Green bean · Zhongshan, Guangdong, China
When to plant green beans in Zhongshan
Main outdoor window
1-15 Feb
The window this page is built around.
Timed from last spring frost
25 January
In Zhongshan, on your chosen risk.
Ready to pick
23 Mar - 2 Apr
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 Zhongshan
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
1-15 Feb
One week after your last frost.
Harvest
23 Mar - 2 Apr
Green beans through the year
Against the frost risk in Zhongshan
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 Zhongshan.
The median frost-free season here is 329 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 Zhongshan
Other vegetables to time
Growing green beans in Zhongshan
When should I plant green beans in Zhongshan?
Aim for 1-15 Feb in an average year. If you would rather not gamble on the weather, wait until 1-15 Feb - by then frost has finished in nine years out of ten.
When will green beans be ready to harvest in Zhongshan?
Expect to start picking around 23 Mar - 2 Apr, 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.