Summer Vegetable Harvest Tips
The most popular vegetables that gardeners plant for summer harvest are carrots, corn, cucumber, eggplant, melons, watermelons, onions, okra, and peppers.
- Harvest large enough carrot roots when the ground cools in late summer, so it becomes more
sweeter.
- Corn should be harvested when the silk at the top of the cob turns brown, and the cob appears puffy.
- Cut the cucumbers off the bush when they are large enough and pluck the yellowed fruits so that the plant does not lose strength on them.
- A ripe eggplant has glossy skin and stops growing.
- To determine the ripeness of the melon, tap the fruit and observe the change in skin color. Then, stop watering a week before harvest to allow the sugar to concentrate in the fruit.
- Okra - Harvest 2 to 4 inch (5 to 10 cm) pods daily from the bottom of the plant.
- Onions - cut the "green" onions as needed, and when the tops begin to turn yellow, collect and cure the bulbs.
- Harvest peppers when firm flesh has formed on the fruit. Cut off green peppers to increase yield, or wait until fully ripe for a sweeter or spicier pepper.
