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 runner beans is to check out the USDA zone info for West Columbia.

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 require warm weather it is necessary to wait until after all chance of frost has passed before you can plant them.

The earliest that you can plant runner beans in West Columbia 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. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your runner beans may not have a chance to really do well. 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 March 15 in West Columbia. You can expect an average low temperature of 10°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for West Columbia is just an average the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Half of the time in West Columbia last frost occurs after March 15 so be sure to be ready to protect your runner beans in the event of a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for West Columbia

Here is the info for USDA Zone 8a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	March 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	November 15
Lowest Expected Low	10°F
Highest Expected Low	15°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 15°F.

Plants to Grow in West Columbia

You may be interested in your other planting guides for West Columbia.