When to Plant Black pepper in Forest Park, IL

One of the first steps you take when you are getting a good idea 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.

A way of making a decision about when it's a good idea to plant black pepper is to use the USDA zone info for Forest Park.


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.

Black pepper are not cold tolerant which means that you really should wait until it warms up after the last frost before you can plant them.

JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Legend 
A good time to plant black pepper
Possibly ok, but a risky time to plant black pepper
Probably not a good time to plant black pepper

The earliest that you can plant black pepper in Forest Park 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. 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. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your black pepper indoors.

Last Frost Date

In Forest Park the average date of last frost happens on April 15. In the coldest months of winter you should expect an average low temperature of -10°F.

Keep in mind that USDA zone info for Forest Park is just an average and the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Half of the time in Forest Park you get surprised by a frost after April 15 so make sure that you are ready to cover your black pepper if you have a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Forest Park

Here is the info for USDA Zone 6a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)October 15
Lowest Expected Low-10°F
Highest Expected Low-5°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is -10°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near -5°F.

Plants to Grow in Forest Park

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Forest Park.