One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us figure out 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.

One way of determining when you can plant bell peppers is to refer to the USDA zone info for Pacific.

Planting Calendar for Bell Peppers

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

You really shouldn't plant bell peppers until after all chance of frost has passed because they do not do well in cold weather.

The earliest that you can plant bell peppers in Pacific 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 really do well. 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 all chance of frost has passed is on March 15 in Pacific. It might get as low as 15°F during the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Pacific is an average the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Half of the time in Pacific you get a frost after March 15 so make sure that you are ready to cover your bell peppers if you have a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Pacific

Here is the info for USDA Zone 8b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	March 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	November 15
Lowest Expected Low	15°F
Highest Expected Low	20°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 20°F.

Plants to Grow in Pacific

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