Nothing To Lose

It’s easy to plant acorn squash. But it isn’t as easy to know when it’s ripe and ready to be harvested. This is one of the hardest problems that people planting acorn squash have.

To know when the squash is ripe and ready. If you are making a mistake in harvesting the acorn squash when it isn’t ripe yet, you might lose your whole crop. 

This is why you need to make sure that you know when your acorn squash is ripe and ready to be picked. A mistake that many are making and regretting. 

The Importance of Knowing When an Acorn Squash is Ripe

Why is it important to know when an acorn squash is ripe? Especially if you aren’t going to use it immediately. 

The problem is that if an acorn squash isn’t ripe when you are picking or harvesting it, it will never get ripe. This is one of the vegetables that won’t ripen after it has been removed from the plant. Something that not many people realize until it is too late.

It is really important to know when this type of squash is ripe before you pick it from the plant. Otherwise, you will never be able to enjoy eating it.

This is also why you need to make sure that you know how a ripe acorn squash looks like when you are buying it instore. The last thing that you want is to buy a squash that you can’t use. 

The Color of the Acorn Squash When It is Ripe

You might know what the color of the acorn squash looks like when it isn’t ripe. It is a shiny, deep green color. The squash will be small as well when it is still not ripe.

As the acorn squash ripens, it will get bigger, lose it shine, and the green is getting lighter. There will also be orange patches on ripe acorn squash. 

But one thing that you need to know is that this isn’t the only thing that you need to look at when you are looking for ripe acorn squash. There are some other things that you need to consider as well. 

Doing the Skin Test to Ensure That the Acorn Squash is Ripe

Besides the color of the acorn squash, doing the skin test is just as important. Making sure that the squash is really ripe and ready to be picked. As the squash is getting ripe, you will notice that the skin is getting harder. 

This is why you should do the skin test. This is where you are trying to break the skin with your fingernail. If you can’t, then you will know that the acorn squash is ready to be picked.

When your fingernail is making a mark on the skin, it isn’t ready yet. 

The Stem on the Acorn Squash

If you are still worrying that your acorn squash isn’t ripe, there is one other thing that you can do. You can look at the stem on the acorn squash. When the stem on the acorn is still green and fresh-looking, the squash isn’t ripe yet.

A ripe squash has a dry, brownish stem. This is because there is no need for the squash to get nutrients from the plant anymore.

If you are looking at the acorn squash, and it has the right color, the skin is really hard and the stem is dry and brown, you can know for sure that your squash is ripe. 

Storing Your Acorn Squash When You Harvested It

People are making the mistake to think that a ripe acorn squash can’t be stored for a long time. That you need to use the squash as fast as possible after you have picked it. However, this isn’t the case.

If you are storing it correctly, you can store the acorn squash for a couple of months. It is best to store our acorn squash in a dry, cool place for storage.

The warmer the storage, the easier and faster the squash will go off and not be editable anymore.

Again, remember that if you think that picking it before it ripens will let it last longer, you are mistaken. It will not ripen any more after you have picked or harvested it.

Conclusion

There are a couple of things that you need to look at when you want to make sure that your acorn squash is ripe and ready to be picked. You need to look at the color of the acorn squash. Look for orange patches is essential.

You should also look at the stem on the squash, and make sure that the skin is hard and tough. This will ensure that your acorn squash is ripe and ready to be picked.

When you are looking at these, you will not make a mistake in picking an acorn squash that isn’t ripe yet.

Many people love growing carrots. It’s because carrots are growing easily. Anyone can grow carrots; you don’t need to know all the secrets about growing vegetables before your carrot growing will be successful.

The only thing that you need to know is when your carrots are ready to harvest. This is the only part of carrot growing that can be confusing because you can’t see how large the carrots are.

With this guide, you will get to know everything about planting and growing carrots, which include harvesting carrots.

Growing and Harvesting Carrots Aren’t Hard at All

The great thing about growing carrots is that this is one of the vegetables that is growing easily without any problems. There is no secret that you need to know for you to grow carrots successfully. You just need to have healthy soil, quality seeds, and enough water. 

The only thing that people are wondering about, is when they can harvest their carrots. This is so that they don’t wait too long, but don’t harvest carrots that are too small as well.

Before You Can Harvest, You Need to Know How to Grow Carrots Correctly?

Before you can harvest, you need to know how to grow carrots correctly. Even if there isn’t any essential information to know, there are a couple of things that are essential to have a successful crop.

The most important thing to have good looking, and growing carrots, is the soil that you are planting the seeds in.

The soil needs to be loamy and you need to make sure that you are planting it at the right distance from each other.

Giving it enough water is also essential. These are the only things that you need to know in order to grow carrots successfully.

The Main Thing to Look for Before Harvesting Carrots

How do you know that the carrot is right to be a harvest? You look at the size of the root, or carrot. And, this doesn’t mean that you need to pull out a carrot to see what the actual size is.

The only thing that you need to know is what the diameter of the root at the top of the soil is. 

The larger the diameter, the larger the carrot will be. If you want baby carrots, you should not let the diameter of the top getting too large.

When you can’t see the top of the carrots, you can just take a small amount of soil away from the plant, to expose the carrot. Don’t expose too much of the carrot, or it might die when you don’t want to pull it out.

Harvesting Your Carrots Correctly

Now that you know that your carrots are ready for harvesting, there are a couple of things that you need to do in order to harvest your carrots correctly.

Otherwise, you might end up losing your carrots in the ground and just breaking the stems off. This can be devastating for many people.

The first thing that you need to do when you want to harvest your carrots, is to wet your soil. Damp soil is a lot easier to work with than dry soil. You will have less change in breaking the carrots of when your soil is wet.

You should also try not to pull the carrots out. Use a hand cultivator, shovel, or hori hori knife to get the carrots out of the ground. The best and easiest way to get the carrots without losing anyone.

When your carrots are out, it is time to wash your carrots. Most people believe that you should not wash your carrots if you aren’t going to use them immediately.

It can prolong the life of the carrots. The same goes for the stems and plants. By leaving it on, you will have fresh carrots for longer. 

Harvesting Baby Carrots

If you want to harvest baby carrots, you need to make sure that you don’t leave it in the ground for too long.

You should check the diameter of the top carrot, on a regular basis. To make sure that you don’t leave it in the ground for too long.

It is important that baby carrots are still small when you are harvesting it. 

Conclusion

Harvesting carrots correctly isn’t as hard as what you might think. You just need to know how to check the size of the carrots without pulling them out of the ground.

And, how to harvest it without leaving some carrots in the ground. This is what this guide is all about. To make sure that you know exactly how to harvest your carrots.

Especially when this is the first time that you have planted carrots. It will ensure that you have a successful crop that you and your family will enjoy.

There are certain gardening practices that are worth doing while others can be a mere waste of time. 

For instance, lawn rolling is one of these practices that some people believe to be a waste of time while others think it is the right thing to do.

Some people believe that it is important to roll lawn during springtime. As such, this article critically looks at the question of when to roll your lawn.

Arguments Against Rolling Lawn

Rolling your lawn can compact the ground while 50 % of healthy earth should be empty spaces. These spaces are filled with air and they allow water to seep through during the time you water your lawn or when it rains. When grass grows, its roots fill these spaces and they do not grow into the soil.

Therefore, when you compact the lawn, then it means that the roots will have nowhere to grow. The result is poor healthy lawn and it will struggle to grow particularly in spring when it should experience a booming phase in terms of growth.

The water will simply wash on top of the grass after compacting your lawn. This will also mean that the flowing water will wash away vital nutrients resulting in poor quality grass.

However, rolling out your lawn is not completely bad since there are certain instances when it is required.

You can only do this practice when it is really necessary but there are also certain steps that you should take. The following factors are essential to take when you decide to roll your lawn.

When to Roll Your Lawn?

You can roll your lawn after seeding since this helps the seed to get into close contact with the earth. When you spread the seed on the bare lawn, you need to compact it to enhance germination.

The practice is optional since the germination goal can be achieved through raking. Compacting can be beneficial where the lawn is patchy.

The other scenario when rolling your lawn is recommended is when you lay new sods of grass. This practice will enhance deeper growth of roots when they are compacted such that they can reach greater depths. The new sods of grass should not be left exposed since they may dry up.

Winter season can also bring about changes to the texture of the soil. For instance, winter that is characterized by longer mild periods and cold snaps can lead to soil heaving. Therefore, rolling the lawn is one good way of correcting the problem.

When you compact the law, it is a greater way of filling the void created in the earth during the period when conditions are not stable.

The other period when you can consider rolling your lawn is after notable mole activity. Moles can spend some time burrowing into your lawn and the practice of rolling it can help to level the bumps created during the period.

The technique of rolling your lawn is effective since it helps the earth to fill unnecessarily large gaps created as a result of mole activity.

Apart from these periods, the practice of rolling your lawn may not be necessary since it can only lead to issues with your soil. You should make sure that you role your lawn when there is a real need to do that.  

However, there are also certain things that you should consider when rolling your lawn.

Factors to Consider When Rolling Your Lawn

When you decide to roll your lawn, make sure that you do it when the ground is not soaked but just damp. If the ground is soaked, then the practice will encourage soil compaction which is not good for the growth of the grass. The grass needs air to grow so if you compact the soil, circulation of air is suppressed.

The other thing to consider is that you should not use a heavy-duty roller on your lawn. A heavy roller may impact negatively on your lawn since it can compact the soil.

When the soil id heavily compacted, it can affect the growth of the grass since water may not easily penetrate the soil but just runs on top.

The best period for rolling your lawn is spring when the grass is actively growing. The grass will be coming out of dormancy and it will be entering an active growth stage such that it can recover from the stress of rolling.

You should also avoid rolling your lawn in winter when the ground may be frozen. Summer is also not a good season to roll your law since the ground is baked.

The other important aspect to consider is that you should not roll your lawn annually. You may end up damaging the law as a result of compaction of the soil. You should only roll the lawn when it is really necessary.

You must also avoid rolling your lawn on heavy clay soil. It compacts quickly than other types of soil.