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When to plant Snap Beans (Bush)

Computed from land-grant Extension planting-window rules (cited below), localized to real ZIP-level median frost dates, not a single national guess. These are national-generic rules by hardiness class; individual state Extension offices layer their own regional adjustment on top (earlier in the Deep South, later in the Upper Midwest). Enter your ZIP for your own dates, or read the four representative locations below.

Planting windows and crop timing here are computed from USDA/NOAA climate data and the university extension sources cited below, not a site visit or soil test. Treat this as a starting point: local conditions vary, and a local nursery or extension office can advise on your exact site. See our full Disclaimer.

Representative timing, by climate band

When to plant Snap Beans (Bush) in four US climates

Each column is the most nursery-dense location in our directory within that USDA zone band, computed from that location's own real median frost dates, not a made-up example.

Stage Zones 1-5 (cold winters)
Fort Plain, NY 		Zones 6-7 (temperate)
McMinnville, TN 		Zones 8-9 (warm)
Apopka, FL 		Zones 10-13 (hot, frost rare or absent)
Loxahatchee, FL
Start seed indoors Not available Not available Not available –
Direct-sow outside May 6–May 20 Apr 7–Apr 21 Feb 24–Mar 10 –
Transplant outside Not available Not available Not available –
Fall planting Not available Not available Not available –
Expected harvest Jun 25–Jul 19 May 27–Jun 20 Apr 15–May 9 –

Zones 10-13 (hot, frost rare or absent) (Loxahatchee, FL): Frost is rare here (about 359 frost-free days a year); most years see little or no hard freeze. This is a tender crop. In climates like this one, tender and very-tender crops typically go in before the hottest months arrive, not on a frost-relative schedule.

Bush snap beans go into the ground right up to two weeks after your last frost. Colorado State University Extension's own bean row does not separate bush from pole types, but its tender classification and 55°F minimum soil temperature (Fact Sheet 7.212) are used here as the crop-specific figures; Purdue Extension's general Table 3 (HO-186-W) gives a slightly higher 60°F floor for beans, noted here as the alternate figure.

Days to maturity run 50 to 60, from Virginia Cooperative Extension, NC State Extension, and Missouri Extension, which separate bush beans from pole beans and agree closely with each other on this range.

As a tender crop, a cold-winter climate can seed bush beans right at the frost date up to two weeks after, once soil reaches the 55-to-60°F range; a mild-winter climate reaches that soil temperature sooner and seeds correspondingly earlier under the same rule.

Bush beans are direct-seed only at the nursery, sold as seed rather than as transplants, and need no trellis, unlike their pole relatives.

Frost hardiness

Tender. Damaged or killed by frost. Plant after the last frost date.

Minimum soil temperature

55°F

For direct sowing/germination, where an Extension source stated it.

Days to maturity

50–60

Sourcing notes

From direct seed. CSU (55F) and PURDUE (60F, Table 3) give slightly different min soil temps for beans generally; used CSU's crop-specific 55F, PURDUE's 60F noted as the alternate. CSU's own bean row does not separate bush vs pole; VCE/NCSU/MOEXT do and are used for the bush-specific DTM (50-60 days).

Related crops

Growing zones for this crop

Nurseries near these locations

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Sources