Days to Harvest

erbarnett on 5/11/2012, 6:29 pm

I am wondering if the seed companies are being honest when they say a crop will be ready for harvest in the number of days listed on the seed packet. In my experience, I have never produced a crop in the number of days listed on the packet. The Days to Harvest seems WAY OFF, often by more than a month or two.

Mel B. has already pointed out that the seed companies urge us to waste seeds. They tell us to thin out almost all the seedlings that sprout. This practice is wasteful and leads to greater profits by the seed companies. Could this Days to Harvest information be a scheme to encourage us to buy more seeds, or am I just being paranoid?

Any thoughts?

UnderTheBlackWalnut on 5/11/2012, 6:31 pm

Here is a thread where that was discussed a bit last Spring... Smile

https://squarefoot.forumotion.com/t6759-days-to-maturity-vs-harvest-date

For me, I think it would be nearly impossible to predict days to harvest for every plant in every circumstance so, like any other sales team, they try to put their best foot forward and probably put what is the DTH for the most optimum conditions. Smile

quiltbea on 5/11/2012, 6:43 pm

I've actually timed several of mine last year and some were very good about times to harvest while others took longer, but temp and weather makes a lot of difference in harvest date, too.

Any transplant is timed from the day its transplanted in the garden, not from seed starting.

Edited to add: Most of my tomatoes started harvesting a few days before the date on the package.

plantoid on 5/11/2012, 7:27 pm

In the legally agressive something for nothing American legal system & others around the world those days to harvest will be legally accurate for they will have usually been grown under optimum circumstances and they will have to have records to prove it.

What they won't tell you is the failure rates and those percentages that failed to conform to the harvest date as there is usually no legislation in place that covers that area.

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