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

A common way of estimating when it's a good idea to plant black pepper is to refer to the USDA zone info for Colusa.

Planting Calendar for Black pepper

Frost tolerance for black pepper:	Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	After the last frost when the weather gets warmer.

It's a bad idea to plant black pepper until after the last frost has passed because they require warm weather.

The earliest that you can plant black pepper in Colusa is March. However, you really should wait until April 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. If you wait any later than that and 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 few weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is February 15 in Colusa. It might get as low as 25°F during the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Colusa is not always accurate the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Half of the time in Colusa there is a last frost after February 15 so be sure to be ready to cover your black pepper in the event of a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Colusa

Here is the info for USDA Zone 9b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	February 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	December 15
Lowest Expected Low	25°F
Highest Expected Low	30°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 30°F.

Plants to Grow in Colusa

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