August Harvest Calendar: What to Pick and When

August brings together vegetables for today's table, bulb crops intended for storage and the first apples. The common mistake is to harvest everything by a single date. Variety, planting time, soil and weather all shift maturity, so a calendar is best used as a checklist rather than a strict timetable.

Choose the day first

Produce intended for storage is best harvested in dry weather after the dew has gone. Fruit is cooler in the morning, but wet produce should not be packed into closed containers. After rain, allow plants and soil to dry. Use shallow crates or baskets: fewer layers and fewer transfers mean fewer bruises.

Before harvesting

• Check the forecast: onions, garlic and potatoes particularly benefit from a run of dry weather.
• Prepare separate containers for sound produce, damaged items and plant debris.
• Have pruners, scissors and a garden fork ready; pulling and snapping often cause damage.
• Do not leave filled baskets in direct sun.

Onions and garlic: look at the neck and wrappers

Bulb onions are ready when the tops fall naturally, the neck becomes thin and the outer scales dry. Garlic often shows brown lower leaves while several upper leaves remain green. Dig one test bulb: the cloves should be distinct, but the common wrapper should not yet be splitting apart.

Loosen bulbs carefully, shake off loose soil and move them under cover. Do not knock bulbs together or pull them from compacted soil by the tops. For storage, cure onions and garlic in shade with good airflow until the necks and outer wrappers are completely dry.

Potatoes: wait for the skin to set

New potatoes can be dug earlier for immediate use, but storage potatoes should remain until the vines die back and the skin becomes firm. Rub a test tuber with your thumb; if the skin slips easily, it needs more time. Harvest on a dry day with a garden fork and immediately separate cut, pierced or diseased tubers.

Keep harvested potatoes away from light, do not wash them before storage and allow minor wounds to heal in a dark, ventilated place. Potatoes with extensive greening should not be eaten because greening shows that the tuber was exposed to light.

Tomatoes and peppers: harvest for their intended use

For the table, pick tomatoes when they have developed the typical color of the variety but are still firm. Fruit meant for transport or indoor ripening may be picked when its color first begins to change. Before a sharp cold spell, harvest sound, developed fruit, but never mix tomatoes showing late blight symptoms with healthy ones.

Sweet peppers are edible at the mature green stage and at the fully colored stage, when their flavor is stronger. Cut fruit with a short stem instead of twisting branches.

Cucumbers, summer squash and beans: harvest often

These crops do not have one mass-harvest day. Check cucumbers every day or two and pick before yellowing and seed hardening. Summer squash is more tender while the skin can still be marked with a fingernail and the seeds are soft. Pick snap beans while pods are juicy and seeds are only beginning to show. Regular harvesting encourages more flowers and fruit.

Apples and plums: color is not enough

Judge apples by several signs together: the normal season for the variety, a change in background color from green toward yellow-green, flavor, aroma and easy stem separation. Cup the apple in your palm, lift and twist gently. Summer varieties often need two or three selective pickings because fruit on one tree does not ripen at the same time.

Plums for immediate eating can remain until they develop varietal color, aroma and slight softness. Pick firmer fruit for transport, keeping the stem and as much natural wax bloom as possible. Do not mix windfalls or split fruit with produce intended for storage.

Do not rush the late crops

Late cabbage, carrots, beets, root parsley, winter squash and late apples often continue growing after August. Their harvest depends on variety, plant condition and the frost forecast. Lifting immature roots and winter varieties too early shortens storage life and prevents full flavor development.

A short postharvest routine

• Move produce into shade immediately.
• Separate sound items from bruised, split or diseased ones.
• Do not wash vegetables intended for long storage unless the crop requires a specific treatment.
• Cure onions and garlic, allow potato skins to heal and cool tender produce promptly.
• Label the variety and harvest date so you can compare storage performance and plan next season.