Definition
In law, "growing" most commonly appears not as a standalone term but as a modifier that determines the legal classification of crops, timber, grass, and other vegetation still attached to land. The phrase "growing crops" carries substantial legal weight across property, contract, sale-of-goods, and landlord-tenant law.
1. Growing crops. Crops that are in the ground or on the plant, not yet harvested. The legal significance turns on whether growing crops are treated as real property (part of the land) or personal property (goods capable of sale and delivery independent of the land). At common law, annual crops cultivated by human labor — corn, wheat, vegetables — were treated as personal property even before severance (the doctrine of emblements). Perennial crops such as timber, grass, and fruit trees were more typically treated as real property until actually cut or harvested.
2. Growing timber / growing trees. Timber standing and uncut is generally treated as an interest in real property. A contract for the sale of standing timber may therefore implicate real property formalities (such as the Statute of Frauds applicable to land conveyances) rather than sale-of-goods rules.
3. Growing interest / growing right. Occasionally used in older authorities to describe an inchoate or accruing claim — an interest not yet fully vested or matured but in the process of coming into existence.
Common Language
Modern common usage (Wiktionary): "Growing" refers to growth or increase generally, and to the raising of plants.
Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): Growing is the present participle of "grow" — to increase, to cultivate, to develop; also used adjectivally to mean increasing or developing.
The gap between common and legal meaning is meaningful in one specific direction: in common speech, "growing" is a general term of increase with no property-law implications. In legal contexts, "growing" most often serves as a technical modifier that triggers a specific body of doctrine about the classification of vegetation as real or personal property. A researcher encountering "growing crops" or "growing timber" in a legal source should treat the phrase as a term of art, not a descriptive phrase.
Common Confusion
Growing crops vs. fructus naturales vs. fructus industriales. These Latin terms from the common law draw a line that "growing crops" alone does not capture. Fructus industriales — crops produced by human cultivation (grain, vegetables) — were treated as personalty even while still in the ground. Fructus naturales — the natural produce of the land (grass, timber, fruit of perennial trees) — were treated as realty until severed. "Growing crops" in a deed, lease, or contract may or may not include fructus naturales depending on context and jurisdiction. The distinction matters when a landowner sells, dies, or is dispossessed: only fructus industriales (as personalty) could traditionally pass by a sale of goods without land-conveyance formalities.
Recognized Forms
/SUBTYPES
Growing crops (general). The broadest phrase; scope determined by context.
Growing crops (as emblements). Specifically the annual crops to which a tenant or outgoing cultivator retains a right of harvest after the tenancy ends — a common-law protection for labor invested in the land.
Growing timber. Standing, uncut trees treated as realty; sale typically requires real property formalities.
Growing interest. An accruing but not yet matured legal or equitable claim; rare in modern usage.
Why It Matters in Research
Corpus navigation. Anderson's Dictionary of Law directs researchers to CROP, which is the operative doctrinal entry. Researchers who encounter "growing" as an isolated modifier in historical sources should follow that cross-reference; the substantive doctrine lives under CROPS and EMBLEMENTS, not under GROWING.
Property-to-goods boundary. The classification of growing crops as real or personal property is one of the most historically contested lines in Anglo-American law. Uniform Commercial Code Article 2 (adopted across U.S. jurisdictions) specifically addresses crops to be harvested within twelve months, treating them as goods capable of sale under the UCC regardless of their attachment to the soil. This is a significant modern departure from the common-law baseline. Researchers working with pre-UCC sources — particularly 19th-century contract cases, agricultural leases, and mortgage disputes — must be alert to the real-versus-personal property classification in force at the time.
Landlord-tenant traps. The doctrine of emblements (a tenant's right to harvest growing crops after an unexpected termination of the tenancy) appears frequently in 19th-century agricultural lease disputes. Older treatises and cases may use "growing crops" and "emblements" interchangeably in ways that obscure whether fructus industriales only, or all vegetation, is meant.
Mortgage and lien research. Whether a mortgage on land includes growing crops — and whether a crop lien takes priority over a pre-existing land mortgage — generated extensive 19th- and early-20th-century litigation. The answer often turned on the real-versus-personal property classification of growing crops at the moment the lien attached.
Historical Dictionary Support
Anderson's Dictionary of Law declines to define "growing" independently, redirecting to CROP. This is editorially sound: the legal content resides in the noun. Rapalje & Lawrence omits any entry for "growing" as a term of art; the entries surrounding it (GRIEVOUS BODILY HARM, GRINDSTONE, GRITH) confirm this gap — the editors did not treat "growing" as warranting its own definition. Neither historical dictionary, therefore, addresses the growing-crops doctrine directly under this headword.
This means researchers relying solely on these two sources will find no substantive guidance here. The doctrine must be reconstructed from CROP, EMBLEMENTS, FRUCTUS INDUSTRIALES, and FRUCTUS NATURALES across the broader shelf — and from sale-of-goods and agricultural lease treatises of the 19th century.
Jurisdictional Note
In U.S. jurisdictions that have adopted the UCC, Article 2 governs contracts for the sale of growing crops to be harvested, treating them as goods rather than real property interests. This overrides the common-law fructus industriales/fructus naturales distinction for most commercial purposes but does not necessarily resolve priority disputes between agricultural liens and real property mortgages, which remain governed by state real property and lien law.
Encyclopedia Cross-Reference
See CROPS; EMBLEMENTS