When to Plant Peppers in Zones 5-6 (2026)

Peppers need a longer head start indoors than most garden vegetables, and they’re pickier than tomatoes about when they go outside. Get the two dates right and they take off; get them wrong and the plants sulk in cold soil for weeks.

The two dates that matter

University of Minnesota Extension’s guide to growing peppers puts it plainly: start seeds indoors about eight weeks before you plan to plant outside, and wait to transplant until nighttime low temperatures are reliably above 50°F (about 10°C) — not just until the last frost has passed.

That second point is easy to miss. A frost-free night can still dip into the 40s, and peppers stall (or drop their flowers) in that kind of cold even without a frost. Use your own average last-frost date as a floor, not a green light, and use the planting calendar calculator to work out your indoor-start window from it.

Worked example

Suppose your average last frost date is May 10.

• Start seeds indoors: about eight weeks earlier, so around March 15.
• Transplant outdoors: once nighttime lows are staying above 50°F, which is often one to two weeks after the last frost date in zone 5-6, not right on it. Check an actual nighttime-low forecast before you plant — this article can’t tell you the date that happens in your yard this particular year.

Before you transplant, check off