Accurate harvest timing helps vegetable growers meet market demand, minimize pest damage and schedule labor efficiently. Traditionally, growers plan planting and harvest dates using a calendar and the crop’s estimated days to maturity from seed catalogs. But temperature and weather conditions can shift crop development, especially in warmer or cooler than normal years.
To improve accuracy, the Oregon State University Extension Service developed Croptime, a web-based tool that uses degree-day (DD) models to estimate key development stages for vegetable crops and some common weeds. Croptime helps growers schedule planting and harvests based on weather conditions rather than calendar dates alone.
Croptime was developed with support from the U.S. Department of Agriculture Western Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education program.
The tool allows users to select the weather station closest to their farm, choose a crop and variety, and enter up to four potential planting dates. For each date, Croptime provides forecasts for major growth stages and the expected harvest date.
Croptime currently includes models for:
- Broccoli – four transplanted cultivars
- Cucumber – one transplanted and six direct-seeded cultivars
- Snap bean – three direct-seeded cultivars
- Sweet corn – six direct-seeded and three transplanted cultivars
- Sweet pepper – four transplanted cultivars
- Tomato – four transplanted cultivars
- Weeds – hairy nightshade, lambsquarter and redroot pigweed
Models for spinach, carrot, parsnip, lettuce, cauliflower, cabbage, kale and summer squash are in development and will be added when available.
By helping growers identify the best planting windows, Croptime reduces uncertainty in harvest scheduling. Timely harvests support crop quality, profitability and long-term sustainability in vegetable production.
