When Is The Harvest Time To Do The Ripe Thing For Larger Veggie Crops?

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

When is the harvest time to do the ripe thing for larger veggie crops?

Great harvest doesn’t just happen. To get the most from taste-tempting vegetables, you need to pick them when they’re at the very peak of flavor, nutrition, and good looks.

Generally, a plant yields up its biggest, best harvest during its first few weeks of production. After that, the veggies tend to be smaller and take longer to mature.

Some vegetables take more time to ripen than others. Here’s what I do to make sure I catch everything at its peak.

*   Check these crops every day

Broccoli

Lettuce

*   Check these every other day

Beans

Corn

Cucumbers

Strawberries

Squash

*   Check these every third day

Beets

Carrots

Onions

Peas

Peppers

Tomatoes

*   Check these every so often

Melons

Pumpkins

Is It Ready Yet?

When you’re not sure if something is ready to pick, look for these clues:

Color.  Freshly- fruited veggies like tomatoes, peppers, squash, and pumpkin turn color as they ripen.Gloss. Healthy-growing veggies are shiny. If their skin is dull, you’ve waited too long. Watermelon is the exception to the rule: When it’s ripe, its skin is dull.Size. Lots of crops, including peppers, potatoes, cucumbers, zucchini, and leafy greens, are ready to eat whenever they look like they are. If you’re not sure you can trust your eyes, take a bite. Your taste buds don’t lie.

Several Steps To A Happy Harvest

*   Pick veggies in the morning, when their sugar content is highest.

*   Never harvest ( or do any other garden work) when plants are wet. You are likely to spread diseases.

*   Bruised or scratched vegetables spoil quickly, and damaged plants are sitting ducks for pests and diseases.

*   Use a sharp knife or clippers to cut tough or brittle stemmed crops. Veggies like cabbage, peppers, broccoli, squash can be damaged badly if you try to pull or tear them from their stems.

*   Don’t haul your dirty veggies to the kitchen to clean them ( and then the kitchen) !

Instead, wash them off right in the garden.Just put them in any container that has holes in it. These are some of the leaky washbasins I like to use:

Colanders

Dish drainers

Plastic laundry baskets

Plastic mesh produce bags

Salad spinners

Here are some tips to help you determine the harvest time for peppers, carrots, garlic,onions, and tomatoes:

For those of us who love sweet bell peppers, picking too early can be a disadvantage. This fruit takes time to build up sugars in its flesh. Many green bells will turn red or yellow when very ripe, as do savory pimento peppers, one of the thickest-walled forms.

When you pick peppers and eggplant, bring along your clippers to cut the stem cleanly. When very ripe, the pepper flesh softens a bit, so the stem may pull out of the fruit with very little effort. The same applies to both tomatoes and eggplant. Once the stem base is gone, the fruit won’t keep longer than a day because it quickly dehydrates through the exposed flesh.

Carrots can be hard to judge. The tops of the carrot will show at the soil line and you can gage when the diameter looks right for your variety. If the diameter looks good, chances are the length is fine too. But you will need to pull one to be certain. Carrots can be left in the ground once mature. A light frost is said to improve and sweeten the carrot’s flavor.

The garlic tops will fall over and begin to brown when the bulbs are ready. Dig, don’t pull, and allow to dry before storing. It’s best to simply brush off the dirt, rather than washing.

Pick young scallions when they are 10-12” tall. For large storage onions, wait until about half the top shave started to die back and have fallen over. Knock the remaining tops over and let them stay in the ground for another week.

Tomatoes taste best where days and nights are warm—otherwise delicious varieties can taste bland where nights are cool or in years when the sun refuses to shine! For best flavor and texture, do not store ripe tomatoes in the refrigerator. (I like to pile them in a big colorful bowl or basket and use as a kitchen centerpiece).

Want to know more when is the harvest time to do the ripe thing for larger veggie crops?

Then, put your question here.

Tweet me in Tweeter and follow me on Facebook.
Yours truly, Polly – Organic Gardener

Related posts:

Sweet Onions: The Elements Of Style!Your Winter Veggie. It’s The Parsnip With All Natural Fiber & Potassium!In The World Of Garden Abundance-Zucchini Is The King!Strawberry Plants-Garden Delicious Treasure. Care After The Harvest Is OverHealth Warning:Neurotoxin In Veggie BurgersTagged as: best flavor, happy harvest, harvest time, sweet bell peppers, when is the harvest time to do the ripe thing for larger veggie crops

View the original article here

This post was made using the Auto Blogging Software from WebMagnates.org This line will not appear when posts are made after activating the software to full version.