Subject: What does "Maturity" mean

From: [email-masked] (Michele Coleman)
Date: 5 Mar 1995 23:05:48 -0800

I just planted my very first real garden today, six tomato
seedlings, and I was optimistic until I read this newsgroup and
saw all the posts about bugs and fungus :'\  Oh well, here's
a stupid newbie question:
    The tag that came with the plants says "Maturity: 75 days".
Does that mean 75 days until the plant is sexually mature (i.e.,
with flowers) or 75 days until I can start eating tomatoes?

    Here's a happening that I found really amazing, though 
perhaps you've heard it before:  last year I tried growing some
tomatoes in pots.  They were really pathetic and I made lots
of mistakes and only got about 4 tomatoes from 5 plants,
and those 6 months after planting.  There were also some tiny
tomatoes that stayed green and never got very big.  In fall I gave
up and stopped watering the plants and they became completely brown
and dried up.  Since I was lazy I never tore them down, just
left them for months.  Then in late January I noticed that three
tiny green tomatoes were actually turning red.  I waited four weeks
until they were dark red and picked them.  They were delicious.
Has anyone heard of such a thing?  I live in Silicon Valley,
California, and I don't think we had a real frost this year.

--Michele Coleman