When to Plant Green Beans in South Carolina: Spring and Fall Dates, Coastal and Piedmont

Clemson Cooperative Extension’s own green beans dates for South Carolina, row by row and never averaged, beside NOAA frost dates for Charleston International Airport, Columbia Owens Downtown Airport, and Greenville Downtown Airport.

By Paul Gunder · How we check our sources

Updated November 11, 2026

Figures checked against their sources on November 11, 2026; next check May 8, 2027.

South Carolina is covered by Clemson Cooperative Extension’s own table, and green beans sit under the heading “Beans, Snap”, in it as a separate row for 2 regions. The earliest date in the table is April 1 in Coastal, and the latest is April 15 in Piedmont, a gap of 14 days. Nothing on this row separates seed from transplants.

South Carolina’s dates, row by row

In Clemson’s spacing table the same crop is listed at 50-60 days to harvest, 36 x 2 inches between rows and plants.

Green bean planting dates in South Carolina, as printed by Clemson Cooperative Extension (one row per region, none averaged)
Region	Spring planting	Fall planting
Coastal	Apr 1 to Jun 1	Aug 1 to Sept 1
Piedmont	Apr 15 to Jul 1	Jul 20 to Aug 1

What to know about this source

The factsheet lists the counties of each gardening region: Greenville, Anderson and York are Piedmont counties, while Charleston, Florence and Richland are Coastal Plain counties. Clemson says that, knowing the days a crop needs to reach maturity, a gardener can work out the planting time for seeds and transplants from the average first and last freeze dates in their area.

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 South Carolina’s printed window and UNH’s rule of thumb can be set side by side.

Indoor start for green beans: what each saved source says (one row per source, none averaged)
Source	What it says
University of New Hampshire	Not started indoors; sow seed after the last frost

Frost dates for South Carolina cities

These are station dates from weather records, not county averages. Pick the station closest to your garden and elevation, and open its link for the full set of probabilities.

A station is tied to a region of the calendar only where the source’s own wording makes that call; the rest are left blank on purpose.

NOAA 1991-2020 normals for South Carolina stations: 50% last spring and first fall 32°F dates
Station	Last spring 32°F	First fall 32°F	Region in South Carolina’s calendar
Charleston International Airport, South Carolina	March 7	November 27	Coastal
Columbia Owens Downtown Airport, South Carolina	March 13	November 19	Coastal
Greenville Downtown Airport, South Carolina	March 16	November 20	Piedmont
Florence Regional Airport, South Carolina	March 19	November 13	Coastal
Rock Hill York County Airport, South Carolina	March 31	November 4	Piedmont

Worked example

Take Rock Hill York County Airport, South Carolina. NOAA’s 1991-2020 normals put the 50% last spring 32°F night on March 31 and the 50% first fall one on November 4.

Set the frost date against Piedmont: the window opens April 15, 15 days after it, and shuts July 1, 92 days after it.

On the fall side, Piedmont’s last planting date of August 1 leaves 95 days before the November 4 median first freeze.

None of this predicts next spring. It only lines up two published sets of dates; swap in your own station from the frost dates tool and the same steps apply.

Before you rely on these dates

The factsheet was last revised in February 2021.

Weather in the week of planting matters more than the printed date; use it to nudge the start earlier or later.

Sources (3)