One of the first steps you take when you are figuring out your gardening schedule is find your USDA Zone info. The most important data that the zone info tells us is average last frost and the lowest expected temperature for your area.

You can figure out when it's possible to plant string beans in Madison by looking at the USDA zone info.

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.

It's probably a bad idea to plant string beans until after the last frost has passed because they do not do well in cold weather.

The earliest that you can plant string beans in Madison 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 really do well. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your string beans indoors.

Last Frost Date

In Madison the average date of last frost happens on April 15. In the coldest months of winter you can expect an average low temperature of -5°F.

Since the USDA zone info for Madison is an average the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Half of the time in Madison it frosts late in the year after April 15 so make sure that you are prepared to cover your string beans in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Madison

Here is the info for USDA Zone 6b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	October 15
Lowest Expected Low	-5°F
Highest Expected Low	0°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is -5°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 0°F.

Plants to Grow in Madison

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