Temperature is the main factor in plant growth. No question that for seedlings, I see double the growth rate at 85F compared to 70F. Those DTMs are pretty useless as absolute numbers. Their value is mainly in comparing one variety with another.

Similar here where ample rain (nearly too much) and no late cold snaps got things off to a great start. We're picking heirloom tomatoes now which is usually unheard of before the 4th. Picked the first ripe mater on Jun 20th. No catfacing for the first time I can recall. The melons are loving it too, none are ripe yet but they're loaded and huge, esp the cantaloupes. Cukes galor too. All the Pickling is done now so watch out neighbors.

Picking pole beans Fortex, Trionfo Violetto, Rattlesnake, Musica, this week all under 60 days from planting seed and Bill Stumbo 1/2 runner bean (more like giant bush with 1/4 runners) ready by 50 days. I've got dozens of pole lima beans pods starting to form. So this has been a very good year for beans in Ohio so far.

I was looking at some UTube vids lately and a guy from Michigan was teaching that all that mattered was the days to maturity on the seed packet, it didn't matter if it was May or July or September, just as long as it didn't freeze. Kinda annoyed me.

"I was looking at some UTube vids lately and a guy from Michigan was
teaching that all that mattered was the days to maturity on the seed
packet, it didn't matter if it was May or July or September, just as
long as it didn't freeze. Kinda annoyed me."

Totally wrong... which automatically calls into question any other "advice" from that source. Environmental factors strongly influence DTM; you would be lucky to record the same DTM for a given variety two years in a row. DTM is just a ballpark figure, which should be followed by "your results may vary". ;-) As Dan stated, the best use for the listed DTM is to compare relative maturity between varieties.

My plants are way ahead of normal this year also. The sustained heat is certainly a factor, especially compared to the cool summer we had last year. What some fail to notice, however, is the impact of cloudiness, or the lack thereof. Fully sunny days also accelerate plant growth, and we have had more clear sunny days already than we had all of last summer. Less rain in my location too, the storms (so far) have gone around us.

That fella from Michigan also got himself into the seed selling business (if we're thinking of the same person on YouTube). Decide for yourself how that makes you think.

One note of comparison my cherokee purple plants are looking like they might start to break soon, and yet my brandywine still has small green tomatoes. There is a difference of about 10 days on the DTM number, and yet these brandywines are more than two weeks 'behind'. Similarly some cherokee purples that came out of the same seed packet have broken in another spot in the city where I live, and I have the better environmental conditions (sunlight primarily),

My garden has really grown fast this year as well. It's funny. We had freezes into late April that even killed cool weather crops I'd planted at the end of March (cabbages, broccoli, etc.). Forecast looked super gloomy for the first week of May, but then, in the second week of May, overnight, it snapped from way too cool to HOT. Warm weather crops really took off. For example, I planted my tomato seedlings (mostly 80+ DTM) probably close to Mothers' Day, and I started harvesting in late June!! Because it has been such a dry summer they've hardly had fungal issues as well to set them back. The only issues I've suffered are coons stripping an entire 30 ft. row of all green tomatoes a couple weeks ago ;(

Though the start to summer was way too hot, it seems to me that it's mellowing out and becoming more "normal" now, hovering in the low 90's mostly. Pretty typical for July.

You talking about MIGardener, Funkyhat? I sure don't mean to pick on the guy, but I agree with the DTM figure. I think DTM is mostly accurate during an "ideal" spring. When fall rolls around, crops grow much, much slower due to diminishing daylight length and cooler temps. For example, my average first frost is mid Oct., but I usually have to start fall crops with DTM in mind ending 2-3 weeks earlier than that, as it takes that much longer. It's even more drastic with warm weather fall crops that need warmth to consistently produce.

Funkyhat, that's very odd about the DTM comparisons between Cherokee Purple and Brandywine. CP can bear fruit really early in the season here, (then it seems to stop and take a break before setting more fruit). OTOH BW is so late that it's not worth growing for me because the fruit tend to rot before properly ripening :(.

Linda

This is what I'm growing this year, and their DTM

CP: 80-90

BW: 80-100

Big Beef: 73

Black Cherry: 64

Sweet Millions: 63'ish

Black cherry and sweet millions blushed/broke at about the same time. Big beef maybe a week or so after the SM/BC. CP about a week after the Big Beef. Odd 'tomato' out is the brandywine, and they're notoriously sow, and perhaps much closer to the 100 days from the lower numbers from the others.

The brandywines are still golf/squash ball sized fruits, while the cherokee purple are baseball sized.

Yes, that MIgardener guy. Some of his advice is fine, but he has very odd vague advice about fall crops and succession planting, almost like he never really has grown fall vegetables. He says just compare the days to maturity compared to first average frost date, just read the seed packet. I guess the Youtube guys have to keep churning out content to get some advertising revenue, but he doesn't have to act like an expert in everything.

Just like every other 'youtuber'. Except instead of plugging a Patreon page he plugs 99c seed packs and fertilizer (which he sells). Just like the IVOrganics guy, the people who sell fabric pots, etc., etc. It's the business model. This isn't to say the advice is wrong.

Though I would imagine as someone who lives in Michigan he did do some late fall growing, maybe his advice works in his climate.

I'm still waiting for those Giant Crimson tomato seeds to go on sale...