Zone 5 - Peppers

[nes]

Mine are BEGGING to go outside, anyone know if it's safe yet?
We got a little cold weather this week but the long-term trend looks like it's going to keep going up. May 24 is the traditional weekend for more delicate plants around here, but we're not going to be home.

My zucchini would also like to go out & play now

[lildenvergarden]

I don't know where you are in Zone 5, but I was just watching the news here in Denver, CO last night & they were talking about this very thing! The expert said it's ok to go ahead with any perennials and hardy annuals, but hold off a couple weeks for any tender veggies (e.g., tomatoes, peppers, etc.). Unless you have some nice backup plants in case the ones you want to put out don't make it, I would wait til you come back.

Better to delay your growing season a week or two than kill your plant & completely lose out, huh?

[kgall]

We had frost 2 days this week so I am waiting for most of my stuff!

I think I will try to put in my beans and hope for the best...I have so many seeds that if they freeze I can just start again with not much lost.

My tomatoes and pepper are waiting at least a couple of weeks. I am trying to harden them off but it is either really windy or cloudy lately!

[jal_ut]

The hardiness zone only tells you you how cold it is likely to get in winter, it doesn't say much about when your last frost may be in the spring. Someone may have records and can tell you when the average last frost date is. I usually wait 2 weeks beyond that to plant out tender plants. Do a google search if you don't already have that information. I would rather wait another week than lose the plants to a late frost.

[BrianSkilton]

Right now I have most everything out, cold weather stuff is going crazy. Beans I just put out and my tomatoes and peppers are all in WOW's. So if you don't have any protection I would hold off just a bit... (I'm zone 4b)

[pepper4]

I am not sure if it's safe or not and I may have jumped the gun but I bought 8 pepper plants yesterday and planted them in large pots. I believe I am in zone 6. From the sounds of it maybe I should of waited a few weeks but I am going to keep my fingers crossed. Anybody else from my zone have peppers out yet?

[garden5]

My last frost is May 15 so I'm waiting to put them out next weekend, just to be sure. I had a pretty late frost last year, but this week's forecast looks good.