cut down okra by one-third in late summer to produce a late crop.
Use pruning shears to cut the pods with a short stub of stem attached. Wait for the tops of onions to fall over and turn brown before you pull them. Let the bulbs dry out for several days, then cut off the tops and rots and store in a cool, dry place.
Harvest green onions when they are 6 to 8 inches tall and the bulbs are 1 to 2 inches in diameter. Parsnips are ready for harvest after approximately 16 weeks. Leave them in the ground for at least a few frosts to maximize their flavor. Pick peas when the pods are plump and rounded, but before the pods wrinkle on the stem and take on a dull whitish cast. PI ck before the pods grow too large and tough. Pick peas in the morning at least every other day for maximum harvest and crispest texture.
Pick peppers are soon as they are nicely colored and full size. Peppers can be eaten at most stages and also can stay on the plant past maturity longer than other plants. Overripe bells usually get sweeter. Overripe hot peppers usually get hotter. But also remember: The more you pick, the more they produce. Store peppers in the fridge.
Potatoes should have a firm body and be heavy for size, without any black or soft spots, sprouts, wrinkles, or greenish tinge. Wait until the foliage has died down for one or two weeks and then dig up.
Butternut squash, acorn squash, and other winter squash is ready to harvest when the skin hardens. Press your fingernail through the flesh. The skin should be full non-glossy , firm, and rich in color without blemishes or cracks or soft spots. The stem should be dry and firm. Pumpkins will not continue to ripen off the vine. Rind should be firm and glossy.
Leave squash on stems for better storing and pick before fall frost. When you harvest, cut stems with a sharp knife, leaving a 2 inch stem to avoid rotting. Never lift a pumpkin by its stem. Do NOT expose to frost. Keep in mind that pumpkins need to cure in the sunshine for 10 days or a warm, dry room.
Then store in a cool, dry place at around 50 degrees. See more about storage on our pumpkin growing guide. Look for a firm, smooth, well-shaped body. The color should be bright. The leaves should be healthy and green. Harvest rhubarb stalks when they are at least a foot in length. Refrain from harvesting too many stalks at once, as this could damage the plant. Look for healthy, dark green leaves that are 4 to 6 inches long.
You can start harvesting outer leaves as soon as plants are established and plants have at least 5 to 6 full-size leaves, always leaving at least four to five leaves on the plant so it can regrow handily. It will keep growing for another cutting, but you must harvest before the spinach bolts sending up a flower stem. Spinach that was left too long in the ground will have oversize leaves and taste bitter. Smaller is better when it comes to summer squash!
Pick zucchini no larger than 6 or 7 inches. Pick patty pan squash at two to three inches, pick round zucchini at 3 to 4 inches, and pick longer trombetta squash at 12 to 14 inches. Optimum growing temperatures to achieve maturity at 60 days after planting range from 65 to 75 F, so planting seeds before the spring sun warms the air as well as the soil, or during the heat of late summer, might add time to harvest.
If the skin is very tender, wear garden gloves to harvest your 5- to 8-inch fruit promptly when it reaches In 1. An avid perennial gardener and old house owner, Laura Reynolds has had careers in teaching and juvenile justice.
A retired municipal judgem Reynolds holds a degree in communications from Northern Illinois University. Her six children and stepchildren served as subjects of editorials during her tenure as a local newspaper editor. When to Harvest Zucchini? Home Guides Garden Gardening.
By Laura Reynolds. More on how and when to harvest later. Most summer squash now come in bush varieties, which take up less space, whereas winter squash are vining plants that need more space.
Bush varieties will need to be thinned in early stages of development to about 8 to 12 inches apart. Would you believe that pumpkins and zucchini come from the same species of plant? Despite the great diversity of squash, most commonly-grown cultivars belong to one of three species: Cucurbita pepo , C.
Over generations and generations, these plants have been cultivated to produce fruit in all kinds of shapes, colors, and flavors. Learn more about soil amendments and preparing soil for planting. Pesky pests, diseases such as powdery mildew, accidental damage, and incorrect harvesting and storing can all take their toll on your crop. Two troublemakers often pay an unwelcome visit, usually early in the season. The best solution is to get ahead of them before they arrive.
As far as diseases go, powdery mildew can be an issue on the leaves later in the season. Keeping plants well-watered and leaving plenty of space between them for good air flow should slow the spread of this disease. In worst cases, powdery mildew stalls growth by preventing leaves from absorbing enough sunlight.
A common reason for powdery mildew is irregular watering, which stresses plants, leaving them more susceptible to infection. If plants do become infected, remove affected leaves straight away. Blossom-end rot is an occasional issue as well. If the blossom ends of your squash turn black and rot, then your squash have blossom-end rot.
This condition is caused by uneven soil moisture levels, often wide fluctuations between wet and dry soil. It can also be caused by calcium levels. To correct the problem, water deeply and apply a thick mulch over the soil surface to keep evaporation at a minimum.
Keep the soil evenly moist like a wrung out sponge, not wet and not completely dried out. Fruits left on the ground can get blemished or rot in wet weather. Slip a tile or slate under the young fruits as they begin to swell.
Sprawling varieties of squash look stunning on vertical trellises, but be careful to support the fruit as they get large.
Tie a sling into place with fabric or old tights. See video below. Summer squash and zucchini are harvested the moment they reach a usable size. We harvest zucchini when the fruits are quite small about 6 to 8 inches in length. Smaller fruits are more tender and flavorful, with a denser, nuttier flesh.
Believe us, smaller fruits have a far superior taste. Plus, picking frequently encourages the plant to produce more. Zucchini can be overwhelming once it starts producing. If you have too much to use, see tips for freezing zucchini. Find more of our Best Zucchini Recipes for ways to use this abundant crop!
Last year I wasn't getting any fruit on my vines. We don't have lots of flies or bees to pollinate. I had to take Q Tips and swab the male flower then the female flower with the pollen I collected. It seems a little weird my friends had some comments! I always plant tons of yellow straightneck squash. I can't see green zucchini and I'm forever finding them the size of baseball bats on plants I harvested the day before.
I tried golden zucchini last year thinking they'd be easier to see, but the yellow squash out-produced them about 3 or 4 to 1. Treated the hills exactly the same. Regular zucchini doesn't produce for me as well as yellow squash. Anyone know if it's just normal that yellow out-produces zucchini 3 to 1, or am I doing something wrong? I've planted Zucchini for several years. This year since my year old American Elm died last year, I moved my garden to a sunny spot where nothing grew under the tree before.
My Zucchini plant is about three times as big with leaves over two foot wide but only about one zucchini every three days. This is my first year for Acorn squash the vines are several feet long with several squash. What is with the Zucchini if others are producing? One zucchini every three days sounds like a healthy harvest. Next year set out more zucc plants. I put a cage around it early Will it work Yes, you can definitely grow zucchinis in cages!
Older varieties may have a more vining habit while newer cultivars tend to be the bush type. You may need to loosely tie a few stems to the cage wire to help. Also make sure that you will be able to easily harvest the zucchinis wide enough mesh or top opening. In addition to saving space in the garden, growing zucchinis vertically helps with air circulation, which helps to prevent disease.
It also gets the squash off the ground, which helps to prevent rot. Great idea! Years ago during the summer when I lived in Northern California you always locked your car when visiting friends. Reason was while you weren't looking someone put a bag or 2 of zucchini in your back seat.
Dark green with white flesh and when cooked it has a tougher skin taste good. I have many male flowers and so few female, this is second year with the same problem. This year I put in more plants 10 in all. I have only 5 growing on 5 plants and only in the last few weeks did they start to get large.
I planted them at the end of May and June. I live in Winnipeg Manitoba. How do I get them to produce more fruit? Thank you. First time ever planting squash and I way over did it. They are out of control growing in their designated space. Can I prune them back or will that cause damage to them producing? Also, I am not seeing any fruit only blossoms. Is there a difference between male and female blossoms?
Definitely learned my lesson for next season planting as far as spacing is concerned. Please help!
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