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When to Plant String beans in Charles City, IA

Before planting it is a good idea to find your USDA Zone info to estimate your garden schedule. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

A way of making a decision about when it's a good idea to plant string beans is to use the USDA zone info for Charles City.


Planting Calendar for String beans

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

String beans require warm weather which means that you need to wait until it warms up after all chance of frost has passed before you can plant them.

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

The earliest that you can plant string beans in Charles City 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 string beans and expect a good harvest is probably August. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your string beans may not have a chance to grow to maturity. Starting your string beans indoors is a great way to get them started a little bit earlier.

Last Frost Date

In Charles City the average date of last frost happens on April 15. You can expect an average low temperature of -20°F in the coldest months of winter.

Always keep in mind that the actual date of last frost is just an average because it is based on the USDA zone info for Charles City and it is different every year. Since half of the time in Charles City you get surprised by a frost after April 15 be ready to cover your string beans in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Charles City

Here is the info for USDA Zone 5a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)October 15
Lowest Expected Low-20°F
Highest Expected Low-15°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is -20°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near -15°F.

Plants to Grow in Charles City

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Charles City.