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.

The USDA zone info for Fort Meade should be reffered to in order to determine when you can plant runner beans.

Planting Calendar for Runner beans

Frost tolerance for runner 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 runner beans until after all chance of frost has passed because they are not cold tolerant.

The earliest that you can plant runner beans in Fort Meade 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 runner beans and expect a good harvest is probably September. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your runner beans may not have a chance to grow to maturity. If you are starting your runner 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 Fort Meade. You should expect an average low temperature of 25°F in the coldest months of winter.

Just be sure to remember that the actual date of last frost may not be accurate from year to year because it is based on the USDA zone info for Fort Meade and it is different every year. Half of the time in Fort Meade it frosts late in the year after February 15 so make sure that you are prepared to cover your runner beans in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Fort Meade

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 Fort Meade

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