Harvest How-To
Pick your produce with confidence thanks to our handy harvest tips.
From planting, weeding, and watering to outsmarting pests—growing vegetables demands a fair amount of old-fashioned elbow grease and persistence. Thankfully, the payoff for the effort is unrivaled. No grocery store produce tastes quite the same as fresh-air fare that’s sun-ripened in your own yard. That’s what we’ve learned at the Lowe’s Giant Garden, where we share our harvest with the staff and local soup kitchens and shelters. Savor the fruits of your own labor by learning these harvest basics.
Pick Your Own Produce
Timing is everything when gathering the harvest. Follow three general guidelines to ensure healthy plants and a hearty harvest.
1. Pick early in the day. When possible, gather fruits and vegetables early in the day when produce is better hydrated—but wait until dew is dry on leaves. You can harvest herbs closer to actual use in the kitchen. For ahead-of-time harvesting, snip herb stems and tuck the ends into a glass of water until cook time. Avoid putting frost-tender herbs, such as basil, in the refrigerator, or you’ll end up with brown leaves.
2. Gather when leaves are dry. Diseases spread quickly among wet leaves, and harvesting hands can unknowingly transfer disease organisms from one leaf to another. This problem is particularly true for crops like green beans, cucumbers, and squash.
3. Pick often. As the garden swings into full gear, check crops daily for ripe produce. Fruit and vegetables that grow too large or too mature can taste woody, tough, and bitter. Sometimes over-mature fruits succumb more easily to disease. Picking frequently actually encourages more fruit to form, which is a win for your palate and your produce basket.
For most crops, homegrown produce appears smaller than grocery-store versions. In a home garden, conditions are rarely ideal, and if you’re committed to raising crops organically, without chemicals, you may trade down on size even more. What backyard produce may lack in size, it more than makes up in taste.
Plant-by-Plant Guide
We’ve been gathering our warm-season crops at the Lowe’s Giant Garden using these guidelines.
Corn—Start examining kernels after silks turn brown. Kernels should be plump and run milky when pierced with a fingernail. The milky color signifies that sugars have developed. Clear juices indicate not-so-sweet corn—if you find clear liquid, you may need to wait up to a whole week to pick. Check ears in three to four days. Sweetness starts to diminish the moment ears are picked. For best flavor, cook corn the same day you pick it. If you must store it for a day or two, don’t remove husks and keep ears cold.
Cucumbers—Pick fruit as soon as they appear fully formed and filled out. Cucumbers don’t always pull easily from the vine; carry kitchen or garden shears to snip stems. Plants produce more steadily when fruit is consistently picked. Avoid allowing early cucumbers to grow too large or the vine will yield fewer fruits overall. Use cucumbers within 7-10 days of picking. If you’re inundated with fruits, make some pickles.
Green beans—Once bean bushes and vines start blooming, check plants daily for ripe fruit. Pick beans when pods are small—about the thickness of a No. 2 pencil. French filet beans, however, yield thinner pods. Thicker pods, where the bean bumps are visible, can be chewy and woody. The more you pick beans, the more vines produce. Gather early beans as soon as they’re ready; if they’re allowed to ripen to maturity on plants, the crop will stop. Pull beans from vines with your fingers. Store beans in a plastic bag in the refrigerator and use within two weeks.
Herbs—For most herbs, flowering signals the end of the harvest. This is especially true of basil and oregano. Keep blooms snipped from plants to ensure flavorful leaves. Gather herbs by the leaf or stem. Strip leaves from woody stems of herbs like rosemary, basil, or thyme. To read more about growing and harvesting herbs, check out our garden blog by Ann McCormick.
Sunflower seeds—As petals start to fall from flowers, seeds begin to swell. Cover seedheads with a mesh, burlap, or paper bag to protect ripening seeds from hungry birds. You also can cut flower stalks at the base when seeds have developed a hard outer shell—the seeds will continue to ripen. When seeds are fully dry, remove them by hand or rub the head across a washboard or wire mesh over a wide container. Store seeds in closed, air-tight containers.
Sweet peppers—Pick green peppers as soon as they’re fully colored, shiny, and full size. Most peppers will continue coloring and turn shades of yellow, orange, or red. To harvest peppers, use a sharp knife or shears to snip stems. Leave a piece of stem attached to peppers, which helps them to last longer. Store peppers in the refrigerator, and use within three to five days. Harvest peppers before frost. Use any that get frosted immediately—they won’t store well.
Tomatoes—Ripe tomatoes don’t need to be fully colored—pick them when colored at least halfway. Tomatoes should feel heavy for their size and come easily off the plant. Ripen picked tomatoes on a counter or windowsill. Don’t refrigerate tomatoes, as they lose their flavor within two hours in the fridge. Avoid leaving tomatoes on the vine too long. Fully ripe tomatoes only keep two to three days on the vine.
Watermelon—Determining watermelon ripeness is almost more art than science. Watch several items to gauge ripeness. The visible rind should change colors, from bright to dull green. The part of the skin touching the soil shifts from greenish white to cream. Tendrils nearest the melon shrivel and turn brown. Rapping on the melon should yield a hollow, low-pitched sound. Test some unripe ones to train your ear for the wrong sound. Uncut watermelons can store up to two weeks in the refrigerator, but it’s best to eat them at the peak of ripeness.
Zucchini—Pick fast-growing zucchini when fruits are 4-5 inches long. As soon as squash starts to form, check plants daily, looking beneath all leaves. Zucchini grows rapidly, and a fruit can easily grow to baseball bat size if it’s hidden under foliage. If you pick faithfully, zucchini vines will produce for about a month. For true zucchini lovers, sow a second set of seeds about a month after the first one to extend the harvest season.