When to pick squash

Can you guess which of these yellow squash has
just been sitting around developing lots of seeds?

At this time of year and with as much rain as we've been getting squash grows like crazy (as do the cucumbers but that is a story for another day.) One day you have tiny barely formed squash and 2 days later you have eating sized squash.

If you are trying to grow baseball bat sized zucchini than just leave them on the vine. But if you want nice tender zucchini, you'll need to pick frequently. And carefully look under every leaf.

The zucchini in this picture range from baseball bat
size to young and tender.

Picking frequently encourages the plant to keep producing and it also keeps the vegetables from getting rotten from sitting on the ground. The goal of all plants is to reproduce by flowering, fruiting and setting seed. The larger you let your veggies get, the closer to completing the life cycle the plant gets. Which means the plant will decide it doesn't have to flower and set any more vegetables for you to eat.



Brussel Sprouts

After talking to Denise and Amy about Brussel Sprouts I decided to go home and read up on them. I've never grown them, only cooked and eaten them. Turns out there are a couple of things to remember when you are ready to harvest them.

Cut the sprouts from the bottom up.

They are best harvested in the cool months.

Don't cut the top until you are finished with the plant.

Remove the leaves from the bottom of the plant after you harvest the sprout from the leaf node so the plant will send all its energies to the other sprouts.

If you want more information here are two articles that had a lot of good information about growing brussel sprouts.

Garden Grower - How to Grow Brussel Sprouts

Gardening Know How - Harvesting Brussel Sprouts


The University of Georgia Extension Service has a really excellent publication about when to harvest vegetables. The chart tells you the proper maturity size to harvest produce for a wide range of vegetables. It also tells you when it is too early and too late to harvest for good quality produce.

When to Harvest Vegetables - C935


       Vicki