You’ve put in a lot of hard work, and hooray, it’s time to harvest!
So how exactly do you do that?
Every plant has a different way to know when the peak ripeness has been reached, and there is no way for me to cover all possibilities. This is one you’ll probably have to use the ol’ search engine for. Some are more obvious than others, like tomatoes turning red, but some can be more dependent on size or other characteristics. Let’s assume your plant is ready to be harvested.
When
I like to harvest in the mornings, but after the dew has dried for the day. Some people prefer the evenings. It’s kind of up to you. I’ve heard that plants harvested at X time of day are better, or that Y time is better, or whatever. Do what works for you, but I do recommend being consistent. You are going to want to check for more goodies every day, I find it easier to remember if I do it at the same time every day.
How
First of all, be gentle. For the most part, we aren’t ripping off the whole plant. We just want one tiny thing from the plant. We also don’t want to bruise our harvested goods. Some items are easily picked with your hands. Ripe tomatoes tend to pop right off if you give them a little twist and tug. Other plants might need to have a snip of some sort to give up their harvest. Things like broccoli benefit from this method. Some you pull right out of the ground, like carrots. I personally like to use my snips for most things because I like the satisfying sound it makes.
It’s also important to clean and store your harvest properly, but we’ll talk about that another time.
What you are most excited about harvesting? I always love that first tomato of the season!