One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us figure out your gardening schedule is the USDA zone info. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

By checking out the USDA zone info for Baton Rouge it's a good idea to determine 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 when the weather gets warmer.

Black pepper are not cold tolerant which means that you must wait until it warms up after the last frost when the weather gets warmer before you can plant them.

The earliest that you can plant black pepper in Baton Rouge 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 grow to maturity. You can get started a few weeks earlier by starting your black pepper indoors.

Last Frost Date

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

Just be sure to remember that the actual date of last frost is not always accurate because it is based on the USDA zone info for Baton Rouge and it changes from year to year. Since half of the time in Baton Rouge last frost occurs after March 15 be ready to protect your black pepper in the event of a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Baton Rouge

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 Baton Rouge

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Baton Rouge.