Lima bean · Jinshan, Shanghai, China
When to plant lima beans in Jinshan
Main outdoor window
16 Mar - 6 Apr
The window this page is built around.
Timed from last spring frost
2 March
In Jinshan, on your chosen risk.
Ready to pick
1 Aug - 31 Oct
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 Jinshan
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
16 Mar - 6 Apr
Two weeks after your last frost.
Harvest
1 Aug - 31 Oct
Lima beans through the year
Against the frost risk in Jinshan
Why these dates
Sow two weeks after the last frost into soil at 18C or warmer. Sowing into cold soil is the single commonest cause of failure with this crop.
Killed at 0C. Flowers drop rather than set if nights stay above 25C, so extreme heat is as much a problem as cold.
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. Lima beans are timed for direct sowing 2 weeks after it, and this page simply resolves those offsets against the frost date computed for Jinshan.
The median frost-free season here is 287 days, against 75 to 95 days to maturity for this crop counted from sowing. That margin is what decides whether a late sowing is worth attempting.
Also in Jinshan
Other vegetables to time
Growing lima beans in Jinshan
When should I plant lima beans in Jinshan?
Aim for 16 Mar - 6 Apr in an average year. If you would rather not gamble on the weather, wait until 28 Mar - 18 Apr - by then frost has finished in nine years out of ten.
When will lima beans be ready to harvest in Jinshan?
Expect to start picking around 1 Aug - 31 Oct, based on 75 to 95 days to maturity from the planting date calculated for this location.
How much frost will lima beans tolerate?
Killed at 0C. Flowers drop rather than set if nights stay above 25C, so extreme heat is as much a problem as cold.