When to Plant Green Beans in Texas: Fall Dates by Region
Planting dates for green beans from Texas A&M AgriLife Extension in Texas, with 50% frost dates from NOAA for Dallas Fort Worth Airport, Austin Bergstrom Airport, and Houston Intercontinental Airport and one worked case.
Updated
Figures checked against their sources on ; next check .
Texas is covered by Texas A&M AgriLife Extension’s own table, and green beans sit under the heading “Beans, snap bush”, in it as a separate row for 5 regions. The earliest date in the table is July 15 in Region I, and the latest is October 1 in Region V, a gap of 78 days. The guide says fall crops generally do better when started from transplants than from seed.
The green bean windows by region
Each cell in the table is copied as the source prints it.
| Region | Average fall planting date | Last optimum date |
|---|---|---|
| Region I | Jul 15 | — |
| Region II | Aug 1 | — |
| Region III | Sep 1 | — |
| Region IV | Sep 10 | — |
| Region V | Oct 1 | — |
Reading the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension table
A second table gives the last optimum dates for seeding or transplanting a few crops, including tomatoes and peppers. A third table pairs five Texas gardening zones with USDA hardiness zones from 6 to 9B, and the guide tells readers to compare their area’s USDA zone with the Texas zones.
Varieties Texas names
The source names 4 varieties for green beans: Blue Lake, Derby, Roma II, and Topcrop.
Nothing here is our pick. The list is copied from the source, and varieties it does not name are left out.
Do green beans get an indoor start?
Not every crop is started indoors. UNH’s list sows green beans in the garden, which is why the table below is short.
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 Texas’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 |
Frost dates for Texas 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.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dallas Fort Worth Airport, Texas | March 8 | November 24 | Not stated by the source |
| Austin Bergstrom Airport, Texas | March 12 | November 16 | Not stated by the source |
| Houston Intercontinental Airport, Texas | February 13 | December 9 | Not stated by the source |
| San Antonio International Airport, Texas | February 26 | November 28 | Not stated by the source |
| Waco Regional Airport, Texas | March 15 | November 15 | Not stated by the source |
Worked example
Pick Waco Regional Airport, Texas as the garden. Half of recent years saw their last spring 32°F night by March 15, and half saw their first fall one by November 15.
The guide does not say which region Waco Regional Airport belongs to, so use the ends of the table. Region I’s average planting date, July 15, is 123 days before the median first freeze; Region V’s, October 1, is 45 days before it.
This is arithmetic on two printed figures, not a forecast: it moves with the year, and your own garden can sit weeks away from the station. Look up the station nearest you in the frost dates tool and repeat the subtraction.
Before you rely on these dates
This is a fall guide, so it prints no spring dates; this page covers fall planting only.
Pencil the printed dates into a calendar, then adjust them after you have watched your own garden for a season.
Sources (3)
- Texas A&M AgriLife Extension (Larry Stein and Joe Masabni), Fall Vegetable Gardening Guide, EHT-056, May 2014 aggie-horticulture.tamu.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