Growing days.

[DogDiesel]

Growing days.

Is growing days the days from when you plant. Or from when they pop out.

Diesel.

[Jim Elbrecht]

In theory-- from when they are planted. In real life-- growing days is a wild-assed-guess.

I always planted 3 types of corn. Early-middle-late. I couldn't always depend on them coming in in that order. My Early Girl tomatoes are often beaten by other, supposedly longer-growing varieties.

Radishes are about the only thing that I've seen come close to their prediction.

Jim

[The Cook]

Usually it is from the time you plant outside. If you normally plant seeds it is from that time. If you start plants inside (or buy plants) it is from the time they are set out.

But it all depends on the weather and maybe the soil conditions. And some plants will only produce fruit when the temperatures are within a certain range. For tomatoes the temperatures must be between 55° and

95°F for them to set fruit. Last year my husband decided to buy a larger tomato plant. He set it out. The ones I started late from seed in the greenhouse and were significantly smaller when set out produced at just about the same time. Both were Better Boy.

So don't count on having a particular veggie on a particular day.

[DogDiesel]

Thats a particular problem for me. Because it seems I leave my veggies in too long . I was hoping to use the growing days guideline and pull them to the day.

[The Cook]

I assume that the days to maturity printed on the package is the same for the whole country. And it just an average. See if you can get some information from you county extension office. The information will be geared to your area. Go here to locate yours.

One of the regional seed companies put out a guide for the area served. It gives the times for the middle area with changes for the warmer & colder areas. Planting times are 2 to 3 weeks earlier or later for the different areas.

If you are talking about root crops, I start looking sometime before the date. For beets I sorta scrape some of the dirt away from the beet to get an idea how big it is. And they don't all reach the same size at the same time. I end up harvesting the beets over a week or two. I will do the same for turnips since this is the first year I have planted them. I don't know what the time to maturity is. I am in the garden every day checking the plants and deciding if I can harvest now. If anything I probably err on the side of too early rather than too late. I get impatient waiting for things to ripen.

[David Hare-Scott]

Nah. you have to learn when each kind is ready - no short cuts.

D

[Suzanne]

And I have always gotten radishes at least three weeks later than they are "supposed" to come, so even THAT can't always be trusted!

--S.