Last Updated on September 17, 2026

Vegetable Days to Maturity Chart (57 Crops) and Harvest Date Calculator

A vegetable days to maturity chart lists how many days each crop needs from planting to its first harvest, from radish at 25 days up to strawberry at 365, whose first real crop comes the second year. Days to maturity itself is counted from sowing a crop in the garden, or from setting out a transplant, to that first harvest, in the Plan My Garden planner’s estimates: lettuce 45 days, zucchini 55, bush beans 60, tomatoes 80, onions 100, and garlic 240, counted from a fall planting. The chart below lists all 57 crops the planner carries, and the calculator turns a planting date into a harvest date, or counts back from the day you want to be picking.

Harvest date calculator

Worked example: warm-season crops planted the same day

June 1 is used here only to show the math, not as a planting date for your garden. Your own dates come from your frost dates, which Plan My Garden looks up by ZIP code.

Counting back works the same way. With a harvest-by date of October 1, again only an example, and the 14-day fall allowance, spinach at 40 days has to be sown by August 8, and kale at 55 days has to go in by July 24.

Days to maturity chart: all 57 crops

These are the planner’s estimates, one number per crop. Planted as is how the planner lists the crop: sown directly in the garden, set out as a transplant, or either. Direct also covers garlic cloves, seed potatoes and strawberry plants set straight into the bed. Frost class is the planner’s frost tolerance for the crop. The last column is the range University of Georgia Extension gives in its Vegetable Planting Chart, which counts from planting seed or setting transplants in the garden, for the 30 crops the two charts share.

Sort the chart: Fastest first Slowest first A to Z

Only two of the planner’s numbers fall outside the Georgia ranges: eggplant, at 70 days against 75 to 90, and lettuce, at 45 days against 60 to 85 for the heading types Georgia lists, butterhead and romaine. Every other shared crop lands inside the range, often at the fast or slow end of it. Ranges that wide, 70 to 120 days for cabbage, are why the variety on your packet matters more than any one chart number.

What days to maturity means, and when the count starts

University of Maryland Extension defines days to maturity as the days from seeding in the garden to harvest for crops like lettuce, spinach, beets and radishes, and the days from transplanting to harvest for crops like broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower and Brussels sprouts. So for a tomato or a pepper the clock starts the day the plant goes into the bed, not the day you sowed the seed indoors.

That is the usual rule, not a law. University of Maine Cooperative Extension says seed companies mostly count direct-sown crops from when they come up and indoor-started crops from when they are transplanted out, but that no rules govern these estimates and companies handle it differently. Johnny’s Selected Seeds shows why the fine print matters: its cucumber growing guide counts days to maturity from transplanting, while its onion guide counts from direct seeding and says to take 10 to 15 days off if you transplant. If your packet counts from emergence, soil temperature sets how long seedlings take to come up; my Seed Germination Temperature Chart has the days for each crop.

The number is also only an estimate. UMaine lists temperature, day length, rain, soil conditions and pollinators among the things that decide when a plant reaches harvest, and UGA Extension says the days vary with the variety, the temperature and general growing conditions. My garden planning guide says to take the days to maturity from the seed packet or plant label and mark them on your calendar, then watch the crop for signs that it is ready.

How long from seed for transplanted crops?

Add the weeks the seedlings spend indoors. Johnny’s cucumber guide sows seed indoors 3 to 4 weeks before transplanting, so a 60-day cucumber is about 81 to 88 days from seed (21 + 60 and 28 + 60). For tomatoes, the planner starts seed indoors 5 to 3 weeks before your last frost and sets plants out 2 to 3 weeks after it, which keeps seedlings indoors for 5 to 8 weeks. Add 80 days to maturity and a tomato is 115 to 136 days from seed to the first harvest. The seed starting calendar has the start indoors and transplant windows for every crop in this chart.

Fast, medium and slow crops

Under 50 days (5 crops): radish (25), arugula and spinach (40), bok choy and lettuce (45). On my seed starting calendar radish and arugula have wide sowing windows, so you can keep sowing every couple of weeks for a steady supply.

50 to 79 days (32 crops): the bulk of the garden, including bush and pole beans, beets, carrots, cucumbers, zucchini and yellow squash, peppers, corn, eggplant, cabbage, cauliflower, kale, chard, peas, basil, sage and all six annual flowers.

80 days and up (20 crops): tomatoes, broccoli, melons and watermelon, winter squash and pumpkins, potatoes, onions, Brussels sprouts and celery, plus chives, thyme, oregano, rosemary, mint and lavender. Two numbers need a note. Garlic’s 240 days runs from fall planting to the next summer’s harvest, as on my garlic page, and the strawberry’s 365 days reflects that the first real crop comes in the second year.

Fall plantings: add two weeks

Crops grow slower as the days get shorter and cooler. University of Maryland Extension says days to maturity stretch for fall crops because of less light and lower temperatures, and has you add a short-day factor of 14 days when you work out a fall planting date. It matters most for crops that make heads or pods, and less for roots and leafy greens. Tick the fall box in the calculator to add it.

For a fall bed, the harvest-by date is tied to your first fall frost. My fall crop planting guide says to count backward from the frost date so crops have time to mature before the cold arrives. How close to that date a crop can finish depends on its frost class. University of Minnesota Extension notes that bush beans and kale take about as long to mature, but a light frost of 30 to 32°F kills the beans, while kale keeps growing in cool weather and survives down to about 20°F. Tender crops in the chart have to finish before your first frost; hardy ones can keep going past it. Look up your first and last frost dates by ZIP code on Plan My Garden, free.

Quick questions

What does days to maturity mean?

The number of days from sowing a crop in the garden, or from setting out a transplant, to its first harvest. It is an estimate, so weather, day length and the variety you grow can move your harvest earlier or later.

Does days to maturity start from seeding or transplanting?

For transplanted crops like tomatoes, peppers, broccoli and cabbage it usually starts the day you set the plants out. For direct-sown crops it starts at sowing or when the seedlings come up. Seed companies are not all consistent, so check whether the packet says from seeding or from transplanting.

Which vegetables have the shortest days to maturity?

In the planner’s numbers, radishes are the fastest at 25 days, followed by arugula and spinach at 40 and bok choy and lettuce at 45. Those are the only 5 of the 57 crops under 50 days.

How do I work out when to plant a fall garden?

Take your harvest-by date and subtract the crop’s days to maturity plus 14 extra days for slower fall growth. For tender crops the harvest-by date has to come before your first fall frost. The calculator’s harvest-by mode with the fall box ticked does the subtraction.

How long do tomatoes take from seed to harvest?

About 115 to 136 days in the planner’s numbers: 5 to 8 weeks as a seedling indoors, then 80 days from transplanting to the first harvest.

Let the planner put dates on it

Plan My Garden does this for your own garden and is free to start: enter your zip code and it finds your frost dates, draw your beds, pick tomatoes, beans and everything else you want to grow, and it places each plant at square-foot spacing and builds a planting schedule, with start indoors, transplant and direct sow dates, from your frost dates.

Related: Seed Starting Calendar by Last Frost Date · Seed Germination Temperature Chart · Square Foot Gardening Chart · Garden Charts and Calculators