When to Plant Pole beans in Fort Collins, CO

One of the first steps you take when you are making a decision about your gardening schedule is find your USDA Zone info. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

The USDA zone info for Fort Collins should be used to determine when you can plant pole beans.


Planting Calendar for Pole beans

Frost tolerance for pole beans: Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant: After the last frost when the weather gets warmer.

It's probably not a good idea to plant pole beans until after all chance of frost has passed because they do not do well in cold weather.

JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Legend 
A good time to plant pole beans
Possibly ok, but a risky time to plant pole beans
Probably not a good time to plant pole beans

The earliest that you can plant pole beans in Fort Collins 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 pole beans and expect a good harvest is probably August. If you wait any later than that and your pole beans may not have a chance to fully mature. If you are starting your pole beans indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a couple of weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost has passed is on April 15 in Fort Collins. It might get as low as -15°F during the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Fort Collins may not be accurate from year to year the actual date of last frost is different every year. Half of the time in Fort Collins last frost occurs after April 15 so make sure that you are ready to protect your pole beans in the event of a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Fort Collins

Here is the info for USDA Zone 5b.

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

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is -15°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near -10°F.

Plants to Grow in Fort Collins

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Fort Collins.