Before planting it is a good idea to find your USDA Zone info to figure out your garden schedule. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

The USDA zone info for Rapid City should be used to determine when it's a good idea to plant black pepper.

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 do not do well in cold weather you have to wait until after the last frost before you can plant them.

The earliest that you can plant black pepper in Rapid City is April. However, you really should wait until May 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. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your black pepper may not have a chance to really do well. You can get started a few weeks earlier by starting your black pepper indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost when the weather gets warmer is on April 15 in Rapid City. In the coldest months of winter you can expect an average low temperature of -20°F.

Since the USDA zone info for Rapid City may not be accurate from year to year the actual date of last frost is different every year. Half of the time in Rapid City you get surprised by a frost after April 15 so make sure that you are prepared to cover your black pepper in the event of a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Rapid City

Here is the info for USDA Zone 5a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	October 15
Lowest Expected Low	-20°F
Highest Expected Low	-15°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is -20°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near -15°F.

Plants to Grow in Rapid City

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Rapid City.