DTM usually means days to maturity from when the plant was planted in the ground.

Linda

Yes it is the date the seedling is planted till first ripe tomato I believe.
I have found in about 70 percent of the cases the maturity date is lower than the actual maturity date that we realize.
Particularly with the early varieties.

And trust me, DTM's are sheer guesstimates.

Mostof the DTM's for OP's that are offered commercially are taken from the SSE YEarbooks, and even there for a single variety there's a range given for it since it depends on where and when a variety was grown, what the season was like in a particular season, etc.

I never gave a specific DTM for any varirty for anything I grew but I would give a range for earlies,midseason and then late ones.

Those seed vendors who produce their own seed usually use a DTM taken from one season,

Same situation with F1 hybrids IMO.

Carolyn

As if that weren't bad enough^^^, plenty of the plants from the big box stores are probably not grown from seed at all, but rooted from cuttings.

With cuttings, they use the same DTM from transplant on one hand, yet sometimes, depending on inventoy turnover, it can already be flowering when you get it. A transplant can fruit in a bit over a month in that case.

PC

This post was edited by PupillaCharites on Mon, Aug 25, 14 at 20:33