One of the first steps you take when you are determining your gardening schedule is find your USDA Zone info. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

You can estimate when to plant bell peppers in Palm Desert by looking at the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Bell Peppers

Frost tolerance for bell peppers:	Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	After the last frost has passed.

You can not plant bell peppers until after the last frost when the weather gets warmer because they are not cold tolerant.

The earliest that you can plant bell peppers in Palm Desert is March. However, you really should wait until April if you don't want to take any chances.

The last month that you can plant bell peppers and expect a good harvest is probably September. Any later than that and your bell peppers may not have a chance to fully mature. You can get started a little bit earlier by starting your bell peppers indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost is on February 15 in Palm Desert. You can expect an average low temperature of 25°F in the coldest months of winter.

Keep in mind that USDA zone info for Palm Desert may not be accurate from year to year and the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Since half of the time in Palm Desert there is a last frost after February 15 be ready to protect your bell peppers if you have a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Palm Desert

Here is the info for USDA Zone 9b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	February 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	December 15
Lowest Expected Low	25°F
Highest Expected Low	30°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is 25°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 30°F.

Plants to Grow in Palm Desert

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Palm Desert.