When to Harvest Your Fruits and Vegetables
From peas and beans to cabbages and cauliflower to soft fruits, here's how to tell when the harvest is ready! Here is everything you need to know when the harvest is ready and here's how to tell when it's the perfect time to harvest your crops!
Root Crops
•Beets and turnips: Ready when golf-ball-sized to tennis-ball-sized.
•Carrots: Ready as soon as they're big enough for your needs. Leave main-crop varieties in the ground until you're ready to use them, including over winter in milder areas.
Soft Fruits
•Blackcurrants: Ready a week after turning black.
•Blueberries: Ready two or three days after turning blue.
Peas and Beans
•Peas and fava beans: Ready when the peas feel well-developed in their pods. Shells need a few to double-check.
•Pole beans and bush beans: Ready when long and smooth, but before beans start to bulge(膨胀) inside.
Potatoes
•Early potatoes: Ready 10 to 12 weeks after planting, when the plants come into flower.
•Main-crop potatoes for storing: Ready 20 weeks after planting, once all the leaves have died back. Without timely harvest, they would be reaped (收获) nothing.
Fruiting Vegetables
•Cucumbers: Ready when there is no pronounced point at the tip and they grow appropriate, which depends on what you need. Can be picked small for snacking cucumbers, or larger for slicing(切片).
•Zucchini: Ready when they reach about 4 inches ( 10 centimeters) long.
•Summer squash: Ready as soon as they reach a desirable length.
Our popular Vegetable Garden Planner can help you map out your garden design, space crops, know when to plant crops in your exact location, and much more. Need crop-specific growing information? Glance at our Crops at a Glance Guide for advice on planting and caring for dozens of garden crops.