The weather office regularly proves it's impossible to forecast 3+ days ahead with any high level of accuracy ;-)

What I do is start hardening off the during the week before the historical last risk frost date in my area (May 24). During that week the plants spend their nights inside. I'll then finish hardening them off to the point they are out 24 hours. I won't consider them 100% hardened off until they've spent at least two days in full sun.

I don't worry much about rain. Wind on the other hand can cause major problems for young plants.

To boil it down, my advice would be to start around your last frost date and be prepared to be flexible should conditions warrant.

Sorry MorugaMan. I know you wanted to hear you should start this weekend ;-)) I dying to get going like you. It's been a long winter!

Bill

When I planted my youngsters Bill, I was way more worried about wind than rain. Out here, we get what are called Santa Ana winds that can get up to 100 mph in certain areas. My backyard is fairly well protected by walls and fences though. Never had any problems though.

Stoney

I go by several indicators:

1- Average LFD is past.
2- plants are fully hardened off.
3- The lows in extended forecast is 42 and higher.

4- Be prepared to protect your plants JUST IN CASE extended forecast turns to be off. I put my plants (potted) under low hoops several nights. Now our lows can go down to 43F. That is ok with me and my plants.

YMMV.

MorugaMan - Don't rush your pepper plants out the door too soon here in MN. I'm in the twin city area and I've seen too many friends, co-workers, etc rush to get their plants outside and planted during the first couple weeks of May and end up buying replacements at the local store/nursery.

I agree with what Bill stated above - start hardening off the peppers the week before our average LFD.here. I will plant cooler weather crops in the earlier part of May. I typically don't plant the peppers in the ground till after Memorial Day, and the buckets after the LFD and by what the weather forecast is predicting.

Here's a forecast for Minneapolis in May. accuweather
And Greenthumbweather.com says your last frost date is usually pretty similar to mine 300 miles south of you. I try not to put my peppers out until night temperatures are reliably above 50. Which means around Memorial Day weekend. You can push it a little, but I've found they really don't get growing until night temps warm up.

Here is a link that might be useful: Greenthumbweather.com

Thank you a lot guys. I really needed some feedback. I'm just so excited to see these guys grow up. I appreciate the help