Runner bean · Stuttgart, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany
When to plant runner beans in Stuttgart
Main outdoor window
26 Apr - 10 May
The window this page is built around.
Timed from last spring frost
19 April
In Stuttgart, on your chosen risk.
Ready to pick
25 Jun - 15 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 Stuttgart
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.
Start indoors
5-19 Apr
Two weeks before your last frost, under cover or on a windowsill.
Sow direct
26 Apr - 10 May
One week after your last frost.
Plant out
26 Apr - 10 May
One week after your last frost.
Harvest
25 Jun - 15 Jul
Runner beans through the year
Against the frost risk in Stuttgart
Why these dates
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 kills the vine, but runner beans tolerate cool cloudy weather that would stall a French bean. Flowers drop above 30C.
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. Runner beans are timed from 2 weeks before that frost for an indoor start, with planting out 1 weeks after it, and this page simply resolves those offsets against the frost date computed for Stuttgart.
The median frost-free season here is 199 days, against 60 to 80 days to maturity for this crop counted from sowing. That margin is what decides whether a late sowing is worth attempting.
Also in Stuttgart
Other vegetables to time
Growing runner beans in Stuttgart
When should I plant runner beans in Stuttgart?
Aim for 26 Apr - 10 May in an average year. If you would rather not gamble on the weather, wait until 7-21 May - by then frost has finished in nine years out of ten.
When will runner beans be ready to harvest in Stuttgart?
Expect to start picking around 25 Jun - 15 Jul, based on 60 to 80 days to maturity from the planting date calculated for this location.
How much frost will runner beans tolerate?
Frost kills the vine, but runner beans tolerate cool cloudy weather that would stall a French bean. Flowers drop above 30C.