Broad bean · Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
When to plant broad beans in Edmonton
Main outdoor window
18 Mar - 8 Apr
The window this page is built around.
Timed from last spring frost
13 May
In Edmonton, on your chosen risk.
Ready to pick
6-26 Jun
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
18 Mar - 8 Apr
Eight weeks before your last frost.
Harvest
6-26 Jun
Broad beans through the year
Against the frost risk in Edmonton
Why these dates
Sow in autumn in zones 7 and warmer for an early summer crop, or eight weeks before last frost in colder regions. Autumn sowings also dodge the worst of blackfly.
Survives -10C once established, and light snow cover helps rather than harms. Very young seedlings going into deep cold are the only real risk.
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. Broad beans are timed for direct sowing 8 weeks before 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 80 to 100 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 broad beans in Edmonton
When should I plant broad beans in Edmonton?
Aim for 18 Mar - 8 Apr in an average year. If you would rather not gamble on the weather, wait until 27 Mar - 17 Apr - by then frost has finished in nine years out of ten.
When will broad beans be ready to harvest in Edmonton?
Expect to start picking around 6-26 Jun, based on 80 to 100 days to maturity from the planting date calculated for this location.
How much frost will broad beans tolerate?
Survives -10C once established, and light snow cover helps rather than harms. Very young seedlings going into deep cold are the only real risk.