Peppers, Eggplant and Cucumbers: Harvesting All Summer

Why fruiting crops take more work than greens

With leafy greens like lettuce, you simply harvest as the leaves grow, but fruiting crops have to do two jobs at once: growing stems and leaves, and flowering and ripening fruit. Set too much fruit too early and the plant can't grow and soon wears out. Overfeed it and you get lush leaves with few flowers. So growing fruiting crops is really about keeping those two in balance. Planting time and staking are covered in the easy vegetables guide, so this one focuses on the mid-season care that keeps plants producing all summer.

What's decided at planting

Since one fruiting plant has to last a long time, getting it settled well matters. Give each plant its own roomy pot and resist cramming several into one. A good transplant has dark leaves, short gaps between nodes, and the first flower bud just about to show. Peppers and eggplant usually go in at the same depth they sat in their nursery pot, and if you rush them out while nights are still cold, the roots fail to settle and growth stalls for a while. Water thoroughly right after planting, and for the first few days shelter them a little from strong wind and midday sun until the roots take hold.

Chili peppers: don't be precious about the first fruit

Chili peppers often bloom first right where the stem first forks in two. A common gardening practice is to pick that first flower or fruit early, so the energy it would have taken goes into stems and roots instead. The plant grows bigger and ends up producing more over the summer. Once fruit starts forming, get into the habit of checking the plant at the same time each day. Leaves that suddenly droop, or lower leaves turning yellow, may mean it's short of water or nutrients.

• Remove side shoots below the first fork
• Pick the first flower or fruit early
• Pick green chilies as soon as they're big enough
• Limit fruit left to ripen red to a few per plant

Eggplant: be generous with water and food

Among fruiting crops, eggplant is one of the thirstiest and hungriest. When the soil dries out, the fruit firms up and loses its shine, which is the easiest sign that it needs water. A common approach is to keep the main stem plus the two strongest side shoots just below the first flower, growing three stems in all, and to remove any shoots below that. Tie each stem to a stake so the weight of the fruit doesn't split them apart. The stalks are tough, so cut fruit with scissors rather than twisting it off, which can damage the stem. Left too long, fruit gets hard seeds and tires the plant, so pick at a good size.

Cucumbers: send the vines up

Cucumbers are vining plants, so left on the ground they sprawl and their fruit rots where it touches the soil. Put up netting or tall stakes for the tendrils to climb, and tie the stem by hand at first to set its direction. Removing side shoots and flowers from the lowest few nodes lets the plant grow first, and fruit then sets well higher up. Cucumbers grow incredibly fast and can get oversized in a day or two. Leaving old fruit on the vine slows new fruit, so pick young and often. Curved fruit or fruit that narrows at the tip can mean a shortage of water or nutrients, and a run of hot, dry days can make them more bitter.

Bell peppers: fruit worth waiting for

Bell peppers are close relatives of chilies and grow much the same way, but their fruit is larger and thicker-walled, so it takes longer. Green peppers are usually picked unripe, so you can eat them relatively soon, while fully colored peppers need quite a long wait after reaching full size before they change color. If a plant carries lots of fruit at once during that time it runs short of energy, so early on, reduce the number of fruits per plant and let each one develop fully. Fruit exposed to hours of strong summer sun can get pale, scalded patches, so don't strip away too many leaves.

Side-dressing and judging the harvest

Fruiting crops run so long that the fertilizer mixed in at planting rarely lasts to the end of summer. Once fruit starts forming, side-dress in small doses. Too much at once can burn roots and push leafy growth, so always follow the amount and interval on the label. In pots, apply it toward the rim rather than right against the stem, then water. When it comes to harvesting, early beats late, because picking on time lets the plant put its energy into the next flowers.

• Lots of flowers dropping: suspect heat, thirst or low light
• All leaves, no fruit: too much fertilizer or too little light
• Fruit ends turning black and soft: check for erratic watering
• Feed at the labeled rate and interval, toward the rim