One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us estimate your gardening schedule is the USDA zone info. The most important data that the zone info tells us is average last frost and the lowest expected temperature for your area.

A common way of determining when it's a good idea to plant bell peppers is to check out the USDA zone info for La Crescent.

Planting Calendar for Bell Peppers

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

It's probably a bad idea to plant bell peppers until after the last frost because they require warm weather.

The earliest that you can plant bell peppers in La Crescent is May. However, you really should wait until June 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 fully mature. 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 May 15 in La Crescent. You should expect an average low temperature of -25°F in the coldest months of winter.

Remember that USDA zone info for La Crescent is an average and the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Half of the time in La Crescent it frosts late in the year after May 15 so make sure that you are prepared to protect your bell peppers in the event of a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for La Crescent

Here is the info for USDA Zone 4b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	May 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	September 15
Lowest Expected Low	-25°F
Highest Expected Low	-20°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 -20°F.

Plants to Grow in La Crescent

You may be interested in your other planting guides for La Crescent.