Guide
Days to maturity: seed-to-harvest times, crop by crop
"Days to maturity" on a seed packet doesn't always start counting from seed. Here's the number both ways, plus how often to re-sow to keep a small space producing.
The counting trick to know first
Seed catalogs count days to maturity from whichever start the crop is normally given. Direct-sown crops — radishes, carrots, beans, lettuce — count from the day seed hits soil. Transplanted crops — tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, broccoli — count from the day a six-to-eight-week-old seedling goes into its final pot. That's why a "70-day" tomato and a "60-day" carrot are nowhere near each other in real elapsed time: the tomato's clock started with a two-month head start. The chart below spells out both columns so the comparison is honest.
The chart
| Crop | From seed | From transplant | Succession interval |
|---|---|---|---|
| Radish | 22–30 days | — | 7–10 days |
| Arugula | 21–40 days | — | 7–14 days |
| Lettuce, baby leaf | 28–35 days | — | 10–14 days |
| Lettuce, full head | 45–60 days | 30–40 days | 10–14 days |
| Spinach | 35–45 days | — | 10–14 days |
| Green onion | 60–70 days | — | 14–21 days |
| Beet | 50–60 days | — | 14–21 days |
| Carrot | 60–80 days | — | 14–21 days |
| Turnip | 40–55 days | — | 14–21 days |
| Bush beans | 50–60 days | — | 14–21 days |
| Peas | 55–70 days | — | Single spring + fall sowing |
| Kale | 55–65 days | 40–50 days | Cut-and-come-again instead |
| Swiss chard | 50–60 days | 35–45 days | Cut-and-come-again instead |
| Zucchini / summer squash | 45–55 days | 40–50 days | One mid-season re-sow |
| Cucumber | 50–70 days | 40–50 days | One mid-season re-sow |
| Basil | 55–70 days | 25–35 days to first cutting | Cut-and-come-again instead |
| Cilantro | 45–55 days | — | 14–21 days; bolts fast in heat |
| Tomato | 100–140 days | 60–85 days | — |
| Pepper | 110–150 days | 60–90 days | — |
| Eggplant | 110–140 days | 65–85 days | — |
| Broccoli | 90–115 days | 55–70 days | Spring + fall crop |
| Potato | 70–120 days from seed piece | — | — |
Ranges cover normal variety spread — 'Cherry Belle' radishes at 22 days versus 'French Breakfast' closer to 30 — and normal weather. Cool temperatures, short days, and shade all stretch the numbers: the same lettuce takes noticeably longer in a part-shade spot, which is worth pairing with the light floors in our sunlight requirements chart. Heat compresses maturity for warm-season crops and ends it early for cool-season ones by triggering bolting.
Using the succession column
The succession interval is the re-sowing rhythm that keeps harvests continuous instead of arriving as one glut. The logic is simple: sow batch two while batch one is half grown, and by the time you've eaten batch one, batch two is ready. In a small container garden you don't need a new pot per sowing — a single square's worth from our square-foot planting chart per interval is plenty for one or two people, and radishes and baby lettuce can be re-sown into the gap left by the plants you just pulled.
Crops marked "cut-and-come-again" — chard, kale, basil, leaf lettuce handled loosely — don't need succession at all: harvest the outer leaves, leave the growing center, and one planting produces for months. Fruiting crops don't need it either, because a single tomato or pepper plant is itself a continuous harvest from first fruit to frost.
Counting backward for a fall crop
The same numbers run in reverse at the end of the season. Take your area's average first-frost date, subtract the crop's days to maturity, then subtract another two weeks — the "fall factor" that accounts for shortening days slowing growth — and you have the last sensible sowing date. A 30-day radish can go in five to six weeks before frost; a 60-day carrot needs to be in the ground by late July in most cold-winter climates. Cool-season greens are the exception worth pushing: lettuce and spinach tolerate light frost, so their last sowing can run right up to a month before the frost date, and they often taste better for the cold.