One of the first steps you take when you are making a decision about 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.

You can estimate when it's the best time to plant black pepper in Dubuque by checking out the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Black pepper

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

Since black pepper are not cold tolerant it is important to wait until after the last frost before you can plant them.

The earliest that you can plant black pepper in Dubuque 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. If you wait any later than that and your black pepper may not have a chance to fully mature. You can get started a little bit earlier by starting your black pepper indoors.

Last Frost Date

In Dubuque the average date of last frost happens on April 15. You can expect an average low temperature of -20°F in the coldest months of winter.

Remember that USDA zone info for Dubuque is just an average and the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Half of the time in Dubuque it frosts late in the year after April 15 so just be sure to be ready to cover your black pepper if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Dubuque

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 Dubuque

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