About 4 months to the first ripe fruit (but it varies). hence why they are usually started indoors early.

It mainly varies where you are, and how warm it is. Down here, mine are first red and ripe in three months.

I'm in 7A, and temps will start to get into the 80s soon.

I though this was answered in your previous post about direct seeding tomatoes but you can look up any variety name and get its DTM - days to maturity - for an estimate. But that #of days is from the date of transplant not from seed planting. On average it takes 6-8 weeks for a seed to reach transplant size, another 4-5 weeks to set its first fruit, and another 70-90 days for that fruit to ripen, depending on the variety. So from transplant 3-4 months, but from seed, anywhere from 4-6 months. That's why nobody direct seeds them.

Plus tomatoes will only set fruit within a certain temperature and humidity range so the goal for many is to get them planted, blooming and setting fruit before the severe heat of summer comes on.

Dave

Oh, direct seeding outdoors. Yep, that'll take longer than three months. I put seeds under lights in the warm indoors in mid-February, and they were up in less than a week. Planted out four or five weeks after seeding. I'm just harvesting now. If you seeded outdoors when the mean air temperature is below 70F and the soil temp is lower, it'll take a lot longer.