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 figuring out when to plant black pepper is to consult the USDA zone info for Carpinteria.

Planting Calendar for Black pepper

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

You can not plant black pepper until after all chance of frost has passed because they do not do well in cold weather.

The earliest that you can plant black pepper in Carpinteria is February. However, you really should wait until March 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 September. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your black pepper may not have a chance to grow to maturity. If you are starting your black pepper indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a little bit earlier.

Last Frost Date

In Carpinteria the average date of last frost happens on January 31. It might get as low as 30°F during the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Carpinteria is an average the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Half of the time in Carpinteria you get a frost after January 31 so make sure that you are prepared to protect your black pepper in the event of a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Carpinteria

Here is the info for USDA Zone 10a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	January 31
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	December 15
Lowest Expected Low	30°F
Highest Expected Low	35°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is 30°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 35°F.

Plants to Grow in Carpinteria

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