6 Ways to Maximize Your Harvest

You’ve planted the seeds, carefully nurtured the plants and now you’re ready to harvest.  It’s finally time to taste the “fruits of your labor”.  But, if you’re not careful, you could unintentionally limit how much you get from your garden.  Before you start picking or cutting, make sure you know the six ways to maximize your harvest.

Harvest to Minimize Plant Damage

Sometimes pulling a leaf or fruit off of a plant at harvest time can accidentally damage the plant.  This makes it less likely the plant will continue to produce.  For salad greens, pull leaves down to break them off.  You will be less likely to accidentally pull the whole plant out of the ground.  For fruited plants like tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, beans, peas, use two hands, or cut the fruit off with a knife.  For melons, pumpkins, or squash, a knife is a necessity.  The stem should be somewhat withered when ripe, but it can be tough and prickly.  So, save your fingers and cut it instead of trying to break it.

Harvest Everything That is Ripe

For many types of plants, if you let the fruits stay on the plant until they have fully formed their seeds, the plant will stop flowering.  For example, you usually pick sugar snap peas before the peas fully form in the pods.  If you get behind in harvesting, the pods get too fat.  Even though you may not want to eat those peas, you should pick them.  If you don’t, the plant will declare victory in reaching its biological goal of setting seeds and stop making more peas.  You can even save those mature pods to plant for next year. Also, overripe fruits can attract insects and diseases, so getting them out of the garden bed keeps it cleaner and healthier for your plants.  Our chickens love all the extra fat peas and squishy tomatoes!

Don’t Cut Too Deep

There are several kinds of salad greens that are “cut and come again”.  If you cut the leaves, but leave at least an inch above the soil, the plant will grow more leaves for a future harvest.  If you cut too close to the ground, the plant will give up.  This can also work for broccoli and cabbages.  When you cut the main head, leave the leaves and stalk intact.  They will grow “side shoots” that can add up to another full harvest later on.

Harvest at Different Stages

For plants like potatoes, you can get multiple harvests by digging them at different stages.  If you carefully dig early in the harvest (usually after the plant first flowers), you can find “new” potatoes.  These little golf ball size potatoes won’t store well, but they are tasty.  As long as you don’t damage the roots, or take too many, the plant will still produce full-sized potatoes later on.  I’ve also harvested bell peppers as green peppers and then waited until they were red (or orange, yellow, purple, whatever).  The green peppers are not as sweet, but depending on the use, they can be exactly what you need for your recipe.

Harvest at the Right Time of Day

Most plants are better picked when it’s not too hot or in direct sun.  Salad greens, for example, will wilt rapidly if it’s a hot day.  Picking in the early morning or evening will give you greens that stay fresh longer.  You can also put greens into a rinse bucket right away to prevent wilting if you’re doing a big harvest in hot weather.  You can store plants longer if you cool them off quickly after harvest.  Except tomatoes, you should always keep them at just below room-temperature for the best storage, flavor, and texture.

Choosing the Right Harvesting Weather

You may not like picking vegetables in the rain, but it can also be bad for your plants.  If you are brushing up against wet leaves while harvesting, you can transfer diseases between plants much more easily than harvesting in dry conditions.  Tomatoes are especially susceptible to wilts and funguses that can be easily spread by harvesting from wet plants.  Salad greens are less sensitive to wet weather, but as noted above, they don’t like hot and dry.  Make sure you’re picking in the best weather to ensure your harvest, and your plants stay safe.

Now that you know the six ways to maximize your harvest, get out there and pick!  Don’t be discouraged if you don’t see a huge change right away. Many of these techniques require some trial and error to get it right.  The best way to learn is to try it and see.  Happy harvesting!

Want to get started growing your first garden? Check out our post – “5 Easy Steps to Your First Garden.“

Looking for a great way to track your yield and document which harvesting techniques worked best for your garden? Check out my Ultimate Garden Workbook for the best place to keep all your garden information.