Growing basics
Use this guide to understand the terms, ranges, and units repeated across Crop Brief crop profiles.
Each crop profile combines descriptive information, such as growth habit, with planning ranges, such as plant spacing or days to harvest. These values help you compare crops and prepare a starting plan.
They do not replace local planting guidance. Climate, variety, soil, container material, weather, and growing method can all change what a particular plant needs. Read related fields together rather than treating one number as a stand-alone instruction.
Season & planting
These terms describe when a crop grows best and how it is normally established.
Cool-season and warm-season are broad temperature groups. They are not fixed calendar categories. A cool-season crop may be planted in spring, autumn, or winter depending on the local climate, while a warm-season crop generally needs reliably warm conditions after frost risk.
Planting dates in the profiles are expressed relative to the local last spring frost date. A negative offset means before that date; a positive offset means after it. A range allows for regional conditions and differences among varieties.
- Temperature group
- Cool-season or warm-season.
A broad indication of the temperatures in which the crop normally performs best.
- Frost tolerance
- Hardy, light frost, or tender.
Describes the crop’s general ability to tolerate cold exposure. Tender crops should not be assumed safe during frost.
- Sowing method
- Direct, transplant, either, or vegetative.
Direct means seed is commonly sown where the crop will grow. Transplant means it is usually started elsewhere. Vegetative crops are established from material such as crowns, cloves, slips, or sets.
- Planting material
- The physical material used to start the crop, such as seed, transplant, crown, clove, tuber, slip, or division.
- Indoor start
- A range of weeks before the last frost date for starting seed indoors. A blank value usually means indoor seed starting is not typical for that crop.
- Outdoor start
- The suggested window before or after the last frost date for direct sowing, transplanting, or planting vegetative material outdoors.
- Seed depth
- The approximate sowing depth in centimetres. This field is left blank when a crop is not normally established from seed.
- Life cycle
- Whether the plant is annual, biennial, or perennial, including crops botanically perennial but usually grown as annuals.
Sun, soil & water
These values describe baseline growing conditions rather than an automatic care schedule.
Sunlight is recorded as a minimum number of hours of direct sun per day. Bright shade and a well-lit window do not necessarily provide the same light as direct outdoor sun. A crop listed at four hours may tolerate part sun, while an eight-hour value indicates that full sun is preferred.
Water is shown both as a general label and as a weekly millimetre range. The range is useful for comparison, but actual frequency depends on rainfall, temperature, wind, drainage, soil depth, plant size, and whether the crop grows in a container.
- Sun hours
- The minimum daily hours of direct sunlight used by the library for general planning.
- Sunlight label
- A plain-language interpretation of the sun-hour value, such as part-sun tolerant or full sun preferred.
- Soil pH
- A suitable pH range for the crop. It indicates acidity or alkalinity, not soil fertility, texture, drainage, or organic-matter content.
- Water need
- A relative label such as low, moderate, or high, that helps compare crops within the library.
- Weekly water
- A baseline range expressed in millimetres per week. One millimetre spread over one square metre is equivalent to one litre of water.
- Watering note
- A practical cue for checking soil moisture. It should be adjusted for local weather and the way the crop is grown.
Space & containers
Spacing and container figures describe minimum planning needs, not the mature shape of every variety.
Plant spacing is the distance between individual plants. Row spacing leaves additional room for access, air movement, and maintenance. The two figures answer different questions and should not be substituted for one another.
The library also groups crops as compact, standard, or large. This is a browsing category, not an exact measurement. Use the centimetre and litre fields when deciding whether a specific bed or container is suitable.
- Space need
- Compact, standard, or large.
A broad category for comparing the space occupied by different crops.
- Plant spacing
- The suggested distance between individual plants. A range may reflect different growth habits or common variety sizes.
- Row spacing
- The suggested distance between rows, allowing room to reach and maintain the crop.
- Growth habit
- The plant’s general form, such as leafy, upright, rosette, clumping, vining, or bush.
- Support needed
- Whether a cage, stake, trellis, or similar support is normally required or useful.
- Container depth
- The minimum useful soil depth in centimetres for container planning.
- Container volume
- The minimum container capacity in litres. Depth and volume must both be considered; a deep but very narrow pot may still provide too little root space.
Germination & harvest
Time ranges are most useful when you know the event from which they are counted.
Germination days estimate the time from sowing until emergence under suitable conditions. Temperature, moisture, planting depth, and seed condition can shift the actual result. Crops grown from crowns, tubers, divisions, or other vegetative material may not have a germination value.
Days to harvest may begin at sowing, transplanting, or planting, depending on the crop. The harvest basis identifies that starting point. Without it, two crops with the same number of maturity days may have very different total timelines.
- Germination days
- The expected emergence range after sowing seed under suitable conditions.
- Days to harvest
- A general minimum-to-maximum maturity range. It is an estimate rather than a guaranteed harvest date.
- Harvest basis
- Sowing, transplanting, or planting.
The event from which the harvest-day range is counted.
- Succession interval
- The number of days commonly left between repeated sowings to spread harvests over time. A blank value means succession sowing is not typically required or is not represented in the dataset.
Example: reading the Tomato profile
Tomato shows how several fields work together. The individual numbers become more useful when interpreted as one sequence.
Units used in the library
All crop profiles use metric units consistently.
Used for seed depth, plant spacing, row spacing, and minimum container depth.
Used for minimum container volume.
Used as a comparable weekly water-depth range.
Used for germination, frost-date offsets, succession intervals, and harvest timing.
What the profiles do not determine
The library provides crop-level reference ranges. It does not make a site-specific growing decision for you.
- Exact planting dates without your local frost dates and current weather
- The performance of a particular named cultivar or hybrid
- Soil fertility, fertilizer rates, pest treatment, or disease diagnosis
- Guaranteed harvest dates, yield, flavour, or fruit size
- An exact watering schedule for every soil, bed, or container
Use the guide beside a crop profile.
Browse the library, open a crop, and return here whenever a measurement or timing field needs clarification.
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