When to Plant Black pepper in Gardner, MA

The USDA Zone info is a great tool for gardeners to help us determine your gardening schedule. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

The first chance to plant black pepper in Gardner can be figured out by referring to 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 when the weather gets warmer.

It's not a good idea to plant black pepper until after the last frost when the weather gets warmer because they are not cold tolerant.

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 Gardner 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 really do well. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your black pepper indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost is on April 15 in Gardner. You can expect an average low temperature of -15°F in the coldest months of winter.

Keep in mind that the actual date of last frost is just an average because it is based on the USDA zone info for Gardner and it is different every year. Half of the time in Gardner you get surprised by a frost after April 15 so make sure that you are prepared to cover your black pepper in the event of a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Gardner

Here is the info for USDA Zone 5b.

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

Plants to Grow in Gardner

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