Quick-maturing Vegetable Varieties

Most vegetables include cultivars or varieties that are quicker-maturing than others. Quick-maturing vegetable crops come to harvest in as little as 4 to 10 weeks. They are not “long stayers” in the garden.

Use quick-maturing crops to your advantage:

• Succession cropping. Rather than sowing or planting the crops you want to eat all at once, space them out over time so that your harvest is continuous, not a glut. Quick-maturing crops planted every two weeks in succession will keep your garden producing through the season. When the first sowing appears above the ground, make the next sowing.

• Intercropping matches a quick-maturing crop with a slower maturing crop. At planting time place a quick-maturing crops next to a slower-maturing crop. While you wait for “long stayers” such as leeks, parsnips, salsify, potatoes, and onions from seed to come to harvest, quick-maturing crops will be in and out of the garden and on the table.

• Catch cropping fills space and production gaps in the garden. Sometimes–often at midsummer–crops come out of the garden for one unexpected reason or another: pest or disease damage, animal damage or loss. Fill the gap with a quick-maturing crop. Quick-maturing crops can go into the garden late and still come to harvest before the end of the season.

• Beat the heat in dry years. Quick-maturing cultivars avoid the competition for water in dry years. Quick-maturing crops can go into the garden early in the season and be replaced later by drought tolerant crops or not at all. You still get the vegetables you want to eat, but the plants’ struggle to find water is avoided.

Quick-maturing vegetable cultivars:

Snap beans. Bush green: Blue Lake 274 (58); Contender (53); Derby (57); Provider (52); Tendercrop (54); Tendergreen (57); Topcrop (51). Bush yellow: Cherokee Wax (52); Gold Crop (54); Slender Wax (56).

Lima beans. Baby Bush (67 days); Baby Fordhook Bush (67 days); Henderson (70).

Beets. Detroit Dark Red (58); Early Wonder (52); Lutz Green Leaf (70); Ruby Queen (60); Sweetheart (58).

Broccoli. Cruiser (58); Green Comet (60); Green Goliath (60); Premium Crop (60); Packman (55).

Cabbage. Charmant (52 days); Earliana (60 days); Early Jersey Wakefield (63); Golden Acre (58 days); Ruby Ball (70).

Carrots. Baby Finger (50 days); Danvers (65); Imperator (64 days); Lady Finger (60 days); Scarlet Nantes (70); Tendersweet (60 days).

Cauliflower. Early Snowball (55 days); Snow Crown (60); Snow Grace (65); Snow King (45 days).

Chard. Burgundy (60); Rhubarb (60); Fordhook Giant (57); Lucullus (50); Rainbow (55).

Sweet corn. Bodacious (72); Early Xtra Sweet (79); Maple Sweet (70); Cotton Candy (72); Spring Snow (65); Sugar Snow (71).

Cucumbers. Slicing: Bush Crop (55); Fanfare (63); Salad Bush (57); Spacemaster (56); Straight Eight (65); Sweet Slice (63). Pickling: Calypso (50); Lucky Strike (52); National Pickling (55); SMR-53 (53).

Eggplant. Beauty (65 days); Burpee Hybrid (70); Dusky (56); Easter Egg (52 days); Ichiban (58 days); Millionaire (55 days); Violetta (65 days).

Endive, Frisse. Fine Curled (50 days); Salad King (46 days).

Kale. Dwarf Blue Curled Vates (55 days); Russian Red (40 days), Siberian (60 days); Verdura (60 days).

Kohlrabi. Early White Vienna (55); Grand Duke (48); Triumph (55); Purple Vienna (62).

Lettuce. Green Leaf: Grand Rapids (45); Green Ice (45); Oak Leaf (50); Salad Bowl (45); Simpson (45). Butterhead: Bibb (70); Buttercrunch (70); Summer Bibb (62). Loose-Leaf: Black-Seeded Simpson (45 days); Lollo Rossa (56 days); Oak Leaf (50 days); Red Sails (45 days).

Melons. Alaska (65 days); Super 45 (45 days); Sweetie (65 days).

Mustard Greens. Curled: Fordhook Fancy (40 days); Giant Red (23 days); Green Wave (45 days); Kyona (40 days). Plain Leaf: Komatsuna (30 days); Tendergreen (34 days).

Oriental Mustard or Asian Greens. Bok Choy (45 days); Canton Dwarf Chinese Flat Cabbage (40 days); Gai Choy (45 days); Green-In-Snow (45 days); Mitsuba (60 days); Mizuna (36 days); Pak Choy (42 days); Tatsoi (45 days).

Okra. Annie Oakley (50); Dwarf Green Long Pod (52); Emerald (55); Clemson Spineless (56); Burgundy (53).

Onions. Bunching: Beltsville Bunching (65 days); Southport White Globe (65 days); White Buching (40 days); White Lisbon (60 days).

Peas. Early: Daybreak (54); Alaska (55); Spring (57). Main Season: Early Snap (70); Green Arrow (68); Knight (61); Little Marvel (63); Sugar Ann (70); Sugar Snap (70). Sugar Peas: Dwarf Grey Sugar (65); Little Sweetie (60); Oregon Sugar Pod II (65); Snowbird (58).

Peppers. Sweet: Bell Boy (70); Camelot (67); Cardinal (70); Early California (65 days); Sweet Banana (70). Hot: Cayenne (70); Hungarian Wax (70); Mexibell (70).

Radishes. Burpee White (23); Champion (28); Cherry Belle (22); Comet (25 days); Early Scarlet Globe (23); Easter Egg (25).

Spinach. America (45); Bloomsdale Long-Standing (45); Winter Bloomsdale (45). New Zealand Spinach (65).

Summer Squash. Scallop: Bennings Green Tint (54 days); Pattypan (55); Peter Pan (50 days); Scallopini (50 days); Sunburst (50 days). Straightneck: Early Prolific Straighneck (50); Early Yellow (50 days); Seneca Butterbar (50). Crookneck: Early Crookneck (53); Giant Crookneck (55 days); Yellow Crookneck (42 days). Zucchini, Green: Aristocrat (53); Chefini (48); President (50); Spineless Beauty (45). Zucchini, Cocozelle: Cousa (51 days); Florentino (47 days). Space Savers: Sundrops (45 days).

Tomatoes. Early: Alisa Craig (70 days); Early Girl (60); Bush Beefsteak (62 days); Champion (65); Moneymaker (70 days). Main Crop: Celebrity (70). Small Fruit: Green Grape (70 days); Large Red Cherry (70); Super Sweet 100 (70); Sweet 100 (70 days); Sweet Million (65); Yellow Pear (70). Container: Husky Gold (70); Patio Hybrid (65); Stupice (52 days); Tiny Tim (45).

Turnips. Golden Ball (60); Just Right (60);Market Express (38 days); Purple Top White Globe (55); Royal Crown (52); Tokyo Cross (35).

Watermelon. Early Midget (65 days); Golden Midget (65 days); Sugar Baby (68 days).

Grow 80 vegetables: KITCHEN GARDEN GROWERS GUIDE