On Gardening/Harvesting And Storing Vegetables

8-4-97
University Park, Pa. -- Storing and preserving vegetables and fruits successfully depends not only on the storage conditions, but also on the conditions under which the crops were grown and handled.

Here are some important points to remember when growing, storing, and preserving fruits and vegetables at home.

· Vegetables intended for storage should be planted at a date that will allow them to mature near the end of the growing season.

· A good program of soil fertility, insect and disease control will help assure a good harvest that has potential for a long storage life.

· Harvest vegetables at their proper maturity to obtain maximum food value and vitamin content and to keep plants producing for longer periods of time.

· Select for storage and preservation only those fruits and vegetables that are free of disease, insect injury and mechanical damage.

· Pick fruits and vegetables in the cool early morning hours rather than late afternoon.

· When you harvest, hold the plant with one hand as you remove the fruit with the other. Don't pull, tear or damage the plant. Eggplant in particular needs to be cut from the stem with a pair of heavy shears.

· Handle the crop carefully to avoid bruising.

· If you plan to freeze or can the produce, make as many preparations as possible ahead of time before harvesting the crop to reduce the time from picking to processing to insure the best quality pack.

· Harvest no more than you can process within two hours after picking. This guideline also reduces the problem of having to cool large amounts of produce.

· As soon as the row crop is finished bearing fruit or vegetables, pull the plants out, and prepare the row for the next planting.

Estimating crop ripeness.
It is important to know when a fruit or vegetable to fully ripe to assure quality and optimum storage. Vegetable specialists determine ripeness in a crop by counting the number of days between flowering and maturity for all vegetables that produce edible fruits such as snap beans, cucumbers, muskmelons, squashes, tomatoes, peppers and sweet corn. Botanically, the edible portions of these vegetables are fruits.

For example, snap beans will mature in 7 to 10 days while cucumbers for pickling require only 4 or 5 days, depending on the size pickle you want. Slicing cucumbers need up to two weeks to develop good size.

On the other hand, about 7 weeks are required for muskmelons from the time the flowers appear until the fruits are ready. The winter squashes, such as Hubbard, require 11 to 12 weeks. Acorn squash will be ready in about 8 weeks.

Tomato maturity varies greatly with the variety and type of plant -- 45 to 55 days are required for most varieties. About the same amount of time is necessary for sweet peppers to reach the green stage and another 2 weeks for the fruit to turn red.

Sweet corn matures in 18 to 24 days after half the silks have appeared. High humidity can speed maturity.

In addition to temperatures, other factors affecting maturity of vegetables are day length, rainfall, variety, soil fertility and garden slope.

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**Dr. Robert Nuss is a horticulturist at Penn State. He coordinates all extension horticulture programs. He has bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degrees in ornamental horticulture and has been on the Penn State faculty since 1966.