One of the first steps you take when you are determining your gardening schedule is find your USDA Zone info. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

By looking at the USDA zone info for Marathon you should be able to figure out when it's possible 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.

Since black pepper do not do well in cold weather you really should wait until after all chance of frost has passed before you can plant them.

The earliest that you can plant black pepper in Marathon is January. However, you really should wait until February 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 November. 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. If you are starting your black pepper indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a couple of weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

In Marathon it never frosts. It might get as low as 45°F during the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Marathon is just an average the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Since it never frosts in Marathon you do not have to be ready to protect your black pepper if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Marathon

Here is the info for USDA Zone 11b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	Never
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	Never
Lowest Expected Low	45°F
Highest Expected Low	50°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is 45°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 50°F.

Plants to Grow in Marathon

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