When to Plant Scarlet Runner Beans in Evanston, IL

Before planting it is a good idea to find your USDA Zone info to figure out your garden schedule. 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 Evanston can be reviewed to figure out when you can plant scarlet runner beans.


Planting Calendar for Scarlet Runner Beans

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

It's a bad idea to plant scarlet runner beans until after all chance of frost has passed because they are not cold tolerant.

JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Legend 
A good time to plant scarlet runner beans
Possibly ok, but a risky time to plant scarlet runner beans
Probably not a good time to plant scarlet runner beans

The earliest that you can plant scarlet runner beans in Evanston 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 scarlet runner beans and expect a good harvest is probably August. If you wait any later than that and your scarlet runner beans may not have a chance to fully mature. You can get started a little bit earlier by starting your scarlet runner beans indoors.

Last Frost Date

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

Since the USDA zone info for Evanston is not always accurate the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Since half of the time in Evanston it frosts late in the year after April 15 be ready to cover your scarlet runner beans if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Evanston

Here is the info for USDA Zone 5b.

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

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is -15°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near -10°F.

Plants to Grow in Evanston

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