One of the first steps you take when you are determining your gardening schedule is find your USDA Zone info. The most important data that the zone info tells us is average last frost and the lowest expected temperature for your area.

A common way of estimating when to plant black pepper is to use the USDA zone info for Pikeville.

Planting Calendar for Black pepper

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

Black pepper are not cold tolerant which means that you really should wait until it warms up after all chance of frost has passed before you can plant them.

The earliest that you can plant black pepper in Pikeville 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 all chance of frost has passed is on April 15 in Pikeville. In the coldest months of winter you can expect an average low temperature of 0°F.

Keep in mind that the actual date of last frost may not be accurate from year to year because it is based on the USDA zone info for Pikeville and it can change quite a bit from year to year. Half of the time in Pikeville last frost occurs after April 15 so make sure that you are prepared to protect your black pepper if you have a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Pikeville

Here is the info for USDA Zone 7a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	October 15
Lowest Expected Low	0°F
Highest Expected Low	5°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is 0°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 5°F.

Plants to Grow in Pikeville

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