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.

The earliest that you can plant bell peppers in Ashland should be figured out 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 when the weather gets warmer.

Bell Peppers are not cold tolerant which means that it's important to wait until it warms up after the last frost before you can plant them.

The earliest that you can plant bell peppers in Ashland 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. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else 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

The average date of last frost is April 15 in Ashland. You should expect an average low temperature of -5°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Ashland is just an average the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Since half of the time in Ashland you get surprised by a frost after April 15 be ready to cover your bell peppers if you have a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Ashland

Here is the info for USDA Zone 6b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	October 15
Lowest Expected Low	-5°F
Highest Expected Low	0°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is -5°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 0°F.

Plants to Grow in Ashland

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