One of the first steps you take when you are figuring out 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.

A common way of estimating when it's the best time to plant string beans is to use the USDA zone info for New Castle.

Planting Calendar for String beans

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

It's probably not a good idea to plant string beans until after the last frost because they are not cold tolerant.

The earliest that you can plant string beans in New Castle 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. If you wait any later than that and your string beans may not have a chance to really do well. Starting your string beans indoors is a great way to get them started a couple of weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is April 15 in New Castle. You can expect an average low temperature of -15°F in the coldest months of winter.

Remember that USDA zone info for New Castle may not be accurate from year to year and the actual date of last frost is different every year. Half of the time in New Castle you get a frost 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 New Castle

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 New Castle

You may be interested in your other planting guides for New Castle.