Human SkillsHarvesting at the Right Moment
Pick more, pick better, and keep plants producing
5 minIntermediateUpdated
- Judge ripeness for the main crop types
- Harvest in a way that keeps the plant cropping
- Handle and store the harvest for the longest life
Pick often, pick young
Most plants stop producing once they think they have made seed. Courgettes, beans, peas and cucumbers should be picked every 2 to 3 days while young and tender: a courgette at 15 cm is a delicacy, at 40 cm it is a marrow and the plant slows down. Leaving pods to fatten on a bean plant tells it the season is over. Cut-and-come-again salads and chard are harvested by taking the outer leaves and leaving the centre to regrow. Herbs are pinched at the tips. Regular harvesting is the single easiest way to double the total yield from the same plants.
Fruit and fruiting vegetables
Tomatoes are ripe when fully coloured and slightly soft, and come off with a gentle twist. Peppers can be picked green or left 3 to 4 weeks longer to turn red and sweeter. Aubergines are ready when glossy; dull skin means overripe and bitter. Melons smell sweet at the stem end and the stem cracks when ready. Winter squash and pumpkins are ready when the skin cannot be dented with a thumbnail and the stem has gone hard; cut with 5 cm of stem and cure in the sun for 10 days. Strawberries and raspberries are picked fully red, in the morning, and eaten within 2 days.
Roots, bulbs and tubers
Carrots and beetroot can be pulled from golf-ball size onward; loosen with a fork first so they do not snap. Baby roots are sweetest. Potatoes: earlies are dug 2 weeks after flowering, main crops when the leaves die back, on a dry day, and left on the surface for 2 hours to dry. Onions and garlic are ready when half the tops have fallen over; lift them, lay them in a single layer in a dry airy place for 2 to 3 weeks until the skins rustle, then plait or net them. Never wash roots you intend to store. Brush the soil off and keep the skin intact.
Timing in the day
Harvest leafy crops and herbs early in the morning, when they are full of water and crisp. Picked at 3 pm on a hot day, lettuce is limp and wilts within the hour. Fruit is the opposite: sugars are highest in the afternoon after a day of sun, so tomatoes and strawberries taste best picked late. Beans and peas are fine any time but easiest to spot in raking morning light. Avoid harvesting brassicas and beans when leaves are wet if disease is around, since you spread spores by touch. Use a clean sharp knife or secateurs for anything you cannot snap cleanly by hand.
After the pick
Get harvested produce out of the sun straight away; a basket left in the sun for 30 minutes loses a day of shelf life. Salads go into a bag in the fridge with a damp cloth. Tomatoes, cucumbers, basil, aubergines and peppers stay at room temperature: below 10 degrees C they lose flavour and texture. Squash, onions, garlic and potatoes want a cool dark airy place at 8 to 15 degrees, never the fridge, and potatoes must be kept in the dark or they green and become toxic. Sort out anything bruised and eat it first. One rotten fruit spoils the box. The food preservation category covers freezing, drying and canning.
Check yourself
Once a plant matures seed it slows or stops flowering. Constant picking keeps it in production mode.
Collapsing tops mean the bulb has finished growing. Curing for 2 to 3 weeks afterwards makes them store.
Cold destroys the flavour compounds and texture of tomatoes. Keep them on the counter out of sun.
Leaves are fully hydrated and crisp at dawn and wilt fast in afternoon heat.
Try it for real: Harvest by the rules for one week
- Pick leafy crops before 9 am and fruit after 3 pm for seven days
- Harvest outer leaves only from salads and chard and note the regrowth
- Pick one crop every 2 days and count how many extra fruits or pods appear
- Store each type correctly and check what lasted longest
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Next lesson: Saving Your Own Seed →
Written and checked by the Human Skills team against the sources below. How we check our content
- RHS Harvesting and Storing Vegetables
- FAO Post-harvest Handling
- University of Maine Extension, Harvesting and Storing Vegetables
