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 Battle Creek should be reffered to in order to estimate when it's a good idea to plant runner beans.

Planting Calendar for Runner beans

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

Since runner beans are not cold tolerant you need to wait until after the last frost before you can plant them.

The earliest that you can plant runner beans in Battle Creek 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 runner beans and expect a good harvest is probably August. Any later than that and your runner beans may not have a chance to fully mature. If you are starting your runner beans indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a few weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is April 15 in Battle Creek. You should expect an average low temperature of -10°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Battle Creek is an average the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Half of the time in Battle Creek it frosts late in the year after April 15 so make sure that you are prepared to cover your runner beans in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Battle Creek

Here is the info for USDA Zone 6a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	October 15
Lowest Expected Low	-10°F
Highest Expected Low	-5°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is -10°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near -5°F.

Plants to Grow in Battle Creek

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Battle Creek.