One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us figure out your gardening schedule is the USDA zone info. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

A common way of determining when it's a good idea to plant runner beans is to use the USDA zone info for Lincoln.

Planting Calendar for Runner beans

Frost tolerance for runner beans:	Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	After the last frost.

Since runner beans are not cold tolerant it is necessary to wait until after all chance of frost has passed before you can plant them.

The earliest that you can plant runner beans in Lincoln is April. However, you really should wait until May if you don't want to take any chances.

The last month that you can plant runner beans and expect a good harvest is probably August. Any later than that and your runner beans may not have a chance to fully mature. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your runner beans indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average all chance of frost has passed is on April 15 in Lincoln. It might get as low as 5°F during the coldest months of winter.

It's important to remember that the actual date of last frost is just an average because it is based on the USDA zone info for Lincoln and it will vary from year to year. Since half of the time in Lincoln you get a frost after April 15 be ready to protect your runner beans if you have a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Lincoln

Here is the info for USDA Zone 7b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	October 15
Lowest Expected Low	5°F
Highest Expected Low	10°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is 5°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 10°F.

Plants to Grow in Lincoln

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Lincoln.