We often think of quicker to mature varieties as important only for growers in the North, where the season is shorter. But there are several compelling reasons to choose quick-maturing varieties, even if you have a longer growing season.

Problems with insects, foliar diseases, extreme summer weather, and wanting to extend your harvest window can all be addressed. Short-season varieties are a tool any gardener can use to address some of the garden's toughest problems.

Getting a Crop in Before (or after) the Heat of Summer

For Southern gardeners, the heat of midsummer can be so intense that many garden crops fizzle. Not only do the plants suffer, but so does the gardener. Often called the summer gap or summer pause, the extreme heat can cause problems with pollen sterility, pollination, and fruit set, even in warm-weather crops. 

When planning vegetable gardens around this pause, shorter maturity varieties can offer more flexibility. Quick-maturing tomatoes, for example, can be transplanted into the garden in July and August for a fall fruit crop that lasts until frost. They can also be started under a season-extending caterpillar tunnel a few weeks earlier in the spring, and they’ll have fruit set and ripening when the warmest weather arrives.

Regions where spring rushes quickly from the last frost into summer heat face the same problem and can use early-yielding crops for their spring cool-weather plants. ‘Sugar Ann’ snap peas can cut two or three weeks off the growing time, letting you grab a harvest of snap peas before high heat turns them off.

Growing Multiple Crops in the Same Space

Most of us are limited in space. We either don’t have the physical space for more garden beds, or we don’t have the time to care for more beds. Growing multiple crops in the same bed expands our harvest and makes the most of the space we do have.

Choosing short-to-mature varieties of our favorite crops can let us get an entire extra crop out of the same space. A garden bed might be used to grow a ‘Baby Leaf’ lettuce mix early, a crop of ‘Giant Goliath Early’ tomatoes in summer, and a crop of ‘Red Ace’ beets in late summer and early fall. Longer maturity vegetables might only get two crops in that same period. While all three varieties in this example are quick to mature, it’s the typically longer midsummer crop where you can really shave off some time.

Staggering Across Multiple Maturities for an Extended Harvest

Some crops are more of a once-and-done type, like sweet corn, onions, or cabbage. Once they hit maturity, it’s time to gather the crop all at the same time. Using different maturities of the same crop can extend that harvest window, providing you with a longer period of fresh vegetables and more time to store and preserve them.

A classic example is sweet corn. Sweet corn doesn’t hold long on the stalk, and can start to get starchy quickly after it matures. A large planting of sweet corn can be overwhelming to shuck, clean, and blanch for freezing or pressure canning. Planting an early-, mid-, and late-maturing variety of sweet corn can extend your fresh-eating window to four or five weeks. You’ll have more time to enjoy fresh corn on the cob and put up extra for later. It’s the same general idea of a harvest window extension as succession planting, but in this case, all the varieties are planted at the same time.

For our sweet corn example, this could look like ‘Northern Xtra-Sweet’ (63 days), ‘American Dream’ (77 days), and ‘Illini Xtra-Sweet’ (85 days). From the first ears of the early variety to the last of the late variety could be a month or more. All three of these varieties share the same sh2 (supersweet) gene type, which is an important detail when mixing sweet corn maturities in the same planting. Supersweet (sh2) varieties must be isolated from all other corn types to avoid starchy, poor-quality kernels. 

Beating Insect Pests with Timing

Some garden pest insects are predictable. They arrive, or cause problems, at about the same time every year. For example, squash vine borers emerge in late spring, but their eggs won’t hatch until about 1250 degree days. See our article on Matching Varieties to Climate for a refresher on growing degree days. In Atlanta, GA, that happens about late June most years. 

If you love summer squash, but can’t seem to get a harvest before the squash vine borer kills your plants, try growing an earlier-to-mature variety. ‘Bossa Nova’ hybrid squash and ‘Eight Ball’ hybrid zucchini both start yielding tasty summer squash in just 37 days. You can have a few weeks of harvest and a freezer full of shredded squash before the pesky larvae ever hatch to attack your plants. Likewise, early plantings of short-maturity corn may yield a crop before problems with corn earworms become severe.

Depending on your specific pest problem and climate, you may be able to grow a late crop to outwit pests as well. Fall plantings of quick maturing cabbages can reduce problems with the cabbage looper moth. A midsummer planting of cucumbers (instead of planting in spring) can reduce cucumber beetle problems. 

Timing plantings and maturity dates can help you avoid garden pest pressure, leaving little or no food right when the pest insect is at its peak.  

Avoiding Peak Windows for Foliar Diseases

Insect pests aren’t the only problems that can be managed with early-maturing varieties. Many fungal diseases build up as the season progresses. Powdery mildew is a perfect example. As the weather warms, the fungal pressure accumulates. Gardeners notice this as progressively whiter leaves on their cucumbers, squash, and pumpkins. 

A short-season variety may allow you to harvest before the disease pressure builds to crop-damaging levels. If jars of pickles are your plan, but powdery mildew gets in the way, consider a quick-to-mature crop of an early variety like ‘Corentine’, which will be ready to harvest in about 45 days. 

Late blight of tomatoes is another foliar disease that can be mitigated with short maturity varieties. This destructive tomato killer is caused by the water mold Phytophthora infestans, and is weather-dependent. The disease thrives in cool to mild temperatures, typically 60–75°F, and high humidity. In many gardening regions, the peak time for late blight is late summer and early fall, exactly when we would like to be harvesting a bumper crop of tomatoes. Planting a short-season tomato as early in spring as you can may let you harvest by late July, and you’ll have your tomato sauce stored by the time the conditions shift to favor late blight. 

Fixing the Whoops (Gardening Got Away From You)

Life happens, but planting short-season varieties can rescue a late start. They typically don’t need as much heat to generate a crop, and you may be able to salvage the season. If you didn’t get your winter squash, sweet corn, or beans planted at the usual time, check to see if you can shave off some time with a different variety. In some cases, you may find a variety that matures nearly a month faster than the old favorite. A traditional ‘Waltham’ butternut squash needs 105 days to be ready, but ‘Bonbon Buttercup’ can mature as fast as 80 days. When time is tight, ‘Contender’ is a green bush bean ready in only 40 days.