Before planting it is a good idea to find your USDA Zone info to determine your garden schedule. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

The USDA zone info for Cortland can be reffered to in order to estimate when it's possible to plant bell peppers.

Planting Calendar for Bell Peppers

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

Since bell peppers do not do well in cold weather you need to wait until after the last frost when the weather gets warmer before you can plant them.

The earliest that you can plant bell peppers in Cortland 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 couple of weeks earlier by starting your bell peppers indoors.

Last Frost Date

In Cortland the average date of last frost happens on April 15. In the coldest months of winter you should expect an average low temperature of -15°F.

Always keep in mind that USDA zone info for Cortland is an average and the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Since half of the time in Cortland you get a frost after April 15 be ready to cover your bell peppers if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Cortland

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 Cortland

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