One of the first steps you take when you are getting a good idea 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 should be able to determine when you can plant bell peppers by reviewing the USDA zone info for Lansing.

Planting Calendar for Bell Peppers

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

Bell Peppers are not cold tolerant which means that you must wait until it warms up after the last frost has passed before you can plant them.

The earliest that you can plant bell peppers in Lansing 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. If you are starting your bell peppers indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a few weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost has passed is on April 15 in Lansing. In the coldest months of winter you should expect an average low temperature of -15°F.

Since the USDA zone info for Lansing is not always accurate the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Half of the time in Lansing there is a last frost after April 15 so make sure that you are ready to protect your bell peppers if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Lansing

Here is the info for USDA Zone 5b.

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

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is -15°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near -10°F.

Plants to Grow in Lansing

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