"Penelope Periwinkle" wrote in message
...

Be careful rushing your peppers, they really don't like having
their feet cold. I wait until there's a week of 50 F night's in
the long range forecasts before I'll put mine out. Oh, they'll
probably do ok in cooler weather, but they do become more
susceptible to disease, and often don't produce as well as they
might for the rest of the season.

Amen.

Peppers and tomats will survive just fine when night-time temps dip below
50°F (10°C), but they won/t thrive. My experience has shown season-long
production is much better when the plants are set later than sooner when the
wx has taken a turn for the warmer.

I prefer to wait until the average low temp is at least 55°F, which in my
Zone 7 mid-Atlantic coastal plain woods is mid-May. Trouble is, one never
knows in mid-March when I/m sowing seeds in flats under lights whether the
target temp will happen a week early (like last year), a week late (like
this year), or right on time (like the long-term average).