Extend your summer harvest

Summer is the time that your hard work in the vegetable garden comes to fruition with continual harvests from our heat-loving crops. We often have a glut at this time of year, with almost too much produce than we know what to do with. Harvest can start to wane if we don’t harvest what is ready or neglect maintenance which can allow in pest and disease problems.

Here are a few tips to extend your summer harvest so that you can continue picking delicious vegetables well into autumn.

Continual harvesting to keep plants producing

Keep picking your vegetables as soon as they are ready as this will encourage more to grow. Leafy greens and herbs will want to run to seed, and fruiting plants will want their seed to develop. This uses a lot of energy so by removing the fruit, the plant will want to continue to form more in order to reproduce.

Check your garden every few days and harvest what is ready. Preserve or share excess produce with others as this continual harvesting is one of the best ways to extend the summer vegetable season.

Keep up with the water

Summer vegetables thrive when well-watered. Plants that are lacking moisture are stressed plants and stressed plants will not produce well and are more susceptible to pests and diseases.

Fertilise

Plants that are producing lots of fruit require a lot of energy to do so. Liquid feeding or using a pelletised organic fertiliser regularly will help maintain the nutrient levels these plants require to keep up production. As a tonic, a regular dose of a seaweed solution will keep up the vigour in your plants.

Top up your mulches

Mulching your plants will help retain moisture, keep the weeds at bay and will insulate the roots of your plants (very important for some of the shallow-rooted summer crops).

It will also add organic matter to your soil which builds soil structure and feeds the life in the soil.

Prune to keep up airflow and allow in plenty of light

Summer crops love the sun! Simply by pruning away excess growth allows in extra sunlight to keep your plants happy and help to ripen fruit.

This will also allow the air to circulate through which helps reduce fungal problems.

Interplanting

The harvest season can be extended by planting fast growing crops in between other crops. Continually planting crops like lettuces and other salad greens, carrots, beetroot, etc. fills your garden and gives you a bigger variety of harvest. Interplanting maximizes and utilises the garden space.

A few practical maintenance steps will provide you with harvest from your summer crops way into autumn.