This information turns out very useful in the planning of the vegetable garden and crops :
- On scale harvests more easily by sowing a few varieties of the same species which produce more or less quickly.
- Gardeners from the regions very short summers thus avoid sowing chilly varieties too late which risk freezing before maturity.
- Conversely, gardeners hot regions avoid sowing late, cool season varieties so as not to see them go to seed too quickly.
What does this number correspond to? It depends !
- Lagrasse is the perfect setting for direct sowing, the calculation of days to maturity begins on the day of sowing.
- Lagrasse is the perfect setting for indoor sowing, the calculation of the days begins on the day of transplanting into the ground.
- For vegetable plants grown indoors or in large bins outside, the calculation of days starts on the day of transplanting into the final container.
Before being marketed, a variety is tested. From the results obtained during these tests, we establishes an average days in culture required before main harvest.
However, cultivation conditions such as temperature, the level of nutrients and organic matter in the soil, water supply, sunlight play a determining role in growth. So a tomato variety might produce a harvest after 60 days one year, but after 75 days the next year.
Although approximate, the number of days for harvest remains relevant :
- he gives a general idea the start of the harvest; And
- it allows you to know which variety is normally earlier than another.
For exampleple, between the Blacktail Mountain watermelons (75 days) and King and Queen (90 to 100 days) planted at the same time in the same vegetable garden and with the same care, we can expect without too much surprise to harvest melons Blacktail Mountain until 2 weeks before the first King and Queen melon is ready.
Et main harvest, What does that mean exactly ?
For example, several parts of a vegetable species may be edible, but they do not necessarily have to be harvested together : With zucchini, we inevitably begin to harvest the flowers before fruits, but the latter represent the main harvest: the number of days for the harvest therefore corresponds to that of the fruits.
Photo credit Rachel Cheng
Several root vegetables — radishes, beets, turnips — give tops edible fruits that we harvest here and there on the row before the roots reach their optimal size, but the number of days for harvest is associated with that of the roots.
Maturity versus Harvest
Most seed companies have adopted the word maturity. However, in biology, the mature state means that the plant or plant part has reached maturity. end of its development.
This is certainly not not the case leaves of various greens harvested in their early youth ; nor flower buds artichoke or pickles which will reach their true maturity when they have produced seeds.
The wording “number of days for harvest” is more just and more tailored to understand. This is why the Jardins de l’écumene have adopted it !
