When to Plant Green Beans in Missouri: Spring and Fall Dates for South, Central and North Missouri
MU Extension, University of Missouri’s own green beans dates for Missouri, row by row and never averaged, beside NOAA frost dates for Kansas City International Airport, St Louis Lambert International Airport, and Columbia Regional Airport.
Updated
Figures checked against their sources on ; next check .
The green bean entry under the heading “Bean, Snap, bush” in Missouri’s calendar is read across 3 regions. Reading down the first date column, South Missouri leads at April 5 and North Missouri trails at April 25. Nothing on this row separates seed from transplants.
Missouri’s dates, row by row
MU lists snap pole beans on a row of their own, at 4/20–5/15 in South Missouri, 5/1–20 in Central Missouri and 5/10–20 in North Missouri, with no second date.
| Region | Spring planting | Fall planting |
|---|---|---|
| South Missouri | 4/5–5/10 | 8/1–20 |
| Central Missouri | 4/15–5/20 | 7/25–8/10 |
| North Missouri | 4/25–5/30 | 7/25–8/5 |
How the Missouri calendar is built
Gardeners in the Ozark Plateau use the North dates, MU says, because the higher elevation there brings later spring frosts and earlier fall frosts. When a fall crop is possible, a second set of dates is listed under the dates for spring planting.
Varieties MU names
If you want names to look for, the source lists Contender, Provider, Derby, Strike, Tema, Tendercrop, Top Crop, Purple Queen, Kentucky Wonder, Blue Lake, and Romano.
We have not tested any of these, and the page adds no names of its own.
Do green beans get an indoor start?
Indoor starts are not part of the usual routine here: in UNH’s list, green beans are sown where they will grow.
UNH lists beans as a seed crop sown after the last frost, with no indoor start, so the saved sources give no seed-starting weeks for beans at all.
UNH’s own timing for green beans is after the last frost, so Missouri’s printed window and UNH’s rule of thumb can be set side by side.
| Source | What it says |
|---|---|
| University of New Hampshire | Not started indoors; sow seed after the last frost |
Where the frost dates fall in Missouri
NOAA’s 1991-2020 normals give nine probability levels for each station; the table keeps only the middle one, the even-odds date, and the links open the rest.
The source leaves it to the reader to place a city among its regions, and this table does not make that call.
| Station | Last spring 32°F | First fall 32°F | Region in the calendar |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kansas City International Airport, Missouri | April 13 | October 24 | Not stated by the source |
| St Louis Lambert International Airport, Missouri | April 2 | November 4 | Not stated by the source |
| Columbia Regional Airport, Missouri | April 7 | October 29 | Not stated by the source |
| Branson Airport, Missouri | April 8 | November 2 | Not stated by the source |
| Cape Girardeau Municipal Airport, Missouri | April 5 | October 25 | Not stated by the source |
Worked example
Pick Cape Girardeau Municipal Airport, Missouri as the garden. Half of recent years saw their last spring 32°F night by April 5, and half saw their first fall one by October 25.
The calendar does not say which region Cape Girardeau Municipal Airport belongs to, so set the date against the rows at each end. South Missouri opens April 5, the same day as that date; North Missouri opens April 25, 20 days after it.
The offsets will shift by a few days with every revision of the normals, so use them as a rough guide to which row to trust and not as a deadline.
Before you rely on these dates
The county map that decides your region is an image in the MU publication; this page does not reproduce it, so check your region there.
A late cold snap after a mild March is the usual way these windows go wrong; keep a sheet or row cover on hand.
Sources (4)
- MU Extension, University of Missouri (David H. Trinklein), Vegetable Planting Calendar, G6201, page 3 (Table 2, recommended varieties and planting dates) extension.missouri.edu
- MU Extension, University of Missouri (David H. Trinklein), Vegetable Planting Calendar, G6201, reviewed February 2016 extension.missouri.edu
- NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, U.S. Climate Normals 1991-2020, annual and seasonal normals (frost/freeze probabilities by station) ncei.noaa.gov
- University of New Hampshire Cooperative Extension, Growing Vegetables: When to Plant Your Vegetable Garden (fact sheet) extension.unh.edu