One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us determine your gardening schedule is the USDA zone info. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

A common way of estimating when it's possible to plant bell peppers is to refer to the USDA zone info for Sanford.

Planting Calendar for Bell Peppers

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

Bell Peppers require warm weather which tells us that it is important to wait until it warms up after all chance of frost has passed before you can plant them.

The earliest that you can plant bell peppers in Sanford 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 grow to maturity. You can get started a few weeks earlier by starting your bell peppers indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average all chance of frost has passed is on February 15 in Sanford. You should expect an average low temperature of 25°F in the coldest months of winter.

Remember that the actual date of last frost is just an average because it is based on the USDA zone info for Sanford and it is different every year. Since half of the time in Sanford last frost occurs after February 15 be ready to protect your bell peppers if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Sanford

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 Sanford

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Sanford.