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.

The earliest that you can plant pole beans in Rochester can be estimated by checking out the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Pole beans

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

Since pole beans are not cold tolerant you really should wait until after the last frost before you can plant them.

The earliest that you can plant pole beans in Rochester 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 pole beans and expect a good harvest is probably August. If you wait any later than that and your pole beans may not have a chance to fully mature. If you are starting your pole 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 Rochester. In the coldest months of winter you can expect an average low temperature of -15°F.

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

USDA Zone Info for Rochester

Here is the info for USDA Zone 5b.

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

Plants to Grow in Rochester

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