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 way of determining when it's the best time to plant string beans is to use the USDA zone info for Ojai.

Planting Calendar for String beans

Frost tolerance for string beans:	Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	After all chance of frost has passed.

Since string beans require warm weather you need to wait until after the last frost has passed before you can plant them.

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

The last month that you can plant string beans and expect a good harvest is probably September. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your string beans may not have a chance to really do well. If you are starting your string beans indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a couple of weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is February 15 in Ojai. You can expect an average low temperature of 25°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Ojai is just an average the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Half of the time in Ojai you get a frost after February 15 so just be sure to be ready to protect your string beans in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Ojai

Here is the info for USDA Zone 9b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	February 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	December 15
Lowest Expected Low	25°F
Highest Expected Low	30°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is 25°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 30°F.

Plants to Grow in Ojai

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