The ‘days to maturity’ number tells you how many days until a plant will be mature enough to begin producing vegetables, fruits or flowers.
For seeds that are best started in containers for later transplanting (e.g. tomatoes and peppers), the number of days to maturity starts after the seedlings are transplanted into the garden. For example, we list Juliet tomato as taking 60 days to mature. This means that, on average, a Juliet tomato plant will produce its first ripe tomato about 60 days after the seedling is transplanted into the garden.
For seeds that are best sown directly into the garden (e.g. sunflowers and radishes), the number of days to maturity starts after the seeds have germinated. For example, we list D’Avignon radish as taking 21 days to mature. This means that, on average, a D’Avignon radish will be ready to harvest about 21 days after germination.
The actual number of days to maturity can vary significantly from garden to garden and season to season. Plants will mature at different rates depending on temperature, day length and the availability of moisture, sunlight and nutrients. Depending on the conditions in your garden, the actual days to maturity might vary by days or even weeks from what is listed.
The listed number of days to maturity can be helpful even though actual numbers can vary significantly. If, for example, Juliet tomato usually matures in your garden 70 days after transplanting instead of the listed 60 days, you can take this knowledge and apply it to other varieties that you may be wanting to grow for the first time. This difference means that Juliet tomato usually takes about 16% longer to mature in your garden. If you are interested in trying a new variety of tomato such as Pink Charmer which we list as maturing in 47 days, you can simply add 16% more time to get an idea of how long it might take to mature in your garden. Based on your experience having Juliet mature in 70 days, Pink Charmer is likely to mature for you in 55 days instead of the listed 47 days.
If you are starting a garden for the first time and have no average days to maturity from your own garden to use for comparison, the listed number of days to maturity can still be helpful. The listed number of days to maturity give us an idea of how long each variety will take to mature relative to the other varieties. This information can help us choose varieties appropriate for the length of our growing season and help us plant gardens that produces a bounty of food and flowers all season long.
We also use the knowledge we have about the average days of maturity for plants in our gardens to help us predict if a harvest will come late or early due to abnormal weather. Some years we get a lot more coastal fog that may last until the early afternoon throughout much of the growing season and other years we wake up to sun most days and rarely see any significant coastal fog. In cooler growing seasons with more fog, we know that most crops will mature slower than the listed average number of days to maturity.
With greater knowledge, we can better predict when we’ll be able eat the first cherry tomato of the season and see the first sunflower smiling at us from the garden.
Happy Gardening!
Ben
