One of the first steps you take when you are determining 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 earliest that you can plant snap beans in Marion can be figured out by referring to the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Snap beans

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

It's not a good idea to plant snap beans until after all chance of frost has passed because they require warm weather.

The earliest that you can plant snap beans in Marion 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 snap beans and expect a good harvest is probably August. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your snap beans may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your snap beans indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost has passed is on April 15 in Marion. In the coldest months of winter you should expect an average low temperature of -20°F.

Since the USDA zone info for Marion is not always accurate the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Half of the time in Marion you get surprised by a frost after April 15 so make sure that you are ready to cover your snap beans if you have a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Marion

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 Marion

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