Harvesting In Winter: When To Pick Winter Vegetables (2024)

FAQs

Harvesting In Winter: When To Pick Winter Vegetables? ›

In order to have a successful winter vegetable harvest, most crops will need to be at or near their mature dates when daylight hours drop to ten or less per day. The days when there are ten or less hours of sunlight is called the Persephone period.

Till the vegetable garden just before a hard freeze to expose insects that have burrowed into soil for winter. Pick remaining peppers and any green tomatoes you plan to ripen indoors. Harvest pumpkins and winter squash before frost. Leave a 1-2-inch stem if you intend to store for winter.

To play it safe, you should harvest after a deep freeze – but as it is a cold-weather plant, frost will improve its flavor until that time comes.

Almost all vegetables are best when harvested early in the morning. Overnight, vegetables regain moisture that they lost during the day, and starches formed during the day may be converted to sugars during the evening. These traits make morning-harvested produce crisper, juicier, and sweeter.

When kale and collard greens, spinach, broccoli, brussel sprouts, lettuces, carrots, beets, onions, radishes, bananas, cilantro, for example, go to flower it is time for them to go. Unless, of course, the plant is in good health and you are saving seed. Then, pull the plant after after you have harvested the seeds.

In general, a frost (31-33 degrees F.) will kill beans, cantaloupe, corn, cucumbers, eggplant, okra, peas, pepper, potatoes, sweet potatoes, squash, tomatoes, and watermelon.

Just before the first frost, remove all mature, greenish white fruit from the vines. They should be solid, firm, and free of defects.

Root crops like carrots, turnips, beets, rutabagas and parsnips can remain in the garden after a frost and still be removed in good condition later, but get them dug and stored before the ground freezes.

It depends on the effects you're looking for. Early harvests provide a more energetic high, peak harvests offer a balanced high, and late harvests deliver a more relaxing and sedative effect.

The keys to harvesting in winter are choosing cool-season crops, planting at the correct time, and choosing the correct season-extenders for your climate. Some crops, like Brussels sprouts, can be planted in late summer and held over in high tunnels for an extended harvest period.

When to harvest vegetables chart? ›

Fall is another perfect time to till as the soil is still fairly dry. Use this time to get ready for the upcoming planting season and mix compost, aged manure, decomposed leaves, and other soil amendments into your beds.

The answer is, yes, depending on what plants you have. If you live in an area where snow falls in winter, many experts recommend covering your garden bed with thick coverings or plastic to protect sensitive plants from potential damage.

Carrots intended for storage should be harvested when the carrot tips are full and the flavor is well-developed. Fall storage carrots are harvested after a few light frosts but before a hard frost, while they can still be easily dug. A hard frost will damage any portion of the plants above the soil surface.

Frost Hardy

Root crops develop more sugars when the soil temperature is below 40 degrees Fahrenheit; and Brussels sprouts are often best after a light freeze. Among the hardiest vegetables are cole crops, which can tolerate moderate freezes (24 to 28 degrees Fahrenheit) : Broccoli, cauliflower (26 degrees Fahrenheit)