Tomatoville® Gardening Forums - View Single Post

PureHarvest · June 18, 2019

I can say that we harvested one month after snapping scapes off.
I would also say that your plants should probably have 5 leaves still intact on the top of the plant. The tips can be yellow or yellow starting to stream down, but still a whole leaf. Everything below the fifth leaf down would need to be solid yellow or brown.
Even then, you could be left with 2-3 intact leaves on top and still be ok.
We trim the tops to make harvest easier and to be able to fit the whole harvest in a much smaller area for drying.
I’m sure there are experts that would say that leaving leaves on lets them dry down naturally and slower so the storage is better etc.
It works for us and we sell everything and plant the rest before fall is even over.

June 18, 2019	#42
PureHarvest Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Mar 2014 Location: Mid-Atlantic right on the line of Zone 7a and 7b Posts: 1,369	I can say that we harvested one month after snapping scapes off. I would also say that your plants should probably have 5 leaves still intact on the top of the plant. The tips can be yellow or yellow starting to stream down, but still a whole leaf. Everything below the fifth leaf down would need to be solid yellow or brown. Even then, you could be left with 2-3 intact leaves on top and still be ok. We trim the tops to make harvest easier and to be able to fit the whole harvest in a much smaller area for drying. I’m sure there are experts that would say that leaving leaves on lets them dry down naturally and slower so the storage is better etc. It works for us and we sell everything and plant the rest before fall is even over.