Different Harvests

For later weekends in August, I spent little time maintain the garden. I would check the water level every few days, and use a watering can to add 2 or 4 gallons.  Most weekends I had some small harvests, usually a bowl or two.  I even gave a lettuce plants to my mother.  With experience I found that there was different types of harvesting for basement gardens, like the selective, the pruning and the final harvest.  One of these are the types typically used in your outdoor garden.

Most outdoor gardeners want each plant to thrive and grow, harvests are made to keep the plants alive.  In an indoor garden, the less plants in an enclosed planter, the bigger the remaining plants can grow.  When lettuce is grown indoors, the leaves are not harvested, it is the entire plant.  The harvested plant’s root system should be pulled out of the planter.  Finally, additional dirt is added to fill the planter and provide additional nutrients for remaining plants.

Only harvest the amount needed.  How much of the vegetable is needed for the meal?  If the need is only enough for a few sandwiches, this would be a selective harvest. Pick the largest of the plants, and don’t take out chunks.  The selection should be distributed across the container, making space for adjacent plants.

When harvesting enough for a side dish, that’s a pruning harvest. The goal is to harvest a significant chunk of the plants in one container, and have the remaining plants to recover, expand and grow.

Then there is the final harvest.  This is when all the plants from one planter are harvested. There are other harvests earlier, but this should be a large harvest to turn the planter space around faster for the next harvest. Additional work after a final harvest is needed to plant the next vegetable.

There is also a Grand Harvest, which is when you are harvesting for a special side dish, typically for a party.  For a family gathering in February 2011, I had grown a full container of Swiss Chard that I rarely touched.  The leaves were huge, and a tall 20 gallon pot was filled.  I was able to steam enough for 6 adult Swiss Chard lovers, and even had leftovers. Harvested basement vegetables shelf life is pretty high, especially if refrigerate in vegetable bags available at supermarkets.  The bags are reusable.

It doesn’t take more than a few pinches of seeds to plant an entire container, and usually takes a month until the first harvest of any leafy vegetable such as lettuce, spinach or Swiss Chard.  The first few harvests can be early harvests of “baby” plants, where it might take many plants to make a meal.  When planning this approach, the distance between seeds when planting is closer than recommended, increasing additional plants in each planter by a factor of two or three.  Early pruning harvests of baby plants makes recommended space for the remaining plants. Additional dirt should be added to the planter after any pruning harvest.