One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us determine your gardening schedule is the 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 figuring out when it's the best time to plant scarlet runner beans is to examine the USDA zone info for Alexandria.

Planting Calendar for Scarlet Runner Beans

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

Scarlet Runner Beans require warm weather which tells us that you must wait until it warms up after the last frost has passed before you can plant them.

The earliest that you can plant scarlet runner beans in Alexandria 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. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your scarlet runner beans may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your scarlet runner beans indoors.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is March 15 in Alexandria. You should expect an average low temperature of 15°F in the coldest months of winter.

It's important to remember that USDA zone info for Alexandria is just an average and the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Since half of the time in Alexandria you get a frost after March 15 be ready to cover your scarlet runner beans in the event of a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Alexandria

Here is the info for USDA Zone 8b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	March 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	November 15
Lowest Expected Low	15°F
Highest Expected Low	20°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 20°F.

Plants to Grow in Alexandria

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