Micro Tom Tomato Days to Maturity

Micro Tom are the smallest tomato variety ever bred.  I like Micro Tom tomatoes, while they are not hugely delicious or massively productive, they are tiny little plants that are very cute.  I have read on seed company websites many different days to maturity ranging from 50 days to 120 days and everything in between.

Micro Tom starting to ripen

I keep records of when I grow things, especially rare or difficult to find things.  To make it easier to find in the future I am recording some of them in this blog this year.

The following are the Micro Tom tomato days to maturity in my garden this year.  Being in Australia the  dates is written in the format of Day/Month/Year.

Seeds planted       02/10/2016       Day 0
Germinated           11/10/2016       Day 9
Flowered              22/12/2016       Day 81
Harvest start         07/01/2017       Day 97

The previous time I recorded Micro Tom tomato days to maturity it took 113 days from planting the seed until picking the first ripe fruit.  They were very old seeds so it is to be expected that the plants would be weaker and slower than normal.

My best guess is that 50 days is quoted by some seed companies is the amount of days to maturity from transplant, which is arbitrary and pointless unless you transplant at a standard set date.  I find it far more useful to know how long it takes to pick ripe fruit from planting the seed.

For a full list of vegetable days to maturity please click here.

Micro Tom Tomatoes

Micro Tom starting to flower

Purple haze carrot days to maturity

I bought and planted some Purple Haze carrot (Daucus carota subsp. sativus) seeds.  I didn't have great germination rates, probably only about 10% which was rather unimpressive but not really surprising as I bought the seeds from Bunnings.

Purple Haze carrots had dark purple skin and an orange interior.  They didn't really taste like a purple carrot, instead they tasted much like an orange carrot which was rather disappointing.

I am not terribly fond of carrots and don't think they are worth growing at home as the yield is small for the space and time that they take.

The following were the days to maturity for Purple Haze carrots.  Being in Australia, all dates are written in the format of Day/Month/Year.

Seeds planted       23/10/2016       Day 0
Germinated           03/11/2016       Day 11
Harvest start         04/03/2017       Day 132

For a full list of vegetable days to maturity please click here.

Regina Strawberry Days to Maturity

I grew several different alpine strawberries (Fragaria vesca) from seed this past summer.  I looked on ebay for seeds, but the vast majority of strawberry seeds on ebay do not exist.   Due to this I had to get seeds from more expensive, but more reliable places.

Being in Australia the dates are written in the format of Day/Month/Year.

Days to maturity Regina Strawberry (Fragaria vesca)

Planted                        08/10/2016                  Day 0
Germinated                 19/10/2016                   Day 11
Flowered                    13/02/2017                   Day 125
First fruit ripe              13/03.2017                   Day 153 (about 5 months)

For a full list of vegetable days to maturity please click here.

Strawberry seedlings

Jade Bean Days to Maturity

Jade Beans (Phaseolus vulgaris) were grown this year, they are a nice variety of heirloom bean that is both rather tasty and pretty.  I planted 3 Jade bean seeds that were 5 years old and was surprised that they all grew and cropped well. Even though I find it difficult to find green beans among green foliage it is still a good variety of bean.

The following were the days to maturity for Jade beans.  Being in Australia, all dates are written in the format of Day/Month/Year.

Seeds planted       03/12/2016       Day 0
Germinated           11/12/2016       Day 8
Flowered              14/01/2017       Day 42
Harvest start         05/02/2017       Day 64

For a full list of vegetable days to maturity please click here.

Snake Bean days to maturity

Snake beans (Vigna unguiculata subsp. sesquipedalis) are also called yard long beans or asparagus beans. 

I was always told that snake beans took too long to mature and may not crop in cooler regions.  I am glad to say that this is not quite the truth.  They are quite an impressive looking plant, which grows an impressively long bean, that tends to crop well even in short seasons.  So this year I recorded the dates. 

The following were the days to maturity for Snake beans.  This year I grew a mix of red and green snake beans (as well as crosses).  Being in Australia, all dates are written in the format of Day/Month/Year.

Seeds planted       03/12/2016       Day 0
Germinated           07/12/2016       Day 4
Flowered              ??/??/2016        Day??
Harvest start         03/02/2017       Day 62

For a full list of vegetable days to maturity please click here.

Snake Bean flowers

Snake Beans starting to ripen

Days to Maturity Pumpkin Kaempw Melon Rilon

This year I planted seeds of a pumpkin named Kaempw Melon Rilon.  I was told it was Cucurbita pepo but I am almost certain it is actually Cucurbita maxima.

Below are the days to maturity for this pumpkin in my garden this year.  I possibly could have harvested the pumpkins a lot earlier (perhaps Christmas time) or a bit later, I don't really know how to tell when pumpkins are ripe.  I don't usually pay them much attention and normally just wait for the plant to die back somewhat and then harvest.

This year I picked an arbitrary day to harvest when the pumpkins had each set a large pumpkin that was no longer growing or changing colour and started to set a second round of fruit.  The pumpkins weighed roughly 8 kg or 9 kg each.

Being in Australia the dates are written in the format of Day/Month/Year.

Kaempw Melon Rilon Pumpkin days to maturity (most likely Cucurbita maxima)

Planted                       16/10/2016                 Day 0
Germinated                 26/10/2016                 Day 10
Started flowering         01/12/2016                 Day 46
Harvest                       05/03/2017                 Day 180 (possibly Day 70 if picked at Christmas)

For a full list of vegetable days to maturity please click here.

Pumpkin - Kaempw Melon Rilon

Immali Corn Days to Maturity

This year I planted Immali corn (Zea mays).  I am very biased because I created this variety, but I think that this is a great variety of sweet corn.  Being high in anthocyanin and other antioxidants that are not usually present in sweet corn it is also very healthy.

A while ago someone complained because I did not tell them how many days until harvest.  To be more accurate, they complained because they looked up a random variety of sweet corn days to maturity on the internet and assumed that Immali corn would be exactly the same, but it wasn't, and somehow I am to blame.  I think I have mentioned in other posts how 'days to maturity' mean different things to different people and is often a pointless number.  For this reason I record all the important dates.

Unfortunately until this year I had never accurately recorded the days to maturity for Immali corn.  Now I have.  Please note that this is simply what happened in my garden this year.  The days to maturity would be longer or shorter if conditions were different.  It is indicative only and I plan to use it as a guide to when to plant seeds next year.

The following were the days to maturity for Immali corn.  Being in Australia, all dates are written in the format of Day/Month/Year.

Seeds planted       16/10/2016       Day 0
Germinated           24/10/2016       Day 8
Flowered              21/12/2016       Day 66
Harvest ready       30/01/2017       Day 106
Cobs dry ready to save seed 05/03/2017   Day  140

For a full list of vegetable days to maturity please click here.

Immali corn cobs

Muffet Bean Days To Maturity

We planted Muffet Bean (Phaseolus vulgaris) seeds, they are a delightful little variety of heirloom bean.

The internet references a large bean called 'Muffet bean' that was bred in the Goulburn region around 1827.  The brief descriptions I can find sound very different from my Muffet bean.  My Muffet bean is a short bean plant that gives reasonable yields of regular sized green bean pods.

The following were the days to maturity for Muffet beans.  Being in Australia, all dates are written in the format of Day/Month/Year.

Seeds planted       23/10/2016       Day 0
Germinated           31/10/2016       Day 8
Flowered              12/12/2016       Day 50
Harvest start         28/12/2016       Day 66

This year my Muffet beans and many other crops were almost entirely covered with Rutherglen bugs (Nysius vinitor), this has meant that the crops were much smaller and a bit later than normal.

For a full list of vegetable days to maturity please click here.

Cape Gooseberry Days to Maturity

Cape Gooseberry (Physalis peruviana) is also known as Incaberry, goldenberry and Pichuberry and a few other common names. 

I find germination to be a bit hit and miss, I planted seeds that didn't germinate, then a few weeks later I replanted seed from the same packet and they all germinated.  They grew very slowly at the start and felt like they would never flower.  Once they started to produce fruit it was very productive over a long period of time.

Cape Gooseberry (Physalis peruviana)
Planted             20/08/2016       Day 0  No germination, seeds rotted so I needed to re-plant.
Replanted         10/09/2016       Day 0 again
Germinated       26/09/2016       Day 16
Flowered          09/12/2016       Day 60
Harvest began  14/01/2017        Day 86

For a full list of vegetable days to maturity please click here.

Cape Gooseberry Fruit

Cape Gooseberry seedling

Cape gooseberry flowers and fruit

'Space Master' Cucumber days to maturity

We planted some green 'space master' cucumber seeds, they grew into a small shrub instead of a long vine.  The cucumbers tasted good, and the plants were reasonably productive over a long season, but I am sure I can find a better variety.

The following were the days to maturity for these cucumbers.  Being in Australia, all dates are written in the format of Day/Month/Year.

Seed Planted        16/10/2016       Day 0
Seed germinated   25/10/2016       Day 9
Flowers                06/12/2016       Day 51
First harvest          28/12/2016       Day 73

Obviously these dates could change significantly if grown differently.  They were simply what happened in my garden this season.  Even though, it gives a reasonable baseline for comparison against other plants grown in my garden this year.

For a full list of vegetable days to maturity please click here.

White Wonder Cucumber days to maturity

I planted some heirloom 'White Wonder' cucumber seeds.  They are an old heirloom variety of cucumber that is rather good looking.  The plants grow long vines and were very productive over a long period of time.  These cucumbers need to be picked young, if left to grow the skin becomes tough and woody and they become too bitter for my liking.

The following were the days to maturity for these cucumbers.  Being in Australia, all dates are written in the format of Day/Month/Year.

White Wonder Cucumber (Cucumis sativus)
Seed Planted        16/10/2016       Day 0
Seed germinated   26/10/2016       Day10
Flowers                06/12/2016       Day 51
First harvest          01/01/2017       Day 77

Obviously these dates could change significantly if grown differently.  They were simply what happened in my garden this year.  Even though, it gives a reasonable baseline for comparison against other plants, such as the green 'space master' cucumber, which were also grown in my garden this year.

For a full list of vegetable days to maturity please click here.

Chioggia Beetroot days to maturity

We planted some 'Chioggia' beetroot seeds, the following were the days to maturity for these beetroot.  Being in Australia, all dates are written in the format of Day/Month/Year.

Seed Planted        16/10/2016       Day 0
Seed germinated   24/10/2016       Day 8
First harvest          02/01/2017       Day 78

These dates are when we harvested the roots, I normally would have started harvesting the leaves long before this but didn't record these dates this year.

I could have harvested smaller beets earlier, or larger beets later, and these dates could change significantly if grown under different conditions.  They were simply what happened in my garden this year.  It gives a reasonable baseline for comparison against other plants grown in my garden this year.

For a full list of vegetable days to maturity please click here.

Parthenocarpic zucchini days to maturity

I am growing an heirloom Nordic variety of zucchini (Cucurbita pepo) which I know very little about.  Unfortunately the information I was given was written in Swedish or something and I was unable to translate it, based on its binomial name I guessed it was a zucchini, I knew its name, but that was about all.  Considering that spaghetti squash is also C pepo, as are several patty pan squash, and several other types of squash, I was far from certain that it was even a type of zucchini.  It made it kind of fun to grow, not really knowing what to expect.

Gron Busk 'Veribo'

 Zucchini: Gron Busk 'Veribo'

I am growing this heirloom Nordic zucchini.  I assume that "Gron Busk" means zucchini or summer squash or something along those lines and the variety name is "Veribo", but I really don't know.

It grows pretty fast, much like any other heirloom zucchini.  It grows green fruit which look similar to many other common varieties of zucchini.  It lacks any real taste and cooks well, much like any other zucchini.  It is highly productive (being an heirloom probably yields slightly less than most hybrid varieties but one plant still yields plenty of fruit over the season), which is much like any heirloom zucchini.  So far in my garden it is yet to experience any disease or pest other than Rutherglen bugs (Nysius vinitor), so I am not sure if it is resistant to anything.

One thing I love about this variety is that it produced female flowers first.  All of my Gron Busk 'Veribo' plants produced female flowers first this year.  This is very rare, normally zucchini produce male flowers for a while, and then eventually get around to producing female flowers, which means that it often takes longer to produce a crop.

Producing female flowers where there are no male flowers often means that the fruit will not grow and the flower will simply abort.  Yes, you can the eat zucchini flowers, but I don't want to, I want larger fruit.

Zucchini days to maturity

Parthenocarpic zucchini

This variety appears to have another trait which I love, it is parthenocarpic!  That means it will flower and if the female flower is not pollinated it does not abort and drop.  Instead it will naturally grow into a seedless fruit.  This increases the yield and makes the first crop much faster.  It also means that if you only grow one plant and it happens not to have male and female flowers at the same time then you will still get a crop.  This is very handy for home growers with limited space, this trait should not be as rare as it is.  Someone should breed this trait into more varieties of squash.

I am not completely certain that this variety is entirely parthenocarpic, or if it only displays this under certain conditions.  Some plants are only parthenocarpic under certain conditions, I grow some tomatoes that are only parthenocarpic when stressed, and if not stressed still require pollination to form fruit.  I have bagged a few female zucchini flowers before they opened, and each of them grew into a large zucchini, so I am assuming that it is pretty happy to grow parthenocarpic fruit.

Being an heirloom Nordic variety means it has likely been grown by families under harsh conditions and short seasons for generations.  Perhaps it copes with the cold better, perhaps it crops faster, I don't know, but I have recorded my results below.


Zucchini (Cucurbita pepo) Gron Busk 'Veribo' Days to Maturity

Planted 16/10/2016                  day 0
Germinated 25/10/2016            day 9
Flowering 29/11/2016               day 43
First small fruit 03/12/2016        day 47
Large fruit ready 07/12/2016     day 51


What do Days to Maturity mean

Quite often I see seeds sold with 'days to maturity' or something similar on the packet.  Unfortunately that means absolutely nothing.  Depending on the company it may mean how many days from transplant until the first flower opens (male or female).  Others use days from transplant until the first flower bud is seen on the plant several weeks prior to it opening.  Others use days from transplant until the first harvest.  Others use days from transplant until the fruit is mature (we eat immature fruit from zucchini).  As you can see, days to maturity is poorly defined and rarely are you told what definition they are using, so it is meaningless.  Cucurbits tend to perform better if not transplanted, so days to maturity which is based on transplant date is all the more meaningless for home growers.

I planted the seeds directly in the garden and counted from there with the planting day being day zero.  In different climates or under different growing conditions this will vary, but it is the results of several plants in my garden this year.  Even so, 51 days from planting the seed until eating a large zucchini is pretty good.

For a full list of vegetable days to harvest please click here.


Where to buy parthenocarpic zucchini seeds in Australia

I have bagged a few zucchini flowers and hand pollinated to obtain pure seed of this variety.   If I have enough I plan to sell them through my for sale page.  Any number of things could go wrong before the seeds are ready, including the flower not being pollinating so the fruit is seedless, so I can not take orders before the seed is ready, but I should have them for sale sooner or later.

Snow Pea Days to maturity

My kids planted some "Oregon Dwarf" green podded snow peas this year.    The packet claimed that they would be ready to harvest in 14 weeks, my experience was not even close to this time frame.

Each of my children has their own little vegetable garden in which they can plant anything they want within reason.  They each chose a few vegetables to plant and were also allowed to grow a few flowers if they wished.  We grow everything from seeds, I don't see the point of buying seedlings. 

My kids all love snow peas, so this year I bought a packet of 'Oregon dwarf' snow peas and my kids planted some each. Normally we would have planted seeds that I have saved but this year after moving the seeds were still packed in a box somewhere so we bought some seeds.

These snow peas were green podded, white flowered, and reasonably productive over a short period.  They possibly could have been more productive over a longer period but were probably planted a bit late, but we could not plant them any earlier due to the kid's gardens not being ready to plant prior to this date.

The following were the days to maturity for snow peas my children planted in 2016.  Being in Australia all of the dates are written as Day/Month/Year

Oregon Dwarf Snow Pea Days to Maturity

Planted               25/10/2016       Day 0
Germinated                                  Day ?
Flowering                                     Day ?
Harvest began     06/12/2016       Day 42

As these were in the children's vegetable gardens I did not keep as many stats as I normally would.  The date planted may have possibly been the date germinated, I am not entirely certain.  Regardless, this is pretty fast, this is actually a lot faster than I would have expected.  It was only 6 weeks as opposed to the 14 weeks as claimed on the packet. Perhaps the days to harvest were less as I planted them in warmer weather than normal.

For a full list of vegetable days to maturity please click here.

Lacy Lady Pea Days to Maturity

Lacy Lady pea (Pisum sativum) - semi leafless pea.

I wrote a blog post about this semi leafless pea in October 2013.  The following are the days to maturity that I got from Lacy Lady peas in my garden this year.  Being in Australia the dates are written Day/Month/Year.

Seeds Planted   29/10/2016       Day 0
Germinated       03/11/2016       Day 5
Flowered          12/12/2016       Day  44
Start Harvest     28/12/2016       Day 60

Lacy Lady Pea leaf

Clearly the days to maturity could be changed by warmer or colder weather, better or worse soil, more or less sunlight or a bunch of other factors.  These were simply the days to maturity in my garden this year.

For a full list of vegetable days to maturity please click here.

Freckles lettuce days to maturity

The "days to maturity" which is often quoted on packets of seed is usually little more than an arbitrary number.  I have seen Freckles lettuce listed anywhere from 50 to 90 days, which is rather unhelpful.  I used to find it very difficult to plan when to plant things, so I keep records myself.

Below are the dates of when I planted seed of freckles lettuce this year, when the seed germinated, and when we began harvest.  If I keep any of these plants to go to seed I may try to remember to include date of flowering and when the seed is ripe, but who knows what the future brings.

Being in Australia the dates are written in the format of Day/Month/Year.

Freckles Lettuce (Lactuca sativa)

Planted                       23/10/2016                  day 0
Germinated                 28/10/2016                  day 5
Started harvesting        03/12/2016                 day 41
Seeds ready                17/02/2017                 

I probably could have started harvesting smaller leaves a few weeks earlier or larger leaves a few weeks later if I wanted.  Had I planted the lettuce seeds in different weather, or in different soil, or with more or less sunlight, or closer to nodulating legumes, or a bunch of other things, these days to maturity would be slightly different, but this is an indication of how Freckles lettuce actually performed for me this year.

For some reason all of the lettuce in my garden went bitter pretty quickly this year.  I am growing 4 different varieties this year, all of which were planted on the same day, and none of them performed very well.  I think it may be due to heat or abrupt change in weather.  I planted them later than I would have liked.  Freckles is the only one which is not currently flowering, some individual plants are not bitter but most are. 

For a full list of vegetable days to maturity please click here.

Freckles Lettuce