One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us figure out 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.

One way of making a decision about when it's a good idea to plant runner beans is to examine the USDA zone info for De Soto.

Planting Calendar for Runner beans

Frost tolerance for runner beans:	Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	After the last frost when the weather gets warmer.

Runner beans do not do well in cold weather which means that it's important to wait until it warms up after all chance of frost has passed before you can plant them.

The earliest that you can plant runner beans in De Soto 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 grow to maturity. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your runner beans indoors.

Last Frost Date

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

Since the USDA zone info for De Soto is just an average the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Since half of the time in De Soto you get surprised by a frost after April 15 be ready to cover your runner beans if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for De Soto

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 De Soto

You may be interested in your other planting guides for De Soto.