When to Plant Bell Peppers in Sullivan, IL

One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us estimate 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 way of figuring out when it's possible to plant bell peppers is to consult the USDA zone info for Sullivan.

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Planting Calendar for Bell Peppers

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

It's a bad idea to plant bell peppers until after the last frost because they do not do well in cold weather.

JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Legend 
A good time to plant bell peppers
Possibly ok, but a risky time to plant bell peppers
Probably not a good time to plant bell peppers

The earliest that you can plant bell peppers in Sullivan is April. However, you really should wait until May 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 August. If you wait 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 the last frost has passed is on April 15 in Sullivan. You should expect an average low temperature of -10°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Sullivan is an average the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Half of the time in Sullivan it frosts late in the year after April 15 so just be sure to be ready to cover your bell peppers in the event of a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Sullivan

Here is the info for USDA Zone 6a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)October 15
Lowest Expected Low-10°F
Highest Expected Low-5°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is -10°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near -5°F.

Plants to Grow in Sullivan

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