It’s well-known that using incorrect harvesting techniques can harm your plants significantly and reduce your garden production.
Luckily, this unpleasant scenario is easily avoidable if you learn the simple rules for sustainable harvesting.
This is what the post is all about. I’ll share the best general tips for harvesting and specific tricks you should consider for each plant type.
Let’s get started!
3 General Tips for Harvesting Vegetables
I’ll begin by outlining a few main guidelines you need to keep in mind if you want to harvest just right.
Move Cautiously Through the Garden
When moving through the garden for harvest, avoid stepping on a plant or accidentally damaging its leaves or branches.
Intuitively, we all know that injuring a plant is bad, but most don’t know that it can be fatal and cause significant crop loss.
Like humans, an injured plant is more susceptible to diseases, which is the last thing you want to experience in your garden.
Only Use the Proper Harvesting Techniques
Use the most proper harvesting technique for each plant to minimize the damage as much as possible.
Think about it; the harvesting process of a vegetable creates wounds in the plants. These wounds can be a pathogen entry point, risking the life of the veggies.
Harvesting with the right technique creates minor wounds instead of large ones that you might cause with random harvesting.
Obviously, a minor injury will heal significantly faster than a large one.
In the next part of the post, I’ll mention the ideal harvesting technique for the most common homegrown plant.
Use Sharp Tools with Tough-Stemmed Plants
Pulling off a plant with a tough stem using your hands isn’t wise by any means. If you do this, you might end up with an entire plant branch in your hands.
I recommend using a sharp knife or clipper instead to harvest these plants.
Harvesting Tricks for Common Garden Plants
Besides the above-listed general rules, you should know the specific tips for harvesting the most common homegrown plants.
I’ll guide you here on the ideal method and tool to harvest each one.
Baby Greens: Spinach, Lettuce, Arugula, Kale and Mustard
The ideal way to harvest baby greens is to pinch off the plant part above the soil with your forefinger and thumb.
Harvesting this way keeps a part of the plant underneath the soil that can regrow once or even twice.
Here’s the thing: you need to keep the growth tip intact, as that’s where the plant’s new leaves emerge.
Look at stems to determine whether you harvested baby greens correctly. If you notice a few stems sticking up from the ground, this is a sign the plant is in good condition.
Lettuce
When harvesting lettuce heads, follow the maturity period labeled on the plant’s seed packet. This ranges typically between 6 and 10 weeks from planting.
To harvest it correctly, cut the plant above the soil line with a sharp knife.
Cauliflower, Broccoli, and Cabbage
Almost all gardeners grow broccoli, cabbage, and cauliflower for their heads. However, the leaves of these plants are edible as well.
If you’re like me, you might harvest a few of these leaves just to snack on or add to your salad before the heads are completely mature.
If you do this, make sure you only harvest a few leaves from each plant. Harvesting most leaves while the head isn’t completely mature will negatively impact its growth. The reason is that the leaves provide the energy required for the head to mature.
When the maturity days of these plants approach, start to regularly check their heads to ensure they’re fully grown.
As for the recommended harvesting technique, use a sharp knife and cut off the plant bases.
To get the most out of these plants though you can pull them out entirely from the soil after harvesting to use them for composting. They won’t grow again anyway.
Tomatoes
Good news! Tomatoes are one of the easiest plants to determine if they’re ripe.
Once you notice their color turn vivid red, pink, or yellow, depending on the species, it’s the best harvest time.
This becomes a little challenging for green tomato varieties as you’ll need to check the texture and size to ensure they’re fully mature.
To check their maturity, squeeze the tomato gently. It should have a little give if it’s fully matured.
Speaking of the ideal harvesting method, you’ll need to use a sharp clipper and precisely cut off the vine of the tomato.
Things are a bit easier for cherry tomatoes: you can pick them simply using your hand.
Swiss Chard, Collards, and Non-Heading Cabbage
The ideal way to harvest Swiss chard, collards, and non-heading cabbage is by snapping off the leaves from the plant base.
I recommend not harvesting all the leaves at once; keep two or more mature ones at the top of each plant.
Leaving a couple of leaves on the plant ensures it has sufficient energy to continue growing.
You also need to be aware that the growth tip is located at the top center of the plants. So, you should avoid causing any damage to it while harvesting, as this can halt the plant’s growth.
Final Thoughts
Hope you’ve found my tips helpful. If you made it to the end, let me know in the comments about your gardening crops and the techniques you use to harvest them.
Enjoy your harvest!
Growing up with a mom who filled her home (inside and out) with all sorts of plants, Lisa got her start in gardening at a young age. Living now on her own with a home and yard full of plants (including an indoor greenhouse), she shares all the gardening tips she’s gained over the years.