Once your vegetable garden is planted and begins to develop a harvest , you’re able to spend a few moments every Clarence Day in the garden to supervise then and resolve when to glean them . This is one of the joyousness of growing veg . Generally speaking , picking early and often is the best fashion to harvest vegetable for maximal yield . However , there are harvest - specific approach to harvesting .

Greens : You canharvest greens — lettuce , spinach , chard — from the time leafage are about 4 inches long . Harvest from the exterior of the plant , taking the turgid leaf first , using a sharp tongue or just pinching off parting with your fingers . green grow from the center . If you desire a plant to keep to produce , take no more than one-half of a plant ’s leaves . pass cabbage — romaine or butternut , for exercise — are crop whole . With those , you bring up the plant slightly and shorten the head from the source .

Tomatoes : Tomatoes amount in two types : determinate and indeterminate . Determinate tomatoes grow to a limit stature and size of it , then produce all their fruit at once — usually in less than a month . This is great for gardener who require to produce tomatoes in containers or who want to can or freeze their crop . With determinate tomatoes , you pick them ( leave the little stem on when picking ) in braggart bunches in a short period of time . Tomatoes are vine , and undetermined love apple are vine that just keep on growing and create fruit until frost nips them . Harvest these tomatoes as they mature and enjoy fresh . Some tomato plant ( cherry tomato plant , for example ) will crack as they get mature . These are best picked when they hit the orangish - carmine stage .

tomatoes in colander

In late summer, harvesting tomatoes is a highlight of late summer in the garden.

Green bean : Beans also number in two types : bush , which persist shorter and produce their craw in a shorter amount of fourth dimension ; and pole , which vine and continue to produce as long as they are pluck . noggin are a craw where the “ early and often ” policy really work . Remember , a plant ’s goal in life is to set seed , and if you bequeath pods sitting on the plant , the industrial plant will have fulfil its charge — and then will die . So , keep picking . If you are get for dried beans , have the beans fully ripen and dry on the vine .

Potatoes . potato grow up and form spuds along their roots and any area that is buried , so gardeners “ hill up ” potato . After the white potato vine plant has reach 6 or 8 inches in acme , you hoe dirt around the radical to plow all but about 4 inch . Continue to do this several time during the time of year . When the works initiate to yellow and fade , it ’s metre to dig up the potato . Potatoes come in early , mid - season and late varieties , so if you want to eat white potato in the summertime and then put in some for winter , grow varieties that mature at different meter . To harvest , you mildly pull up the plant , then carefully savvy around with a garden crotch or your hands to uncover the spuds . Let them cure on the primer for a few moment to dry off . If you plan to lay in them , the potato should be cured in a cool , juiceless station for two weeks before work to their final memory board spot . potato bring themselves very well to container arise . Here ’s avideowith instructions .

Broccoli , Cabbage : To harvest veggie in thebrassica family , you write out them at land stratum with a sharp knife . Cabbages can be harvested when head are fast all the room through and of the proper size for the variety show you have planted . Broccoli should be pluck when the heyday head have form , but no flowers are assailable yet . Some veggie , such as kale , taste sweeter if they are harvested after frost .

dried beans in pod

These dry beans are just about ready for harvest.

Do you follow any rules when you harvest veggie in your garden ?