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

A common way of making a decision about when to plant black pepper is to refer to the USDA zone info for Hugo.

Planting Calendar for Black pepper

Frost tolerance for black pepper:	Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	After all chance of frost has passed.

Since black pepper require warm weather it is important to wait until after the last frost when the weather gets warmer before you can plant them.

The earliest that you can plant black pepper in Hugo is May. However, you really should wait until June if you don't want to take any chances.

The last month that you can plant black pepper and expect a good harvest is probably August. If you wait any later than that and your black pepper may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a few weeks earlier by starting your black pepper indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average all chance of frost has passed is on May 15 in Hugo. In the coldest months of winter you can expect an average low temperature of -25°F.

Since the USDA zone info for Hugo may not be accurate from year to year the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Half of the time in Hugo it frosts late in the year after May 15 so always be ready to cover your black pepper if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Hugo

Here is the info for USDA Zone 4b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	May 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	September 15
Lowest Expected Low	-25°F
Highest Expected Low	-20°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is -25°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near -20°F.

Plants to Grow in Hugo

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