Green bean · Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
When to plant green beans in Edmonton
Main outdoor window
20 May - 3 Jun
The window this page is built around.
Timed from last spring frost
13 May
In Edmonton, on your chosen risk.
Ready to pick
9-19 Jul
If you plant at the start of the window.
The average last frost. Half of all years are later than this.
Step by step in Edmonton
Each window is a range, not a single day. Earlier in the range buys you a longer season; later in it buys you a safer one.
Sow direct
20 May - 3 Jun
One week after your last frost.
Harvest
9-19 Jul
Green beans through the year
Against the frost risk in Edmonton
Why these dates
Sow a short row every two weeks from one week after last frost until ten weeks before first frost. Beans crop heavily for a fortnight then decline, so succession matters more than quantity.
Beans are killed by the lightest frost at any stage. They also germinate poorly below 15C, so patience in spring pays.
Seed packets and extension guides express timing as weeks either side of the last spring frost, because that is the only reference point that travels. Green beans are timed for direct sowing 1 weeks after it, and this page simply resolves those offsets against the frost date computed for Edmonton.
The median frost-free season here is 137 days, against 50 to 60 days to maturity for this crop counted from sowing. That margin is what decides whether a late sowing is worth attempting.
Also in Edmonton
Other vegetables to time
Growing green beans in Edmonton
When should I plant green beans in Edmonton?
Aim for 20 May - 3 Jun in an average year. If you would rather not gamble on the weather, wait until 29 May - 12 Jun - by then frost has finished in nine years out of ten.
When will green beans be ready to harvest in Edmonton?
Expect to start picking around 9-19 Jul, based on 50 to 60 days to maturity from the planting date calculated for this location.
How much frost will green beans tolerate?
Beans are killed by the lightest frost at any stage. They also germinate poorly below 15C, so patience in spring pays.