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.

A way of figuring out when it's a good idea to plant scarlet runner beans is to refer to the USDA zone info for Carthage.

Planting Calendar for Scarlet Runner Beans

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

Scarlet Runner Beans require warm weather which means that you must wait until it warms up after the last frost has passed before you can plant them.

The earliest that you can plant scarlet runner beans in Carthage 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 scarlet runner beans and expect a good harvest is probably August. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your scarlet runner beans may not have a chance to really do well. You can get started a few weeks earlier by starting your scarlet runner beans indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost is on March 15 in Carthage. You can expect an average low temperature of 15°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Carthage is an average the actual date of last frost is different every year. Since half of the time in Carthage last frost occurs after March 15 be ready to protect your scarlet runner beans if you have a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Carthage

Here is the info for USDA Zone 8b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	March 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	November 15
Lowest Expected Low	15°F
Highest Expected Low	20°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 20°F.

Plants to Grow in Carthage

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