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Growing vegetables can be challenging and rewarding. It’s important to harvest your vegetables at the appropriate time to maximize flavor and quality. An easy way to remember when to harvest is to know when your vegetables were planted. You can count ahead days and know an approximate date of harvest. The Louisiana Vegetable Planting Guide has days to harvest for each crop. You can access the planting guide by scanning the QR code below.
Some vegetables give you clues as to when they are ready for harvest. Tomatoes can be harvested at the breaker stage, meaning pick the tomatoes when you first see signs of red color. Keep the tomatoes on your windowsill or a kitchen table to finish ripening.
Okra can be harvested when the pod is the length of your palm. If okra grows too big, it will become tough and stringy. Cucumbers can be picked when they are about the length of your hand. If cucumbers are left growing, they will become very large and bitter. Sweet potatoes let you know it’s time to harvest when you see the ground begin to swell under the plant. This tells you that the sweet potato roots are most likely a harvestable size.
Get into the habit of regularly checking your vegetable garden for insect pests. For example, if you see stink bugs around your tomato plants, you may consider picking tomatoes at the breaker stage to avoid unsightly damage from the stink bugs. Stink bugs have piercing, sucking mouth parts and the damage on tomatoes or bell peppers is called mottling. Stink bugs use their mouth parts to suck the juice out of vegetables, leaving a mottled appearance.
