We spend so much time and effort starting seeds, planting seedlings, fertilizing, watering and hovering over our plants. When are the fruits of our labor ready to pick? Here are some general guidelines for knowing when and how to harvest.
Always read the seed package or the label that came with the seedling. They’ll often give you a number of “days to harvest,” which is helpful but not usually very accurate. Still, the package and labels should describe the size, color and sometimes how soft or firm your vegetables will be when they ripen.
• Summer squashes (zucchini, patty pan, yellow crookneck, etc.) can be picked any time. Pick them a few inches long for baby vegetables. Leave them on the plant for full-sized vegetables. Do pick before they get so large that they grow woody. If a knife doesn’t cut through the squash smoothly and easily, it’s too old.
Harvest too-old squashes anyway to keep the plant producing. Cut the stem cleanly with a knife or pruners about an inch above where the squash connects to the vine.
• Tomatoes’ ripeness is indicated by tomato color. Since there are different color tomatoes, you need to know what color to expect. A yellow tomato ripens fully golden yellow. A “black” tomato ripens a dirty brick red. ‘Green Zebra’ ripens striped green. The ‘Indigo’ series tomatoes need to be entirely eggplant black to be fully ripe and taste good. And at that point, they really taste good!
A ripe tomato will pull from the vine when you tug it gently. It should break at a joint on the stem, just above the green cap of leaves that sits atop the fruit. That joint is called the pedicel, and the “leaves” are sepals left over from the tomato flower.
• Peppers mature in a way you probably don’t expect. Truly mature peppers are red, yellow, orange and even purple. Green peppers are actually underripe peppers — that’s why they give some people indigestion. Since peppers go from green to colored, you just have to wait a little longer for your peppers to ripen. You can always pick a pepper green, but if you wait until it is colored, sweet peppers will be sweeter and hot peppers might just be hotter!
Cut peppers with a sharp scissors, knife or shears, leaving a half-inch of stem attached to each pepper. Pick often to keep the plant producing.
• Eggplants have to be fully formed for harvest since small eggplants taste bitter. Once an eggplants turns the color of ripeness and is glossy smooth, cut it off, keeping a half-inch or inch of stem on the fruit. Ripe color depends on the type of eggplant. There are white eggplants, deep-purple eggplants, purple-blush-white eggplants, even orange eggplants (popular in Africa). With eggplants, however, color and gloss aren’t everything. Ripe eggplants should be firm but not hard. Flesh should be white with a slight green tint (orange eggplants ripen orange/green inside). If you are unsure of your eggplant’s ripeness, cut one crosswise and check the seeds. They should be clearly visible. If you don’t see seeds, the eggplant isn’t yet ripe. Wait a week or so, then try again.