Yardlong bean · Beijing, Beijing, China
When to plant yardlong beans in Beijing
Main outdoor window
22 Apr - 13 May
The window this page is built around.
Timed from last spring frost
8 April
In Beijing, on your chosen risk.
Ready to pick
1 Jul - 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 Beijing
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
18 Mar - 8 Apr
Three weeks before your last frost, under cover or on a windowsill.
Sow direct
22 Apr - 13 May
Two weeks after your last frost.
Plant out
22 Apr - 13 May
Two weeks after your last frost.
Harvest
1 Jul - 31 Oct
Yardlong beans through the year
Against the frost risk in Beijing
Why these dates
Sow two weeks after the last frost onto warm soil, up a tall support. Pick at about 40cm, before the seeds swell, and pick every second day.
Killed at 0C. Growth stalls below 18C, so in cool summers the plant climbs without ever flowering usefully.
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. Yardlong beans are timed from 3 weeks before that frost for an indoor start, with planting out 2 weeks after it, and this page simply resolves those offsets against the frost date computed for Beijing.
The median frost-free season here is 203 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 Beijing
Other vegetables to time
Growing yardlong beans in Beijing
When should I plant yardlong beans in Beijing?
Aim for 22 Apr - 13 May in an average year. If you would rather not gamble on the weather, wait until 4-25 May - by then frost has finished in nine years out of ten.
When will yardlong beans be ready to harvest in Beijing?
Expect to start picking around 1 Jul - 31 Oct, based on 60 to 80 days to maturity from the planting date calculated for this location.
How much frost will yardlong beans tolerate?
Killed at 0C. Growth stalls below 18C, so in cool summers the plant climbs without ever flowering usefully.