One of the first steps you take when you are estimating 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.

The USDA zone info for Bethlehem can be used to estimate when it's the best time to plant nicotiana.

Planting Calendar for Nicotiana

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

It's not a good idea to plant nicotiana until after the last frost has passed because they are not cold tolerant.

The earliest that you can plant nicotiana in Bethlehem 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 nicotiana and expect a good harvest is probably August. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your nicotiana may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a few weeks earlier by starting your nicotiana indoors.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is April 15 in Bethlehem. It might get as low as -5°F during the coldest months of winter.

It's important to remember that USDA zone info for Bethlehem is just an average and the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Half of the time in Bethlehem last frost occurs after April 15 so make sure that you are prepared to protect your nicotiana in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Bethlehem

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 Bethlehem

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