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Q: I am a first time gardener. I would like to know when my bell peppers and tomatoes are ready to pick.

A: There is nothing better than a tomato ripened on the vine, picked fresh from the garden. When you pick and how often you harvest can make a big difference in the flavor of the vegetable and also how much the plant will produce.

Tomatoes are best picked when they turn the color they should be when ripe, but are still firm. For a red tomato, this would be when they turn from orange to deep red. For a yellow tomato, it's when they turn from light green to yellow.

With hot temperatures, tomatoes will sometimes stay orange and not turn fully red. If you find this is happening with your tomatoes, you can pick them once they turn orange, bring them inside and set them on the counter to finish ripening. This works with other color tomato varieties as well.

Sweet peppers can be picked once the green fruit gets to the mature size described on the label. If left longer on the plant, they will turn red; or if yours is one of the more exotic varieties, it will turn purple, black or orange. Most varieties will become sweeter once they turn from green to red.

Hot peppers such as jalapeño can also be harvested green, but many varieties are left and harvested when they turn red or orange. Hot peppers get hotter the longer they are left on the plant.

I like to leave my peppers longer on the plant because I like all the different colors. I'm growing black, orange, red and purple peppers this year. However, I will harvest them as green peppers if we are going to get temperatures above 110 degrees because I have found that the peppers usually get sunburned when it is this hot — even though I have them shaded from the afternoon sun.

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Here are some general rules to keep in mind when harvesting:

  • Bigger is not always better. Most vegetables are best harvested before they fully mature and are at their peak flavor and tenderness when they are slightly immature. Examples are summer squash, eggplant, snap beans and peas.
  • Pick frequently. Many types of vegetables will produce better if you harvest often. Vegetable crops such as snap beans, eggplant, zucchini and cucumbers will produce more and with better quality if picked regularly.
  • Use a knife or garden shear to pick peppers, eggplant, squash, cucumbers, and larger types of tomatoes so that you do not damage the plant while harvesting. If the plant suffers a broken stem or is wounded when you harvest, it allows for disease to enter the plant. Some crops do not require using a garden shear to harvest and can be picked by hand; such as beans, kale and lettuce.
  • Pick early in the morning, as vegetables will stay fresher longer when picked during the cooler temperatures and are at their most crisp early in the day.

For more information about when to harvest other types of vegetable crops, visit seed catalog sites such as Burpee or Rene’s Seed, or check out the detailed vegetable harvest chart at Iowa State University Extension at https://bit.ly/3f4PySy.

The Shasta Master Gardeners Program can be reached by phone at 242-2219 or email mastergardener@shastacollege.edu. The gardener office is staffed by volunteers trained by the University of California to answer gardeners' questions using information based on scientific research.

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