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 Tehachapi can be reffered to in order to figure out when it's the best time to plant black pepper.

Planting Calendar for Black pepper

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

Since black pepper require warm weather it's necessary to wait until after the last frost has passed before you can plant them.

The earliest that you can plant black pepper in Tehachapi 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. Any later than that and your black pepper may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your black pepper indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost is on March 15 in Tehachapi. In the coldest months of winter you should expect an average low temperature of 15°F.

It's important to remember that USDA zone info for Tehachapi is an average and the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Half of the time in Tehachapi you get surprised by a frost after March 15 so always be ready to protect your black pepper if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Tehachapi

Here is the info for USDA Zone 8b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	March 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	November 15
Lowest Expected Low	15°F
Highest Expected Low	20°F

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

Plants to Grow in Tehachapi

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