Vegetable · Fabaceae
When to plant runner beans
Hardier than French beans in cool damp summers and far more productive over a long season.
Start seed indoors
2 weeks before
Counted from your last spring frost.
Plant out
1 week after
Counted from your last spring frost.
Sow direct
1 week after
Counted from your last spring frost.
Those weeks become real dates once you name a place.
Timing, in frost-relative terms
Seed packets rarely give calendar dates, because a date that suits one latitude is wrong at another. They give offsets from the last spring frost instead, and those offsets are what make runner beans plantable anywhere.
- Start seed indoors 2 weeks before the last frost.
- Plant out 1 week after the last frost.
- Sow direct 1 week after the last frost.
- Expect 60–80 days to maturity, counted from sowing.
Getting the timing right
Two weeks in pots gives a head start and protects seed from mice. Plant out once the supports are up and frost risk has passed.
Frost tolerance
Frost kills the vine, but runner beans tolerate cool cloudy weather that would stall a French bean. Flowers drop above 30C.
Classified as tender, with damage expected below 0°C (32°F)32°F (0°C).