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.

One way of determining when it's a good idea to plant snap beans is to examine the USDA zone info for Charleston.

Planting Calendar for Snap beans

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

Snap beans require warm weather which means that it is necessary to wait until it warms up after the last frost before you can plant them.

The earliest that you can plant snap beans in Charleston 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. If you wait any later than that and your snap beans may not have a chance to really do well. If you are starting your snap beans indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a few weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

On average all chance of frost has passed is on April 15 in Charleston. In the coldest months of winter you should expect an average low temperature of -10°F.

Since the USDA zone info for Charleston may not be accurate from year to year the actual date of last frost is different every year. Half of the time in Charleston you get surprised by a frost after April 15 so always be ready to protect your snap beans in the event of a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Charleston

Here is the info for USDA Zone 6a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	October 15
Lowest Expected Low	-10°F
Highest Expected Low	-5°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is -10°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near -5°F.

Plants to Grow in Charleston

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