How to harvest salad greens

Harvest techniques

You’ve watched your salad greens grow, now you’re ready to harvest!

There are two options for harvesting: 

1. Harvest single leaves
2. Harvest entire plant

Which technique do I use?

Which harvesting technique you choose is up to you! If you want small continuous harvests, we recommend gradually harvesting single leaves. If you want one large harvest, we recommend harvesting the entire plant in the pod using the cut-and-come-again harvesting technique. You may also start by harvesting single leaves and later switching to harvesting the entire plant at the end of the growth period (Note: your pod pack will have the exact harvest range). We recommend not harvesting more than three times, as the plant’s flavour will increasingly become more bitter.

When should I harvest?

The optimal time to harvest is when your greens are within Cycle Days 20 and 30 or when the plant is between 10 & 14 cm in height. For a larger harvest, we recommend harvesting the entire pod.

How to harvest?

When harvesting single leaves

After approximately three or four weeks, you may start to trim off the largest, outermost leaves. Take your harvesting tool (e.g. scissors, shears, small knife) and at the base of the plant cut the largest, outermost leaves. Continue harvesting towards the crown of the plant until there are at least 3 or 4 baby/small leaves left behind that are 3cm or less in height. We want to leave new growth for your next harvest!

When harvesting the entire plant

Starting from approximately 4 weeks of growth until 2 months, you may cut an entire pod for regrowth. In order to do this, we will be explaining the: cut-and-come-again harvesting technique. The purpose is to preserve the growing tip of the plant - or the crown for regrowth. With one hand, gently wrap your hand around all of the leaves. With the other hand, use the knife to horizontally harvest approximately 2cm from the bottom of the plant - preserving the plant’s crown or baby/small leaves.

Note: It is best to use a sharp knife!

Things to keep in mind:

• We recommend not harvesting more than three times, as the plant’s flavour will increasingly become more bitter.
• Also, harvest before the plant begins to bolt or want to produce flowers. If the plant grows tall and flowers appear, harvest for a tasty and colourful addition to your salad... then use the “cut-and-come-again” harvesting technique. 

Happy harvesting!