One of the first steps you take when you are determining 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 way of making a decision about when it's a good idea to plant string beans is to use the USDA zone info for Dodge City.

Planting Calendar for String beans

Frost tolerance for string beans:	Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	After all chance of frost has passed.

String beans are not cold tolerant which means that you really should wait until it warms up after the last frost has passed before you can plant them.

The earliest that you can plant string beans in Dodge City 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. Any later than that and 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

On average the last frost is on April 15 in Dodge City. It might get as low as -5°F during the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Dodge City may not be accurate from year to year the actual date of last frost is different every year. Half of the time in Dodge City there is a last frost after April 15 so just be sure to be ready to cover your string beans if you have a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Dodge City

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 Dodge City

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Dodge City.