When and How to Harvest Your Summer Vegetable Garden

In the garden, timing is everything. Vegetables picked before they're ready may not be sweet enough, or the texture will be wrong. But when English peas and sweet corn are colorful and crisp, you need to pick and plan to eat them right away, because the sweet sugars quickly convert to bland starches and your vegetables will lose flavor.

As a rule, pick veggies early and often. Beans, beets, carrots, cucumbers, yellow squash and zucchini should be picked when young and tender. Picking early and often stimulates more fruit because plants want to produce seeds. When you pick the fruit before it forms seeds, the plant puts energy into creating more fruit.

However, if you wait too long to pick some vegetables, plants will terminate, or stop producing. Vegetables harvested too late can be tough, woody or watery.

Not all produce should be picked early. Peppers are one vegetable that tastes better after it has matured on the vine. When bell peppers are green, their taste can be unpleasant and sharp. Instead, let them mature and sweeten in the sun. Corn and melons like cantaloupes are more examples of fruit that shouldn’t be picked too soon.

Some vegetables continue to ripen after they’re picked. Two popular examples are tomatoes and winter squash like pumpkins. Pick them and store in a warm, dry location to fully ripen.

Follow these tips for harvesting vegetables in your garden:

• Pick early in the day when it’s cool.
• If you're canning, pickling or freezing, pick as close as possible to the preparation time so the vegetables retain flavor and nutrients.
• Bring a basket (or bowl) and a garden knife or scissors with you to the garden.
• When picking root vegetables, pour water on the soil first to loosen the roots.

To get the most from your plants, you need to know the best time to pick and the best tools to use. Follow these tips to ensure that you enjoy your homegrown produce when it's fully ripe.

Green beans are best when the pods are tender and the beans inside have not yet begun to swell. When the crop comes in, pick beans often to catch them at their best, at least two to three times per week. Use small snips, rather than pulling so you don't knock off flowers (and future beans). The more you harvest, the more the plant produces.

For pole beans, harvest when pods are firm and about the width of a pencil, before the seeds bulge inside. Pick pole beans every couple days because missing even a few days leads to tough, string pods. While cutting, hold the vine steady with one hand and snip each pod cleanly.

For lima beans, wait until pods feel full and bumpy with well-formed beans inside, but are still green. Once pods begin to swell, check plants every few days. If you want dried lima beans, leave pods on the plant until they turn brown and rattle.

For bush beans, pick while pods are young, smooth and snap cleanly in half. Overripe pods turn lumpy quickly.

Unlike tender greens like lettuce and spinach, collard greens can be picked over a long season rather than all at once. Start harvesting leaves while they are young and tender, before they become tough and bitter.

If collards are planted closely, cut the whole plants at ground level once they reach about 6 to 10 inches tall.

For wider-spaced plants, try the “cut-and-come-again” harvesting method by picking the older, outer leaves first when plants are about 8 to 10 inches tall, and leave the center growing point and younger inner leaves to keep producing.

Harvest greens during the cool morning hours, when leaves are crisp and fresh. In moderate climates, collards remain productive well into fall and early winter. Collards can tolerate below-freezing temperatures, and in fact, will taste sweeter after a frost because the starches turn to sugars in the leaves.

Corn is ready to eat when the silks start to turn brown on the end of the cob. If you are still uncertain, pull back a husk, check to see that the kernels have filled out, and break open a kernel. If it’s milky, it’s ready. For sweeter corn, pick in the cool of the morning. Twist the cob as you pull it down to break it from the stalk.

Fresh corn on the cob is best eaten the day it's picked. If you're planning to store it for a few days, keep it in the husk in the refrigerator.

Harvest cucumbers while they are still immature, firm and uniformly green, before seeds harden and skins begin to yellow. Pay attention to the type of cucumber because pickling cucumbers are often harvested small and uniform, dill types at about 4 to 6 inches, and slicing cucumbers at about 6 to 8 inches (they can be picked earlier, if preferred).

In hot weather with adequate irrigation, cucumbers grow rapidly and may need to be picked every day. Frequent picking encourages the plant to grow more fruit. When fruit overmatures on the vine, the plant slows down.

To harvest cucumbers, use snips and clip carefully. Cukes can be prickly. You may want to wear gloves to protect your fingers.

Wrap freshly picked cucumbers individually in paper towels and store in the refrigerator for up to a week.

You want to harvest eggplant at the right time for tenderness, flavor and continued production. Pick fruits when they reach a usable size but are still firm and glossy. Dull, brownish and overmature fruit tends to be spongy, seedy and bitter.

Pick standard globe eggplants when they are about 6 to 8 inches long. Some Japanese varieties are mature when they're around 3 to 5 inches. Shiny skin and firm flesh are key indicators, but knowing the variety will help you determine when to pick.

Use a knife, pruning shears or clippers rather than twisting or pulling the eggplant. Be sure to leave the calyx and a short piece of stem attached so the fruit will not dry out. Eggplant can be prickly; it's a good idea to wear gloves to protect your hands while harvesting.

Eggplant is best eaten right away, but will keep in the refrigerator for about a week.

Kale is a hardy and hearty green that produces leaves over a long season. You can harvest individual leaves as soon as they reach a usable size. For a good balance of tenderness and yield, expert gardeners recommend waiting until leaves are about the size of a hand.

To harvest kale leaves, pick the large outer leaves first and work toward the center. Keep the small inner leaves intact for the plant to continue growing. You'll want to use garden snips, a knife or scissors to cut each leaf. If you prefer, you can harvest the entire plant at once by cutting the stalk near the soil surface.

Kale is most flavorful in cool weather, and its leaves taste sweeter after a light frost.

After harvesting kale leaves, bring them indoors and wash them to remove soil and insects. Lightly dry the leaves then store them in a loose plastic bag in the refrigerator. Fresh kale keeps for about a week in the refrigerator.

Harvesting onions and leeks at the right stage improves both eating quality and storage life. For bulb onions, harvest when about half the tops have fallen over and dried. Start by using a spading fork to carefully lift bulbs from the soil. (Watering first or harvesting after a rain will make this easier.)

Cure onion bulbs in a single layer in a warm, dry, well-ventilated place for two to 4 weeks until the outer layers are dry. Once cured, onions can be stored in a cool, dry place that stays above freezing.

Leeks are harvested differently because their tops do not naturally die back. Harvest leeks when they reach usable size, usually about one inch in diameter or larger.

Harvest leeks by hand-pulling or carefully digging them out of the soil. Store leeks up to 10 days in the refrigerator for best quality.

When you grow lettuce at home, you have a flexible harvest. With leaf lettuce, you can snip a few leaves at a time for fresh salads throughout the cool season, or let plants grow larger and harvest more at once. For most home gardeners, the easiest method is to pick young leaves as needed.

Lettuce leaves are usually ready to harvest when they reach about 3 to 6 inches long, depending on the variety. Keep picking until the plant begins to bolt, or send up a flower stalk. Once that happens, the leaves often turn bitter and the stems become tough.

For leaf lettuce, use clean garden shears or scissors to clip leaves close to the stem, approaching from the side of the plant. You can also cut the whole plant about an inch above the base and allow it to regrow.

Head lettuce is harvested all at once by cutting the full head at the base, just above the soil.

For the best flavor, harvest lettuce in the early morning while leaves are cool and crisp. Store unwashed lettuce in a loose plastic bag in the refrigerator for up to a week.

Okra grows fast in hot weather. Pick okra pods every other day, choosing pods between 2 and 4 inches long. Use small snips, and wear long sleeves and gardening gloves to protect your arms and hands from the scratchy leaf hairs. Discard long pods that have grown too tough to eat.

Okra needs to be cooked soon after harvest. Store unwashed okra pods in open plastic bags in a vegetable crisper for up to two days.

Any pepper can be picked while green, but fruits that mature to red, yellow or orange will be sweeter or hotter, depending on the variety. You'll want to cut peppers, rather than pulling them, to avoid breaking branches.

Be careful when harvesting hot peppers like jalapenos and serranos. You'll want to wear gloves while picking them. Be careful to not touch your eyes after handling hot peppers.

While it's tempting to keep jewel-toned garden fresh peppers on your countertop, experts recommend storing peppers in an airtight container in a cool, dark place. They also freeze well. Just spread them in a single layer on a sheet pan and freeze for about an hour. Keep them in a storage bag or container and use as needed.

Tip: Weather affects the heat of peppers. If your weather is hot and dry, chile peppers will tend to be hotter. If your weather is wet and cool, peppers will be milder in taste.

Spinach and Swiss chard are both great “cut-and-come-again” greens for home gardeners. Instead of pulling the whole plant right away, harvest individual leaves as they reach usable size and keep the plants producing longer. For both greens, start by picking the outer leaves and work towards the middle.

Swiss chard is typically a long-season producer. Chard leaves are larger and carried on thick, fleshy stalks, and unlike spinach, chard does not usually bolt in summer heat. Spinach, on the other hand, is sensitive to increasing day length and warming temperatures and will bolt. For this reason, you'll want to harvest spinach quickly.

Malabar spinach is a hardy type that grows in warm weather. While it's not a true spinach, it can be used like spinach in the kitchen and it grows in warm weather. When Malabar spinach starts to flower, the leaves are no longer tasty.

For best quality, harvest greens like Swiss chard and spinach in the cool part of the day and refrigerate promptly after picking.

Summer squash and zucchini are best picked young and tender, before the seeds inside become inedible. Protect your hands and use pruning snips or a harvest knife to remove the fruits from the plant. Squash grows fast in summer, so harvest at least every other day for the tastiest fruit.

Store summer squash and zucchini for up to a week in the refrigerator.

Sweet potatoes are usually ready to harvest in about 85 to 120 days, or roughly four months after planting. A good sign they are nearing maturity is yellowing foliage, which signals that the tubers have mostly stopped sizing up. Harvest sweet potatoes before the first frost, since cold damage can quickly reduce storage quality.

To dig up sweet potatoes, start by locating the crown of the plant. Many gardeners find it easier to cut back or shear off the vines first so the base is easier to see. Then use a digging fork to loosen the soil in a wide circle around the plant rather than digging straight down into the crown, which can nick or bruise the roots. Once the soil is loosened, lift the crown and gently pull the sweet potatoes out by hand. Check along any vines that have rooted into the soil, because extra tubers may have formed there, too.

After harvest, do not rush them into storage. Sweet potatoes need a curing period of about 7 to 10 days in a warm, dry, well-ventilated place to help develop sweetness and improve keeping quality. Leave them unwashed while curing. After that, store them indoors in a cool, dry place, but never in the refrigerator or anywhere below 50 degree Fahrenheit.

Tomatoes are best harvested when they are fully colored for their variety (some tomato varieties are green when they're ripe), but still feel firm when gently squeezed. Slightly underripe fruit continues to ripen after picking. Since tomato color develops from warmth, not light, cool weather can slow ripening on the vine. If temperatures dip, go ahead and pick tomatoes that are red-orange or nearly ripe and finish them indoors.

Harvest tomatoes in the morning or evening, and pick almost-ripe fruit before heavy rain, especially cherry tomatoes, since sudden excess water can cause cracking. Large heirloom tomatoes may ripen from the inside out, so they can be ready even if the shoulders remain a little green.

Handle tomatoes gently to avoid bruising and rot. Use a soft-lined basket, stack fruits no more than two deep, and remove the leafy caps as you pick. Once indoors, rinse and dry the fruit, then sort by ripeness.

To speed ripening, place less-ripe tomatoes in a loosely closed paper bag and keep them in a warm room. To slow ripening, keep them in the coolest room in the house, as long as temperatures stay above 55 degrees Fahrenheit. Always store tomatoes at room temperature, out of direct sunlight.

If you have too many ripe tomatoes to use right away, freeze them for later cooking.

Watermelon does not ripen off the vine. That's why it's important to pick them when they're at their peak for texture and sweetness.

When ready to harvest, watermelons will appear dull green and not bright, and when you gently turn over the fruit, the color next to the soil will be yellow, not white. You should hear a deep thud when you thump on it. Cut melons with shears or a knife, leaving an inch of stem. Watermelons are best stored at 50 to 60 degrees Fahrenheit for up to two weeks.

Cantaloupes are a little different. They will continue to ripen off the vine. When ripe, the tan netting of a cantaloupe becomes more noticeable against a golden background, and a crack appears around the base of the stem. These fruits should be easy to pick without any tools, but you can use a knife or snips to do the job.

Cantaloupe can be stored at temperatures as low as 40 degrees Fahrenheit.

Pumpkins and winter squash are ready to harvest when you scratch the rind with a fingernail, but can't puncture the skin. When your pumpkins and winter squash are ready to harvest, use a knife to cut the squash from the vine, leaving at least three inches of stem.

When you bring the squash inside, wash with cool, soapy water. With a soft cloth, wipe each one with a mild bleach solution. This will ensure that your winter squash and pumpkins will last longer. Cure pumpkins and winter squash to harden the rinds and help them last longer. Cure pumpkins for a week either indoors near a warm, sunny window. You can also cure winter squash on a sun-drenched, south-facing spot on your deck or patio.

The leaves and stems of most herbs can be harvested throughout the growing season. In fact, many plants respond to frequent harvesting by generating fresh, flavorful new growth. Here are a few tips for harvesting some popular herbs.

• Basil: Begin pinching leaves once the plant becomes 6 to 8 inches tall. Keep plant pinched even if you’re not planning to use the herb, to keep it from flowering.
• Dill: Harvest as needed any time between seedling stage and flowering.
• Oregano: Snip sprigs as needed. Harvest often to encourage new growth.

Tip: Herbs are best used right away, but you can freeze an abundant harvest by lightly coating dry herbs with olive oil and letting them freeze on cookie sheets. Once frozen, store in freezer containers.