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

By using the USDA zone info for Madison it's possible to estimate when you can plant string beans.

Planting Calendar for String beans

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

It's a bad idea to 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 Madison is May. However, you really should wait until June 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. Any later than that and your string beans may not have a chance to grow to maturity. If you are starting your string beans indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a couple of weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

In Madison the average date of last frost happens on May 15. You can expect an average low temperature of -25°F in the coldest months of winter.

It's important to remember that USDA zone info for Madison is just an average and the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Half of the time in Madison it frosts late in the year after May 15 so make sure that you are ready to protect your string beans if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Madison

Here is the info for USDA Zone 4b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	May 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	September 15
Lowest Expected Low	-25°F
Highest Expected Low	-20°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is -25°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near -20°F.

Plants to Grow in Madison

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