One of the first steps you take when you are making a decision about 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.

It's a good idea to figure out when to plant string beans by reviewing the USDA zone info for Washington.

Planting Calendar for String beans

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

You should not plant string beans until after the last frost has passed because they do not do well in cold weather.

The earliest that you can plant string beans in Washington 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 grow to maturity. You can get started a few weeks earlier by starting your string beans indoors.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is April 15 in Washington. It might get as low as -10°F during the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Washington is an average the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Since half of the time in Washington last frost occurs after April 15 be ready to protect your string beans in the event of a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Washington

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 Washington

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