Picking outer leaves from leafy greens

These greens can provide repeated leaf harvests without taking the whole plant.

When we suggest this

• Your noteYou noted the stage: ready to harvest.
• Your noteWe offer this once per plant and calendar year, or again for a new planting date. Repeating a stage note does not repeat a completed reminder.
• Your noteThe stage was noted less than 30 days ago.
• Your notePlants that qualify in the same growing location share one task.

What would stop us suggesting it

• When you note a new stage, or the timing window ends.
• When no qualifying plants remain in that spot, or their recorded timing is too old.
• Done or Doesn't apply closes the reminder for the plants included. "Doesn't fit my setup" also suppresses this reminder for that spot this season.

What to do

1. From those plants in that spot, pick tender outer leaves as you need them.
2. Leave the central growing point and enough leaves for the plant to keep growing.

What we can't know

• Leaf tenderness and whether you want leaves or a whole-plant harvest.

The stage-note age limit and once-per-season reminder are product timing limits, not biological thresholds.

Where this advice applies

All US regions.

For the listed crops; combine plants in the same growing location.

Exceptions

• Heading crops, plants saved for seed, and plants not yet ready to harvest.

Reviewed

Sources checked Sept 2026 · awaiting expert review

Gardenplanner research (AI-assisted), pending extension-qualified review

Rule id and version: shared-care.leafy-harvest@1