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.

One way of estimating when it's the best time to plant snap beans is to use the USDA zone info for Storm Lake.

Planting Calendar for Snap beans

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

It's a bad idea to plant snap beans until after the last frost when the weather gets warmer because they are not cold tolerant.

The earliest that you can plant snap beans in Storm Lake 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. Any later than that and your snap beans may not have a chance to really do well. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your snap beans indoors.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is April 15 in Storm Lake. In the coldest months of winter you can expect an average low temperature of -20°F.

Just be sure to remember that USDA zone info for Storm Lake is just an average and the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Half of the time in Storm Lake last frost occurs after April 15 so be sure to be ready to cover your snap beans if you have a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Storm Lake

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 Storm Lake

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Storm Lake.