Carol O’Meara describes how to harvest unripe tomatoes when the season ends to enjoy them over the winter.
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Question by specky73: How often can you pick broccoli?
I am fairly new to gardening. Once I pick my head of broccoli will it continue to produce more throughout the summer?
What about green peppers, tomatoes and green beans, cucumber and zuccini…is the more you pick the better?
thanks!
Best answer:
Answer by Me
Get the head, then the side shoots…
With all the others, yes, pick them often but especially with tomatoes, cut off every single leaf or branch that does not have blooms. I even cut off my cucumber and zuchini leaves to give the plant more energy to grow the fruit..
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Thank you very much for posting this video; it is one of the most useful
gardening video I have even seem; keep up the good work. Thanks again.
thank you now how do i open a tomato caning factory?
Thank you! I’m facing this question right now with this unseasonably cold
October!
Just discovered your video on green tomato storage, and your video on how
to tell if watermelons are ripe on the vine. Thanks so much for all this
information; I learned a lot! I’m hoping that you have more videos on
gardening….going to search right now.
thanks for all the great tips—esp. the tomatoes in newspaper for
mid-winter!!
great video! Thanks for all the info!
Hi!
Here’s the long-winded “scoop” on harvesting your Broccoli:
#1- Don’t make the mistake of waiting too long to harvest it! The Broccoli heads are actually clusters of immature florets making up the flower of the plant where it eventually produces seeds. If you wait too long, the thick cluster of buds will gradually separate and the individual florets begin to open and turn into yellow flowers. Once it flowers, it tells the plant that it’s “done growing”. You have 3-4 days to harvest it before it flowers.
#2- Broccoli tastes best when it’s matured and harvested in cool weather with cool nights. Try to cut it in the morning before the daytime temperatures hit 80°F+.
#3- (phew*! LOL) With a very sharp knife, cut the main head cleanly off down the stalk 6 to 8 inches to encourage maximum side shoot growth where the leaves join the main stalk lower down.
If you cut even lower on the stalk, taking some of the potentially productive leaf nodes, the remaining nodes will send out more vigorous side shoots! While there may be fewer new productive shoots from the stalk, the heads that form on them are larger. If you are too timid, the next crop will be small, stringy little clusters! Four to six cuttings are possible from each main broccoli stalk for up to six weeks after harvesting the main head.
*** You CAN cut off the side shoots to get more production. Even if you don’t use all the side shoots, it’s SO important to harvest them, otherwise, the plant stops production completely
The other veggies that you mentioned require constant harvesting to cause more production- The more you pick, the more flowers the plant puts out in attempt to reseed itself, so you get more produce- I always end up with more than I can even give away!!!
Happy farming!
Mich
Broccoli produces one large head in the center of the plant, which you need to pick before the flowers open or spread apart much in order to get good flavor. After you pick that head, you will get smaller side shoots, about the size of a single sprig, throughout the rest of the season.
In general, once a garden plant is allowed to mature seeds in a fruit/vegetable, it will stop growing and often die. Ordinarily, the vegetable tastes better before the seeds mature, so you will want to pick your crops before the seeds mature–this keeps the harvest coming as well as provides the best flavors. Green peppers will keep producing until they get frosted, or you can dig them up, put them in pots and bring them indoors before frost. If they survive the transplant (usually, only some do), they will keep producing indefinitely. Tomatoes will eventually stop making fruits, although a frost may kill them before this happens, depending on where you live. Green beans must be kept well-picked if you want the plant to keep producing. Once they are allowed to mature seeds, most varieties die. Cucumbers will keep producing for a long time as long as you keep the fruits picked, but they are very frost sensitive. With zucchinis, the flavor is much better when they are smaller, say cucumber-sized, than when they are allowed to grow the size of whiffle-ball bats. And they will keep producing as well if you keep them picked.