Gardening is mentally soothing, therapeutic, and environmentally beneficial. However, some of us have busy lives, and we don’t have enough time to invest in gardening, leading to our plants dying. So, how can we have beautiful outdoor gardens or indoor plants without having to take care of them? With ‘Eva’!...
In a great ask I got from an anon, they wanted to know how long it took for common crops to grow. You can see that ask here, and also see the answers to the rest of their question.
Crops all have different growing lengths and “zones” that they can grow in. Many of today’s crops have a wide range of zones that they can grow in. Lettuce, for example, can be grown in my backyard in Connecticut or on a big huge field in Arizona. Strawberries can be grown hydroponically in Florida, in the ground in California and Mexico, and also in Massachusetts. Corn is grown in the Midwest on a grand scale, but it can also be grown on small two and three acre plots just about anywhere else that isn’t astronomically hot. You get the idea. Just in the US alone, there are a bunch of climate zones, and those climate zones have a huge impact on how you grow, what you grow, and how long it takes to grow a thing.
That map there is a modified version of the USDA Climate Zone Map (which on the USDA’s website hasn’t been updated since 2012 and is obnoxiously low quality.) This one, which is fully interactive, came from Gilmour.com and was updated from a bunch of sources, including the USDA, for the 2019 growing season.
Each zone is broken down by two key factors: the average minimum temperature extreme from 1976 to 2005. This means that different areas within the same states can have different climate zones. Yes, even in small states like the six New England states. This is affected by ocean temperatures, mountainous regions, height at sea level, and a bunch of other factors. If you want a nice, detailed key that breaks down all the different temperature zones into an easy-to-understand format, I’ve got one for you here:
That particular key came from the interactive map on the USDA’s website. So, we can see that even in my teeny tiny state of Connecticut, we have four different plant hardiness zones here: 7a down on the CT Shoreline, 6b in the southern third of the state and up most of the Connecticut River Valley, 6a in most of the central and northern part of the state, and 5b in the northwestern corner of the state.
So, climate map lesson aside, onto the heart of the matter: How long does it take to grow some common crops that we see all the time? Here’s a shortlist, with days from seed to harvest taken from Johnny’s Selected Seeds, Baker Creek Heirlooms, and Osborne Seeds (because those are the seed catalogs that I have on hand) all averaged together. Keep in mind that, because these are averages, different varieties of crops will have different growth days, and that this little compilation doesn’t take zones into consideration. Some things take longer to grow than others where I am, but will grow quickly even a few hours south of me.
(Slapped under a cut because it’s long!)
All these crops are assumed to be started in seed trays and transplanted into the field unless otherwise noted
Beans, Bush: 52 Days, seeded directly into the soil after the danger of frost is gone
Beans, Pole: 55 days, seeded directly into the ground after the danger of frost is gone
Beets: 20 days (for beet greens) 40 days (whole beets)
Broccoli: 55 days (summer bearing) 67 days (fall bearing)
Cabbage: 71 Days
Carrots: 55 days (early) 70 days (main season)
Corn, Sweet: 75 Days
Cucumbers: 55 Days (slicing/European cucumbers) 52 Days (pickles)
Eggplant: 50 Days
Kale: 28 days (baby) 55 days (full size)
Lettuce: 52 Days (full head)
Onions: 100 Days (if sown in spring)
Peas, Snap: 50 days, direct seeded after the danger of frost is gone
Peas, Shelling: 55 days, direct seeded after the danger of frost is gone
Peas, Snow: 60 days, direct seeded after the danger of frost is gone
Peppers, Bell: 65 days green, 85 days red/orange/yellow/purple ripe
Peppers, Hot: 60 days green, 80 days red/yellow ripe
Potatoes: Harvested after the plant tops die back, but before the first frost. These really vary by variety!!
Squash, Summer: 50 days
Squash, Winter: 90-100 days depending on type
Sweet Potatoes: 95 Days
Tomatoes: 71 Days
Tomatoes, Cherry: 59 Days
This is by no means a comprehensive list! I left out a lot of crops that, in my opinion, either aren’t “common” enough to be labeled as such, or that are very definitely specialty crops! And these averages are the days from seed to harvest listed in Johnny’s, Baker Creek’s, and Osborne’s 2020 seed catalogs. As always, I more than welcome questions about specific crops if you’ve got more questions!
Hello! I was wondering if you might be able to do a ‘your farm AU is wrong’ post about what kinds of crops grow where?
Hi! Thanks for the ask!
When I get back to writing about farming (which I will, I swear, now that the main season is over,) I can certainly try to do an entry about what crops grow in what areas.
I don’t have a lot of hands-on experience with agriculture outside of the US, so if you’re looking for info like that I’m afraid that I won’t be much help. I’ll only be able to rehash the things that I’ve learned in lectures and via agricultural journals.
I was eventually going to try to get around to making posts about certain crop/plant families, as well, as a form of “bonus content” that I could share around, which would also have some details about where these things grow.
Hope that helps! And if there’s a specific crop you want to know about you can always, always send me an ask!
I’m no scientist. I’m no Master Gardener. I’m just a girl who wants a nice garden and good vegetables. It’s been a bit of a haul from clay-based dirt to the rich, healthy soil that my plants now enjoy.
I live in a region where the ground is hard clay. Grass and weeds do fine, but flowers and vegetables have a rather rough time of it, due largely to the fact that the ground drinks up or runs off every drop of water that God or I put on it. Of course, one must learn this (as all things) the hard way.
My first year with my garden involved removing the grass from a section of yard, putting in some pre-started plants, and hoping for the best. The best is not what I got. In fact, I was lucky to harvest anything that first year. The tomatoes were small, the onions never did come “up”, the carrots were a joke that no one was laughing about.
Year 2…I had read an article in Mother Earth News that detailed how to grow a garden in poor soil. I felt that they’d written it for me! It described buying 25 twenty pound bags of topsoil, and laying them right next to each other on the ground of the garden area with a couple of walk ways between some rows. Then, one cuts a rectangular opening in the tops of the bags large enough to expose most of the dirt, but leaving the edges intact to hold the soil in the bag. One pokes many holes through the soil and bottom of the bag to allow for drainage and root growth. Then, just plant “non-root-type” vegetables, and they should grow nicely due to the quality of the potting or top soil in the bag. At the end of the season, just dump it all onto the garden area and till it under in spring. Hmmm….
O.k., so that was year 2, I learned that the above, while a great deterrent to weeds -due to the plastic covering most of the area- was also EXTREMELY needy when it came to water, and carrots, potatoes, and beets were out of the question due to the lack of depth of the “good ground”, but most things did well. My tomatoes were not huge, but did grow. My peppers, onions, and herbs did well. I learned how to water that year, and bought 150′ of hose and a sprinkler and ran it every 3 days.
So, year 3…. Over the winter, after the “soil bag year”, living on a horse farm, I decided that a great addition to the garden would be fresh horse manure. I’d seen commercial farmers doing the same on a grand scale with cow, horse, pig, chicken excrements, and it sounded like a great way to get nutrients into my clay ground. Also, if I put in the moldy hay flakes, that’d add drainage. $100 worth of topsoil delivered, and 500 Super Georgia Redworms, and I should have an incredible base for my beloved tomato plants. I asked the neighbor’s dad, a retired farmer (such as that’s possible) to come over with his big tractor and tiller, and till it under in May.
When he was done, I took my precious little seeds and my precious little plants, and put them in my new, improved garden. I put T-posts in the corners and surrounded it with chicken wire to keep the chickens out.
And everything GREW!!Including, but certainly not limited to, the weeds. My major mistake that year, which has haunted me since, was the moldy hay. A perennial grass, it has refused to die or remain down regardless of hours and days spent pulling or spraying it. It’s been 5 years since I did that, and I’m still pulling weeds. Mostly “hay type” grasses. Yeah.
Now-a-days I use a biodegradable top cover, and cut holes in the places that I want my plants. The learning curve on this one was to make the holes big enough to allow lots of rain or well water in. Too small of a hole, and the soil (which is no longer clay after 5 years of manure additions) dries out too fast. Pulling a few weeds around the bases of the plants can be done in a few hours per week, instead of the uncountable numbers of hours without the soil covering.I had been using plastic, but when the biodegradable stuff was brought to my attention, it sounded like a more environmentally healthy idea.
The Super Georgia Redworms from 7 years ago, have procreated to the extent that I now find worm casings over the 4 acres surrounding the garden. They eat bad stuff and poop out good stuff. An inexpensive way to aerate and feed the ground.
These are the few things that I’ve learned over the years, and so I thought I’d pass them on so that now you know, too. I have such an abundance of produce that I donate it, can it, and give it away every summer. Ah yes, pass on the blessings….it feels great!
Miss Holly, how does your garden grow?
Quite well, thank you.
Gardening from the Ground Up I'm no scientist. I'm no Master Gardener. I'm just a girl who wants a nice garden and good vegetables.
