One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us determine 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.

A way of determining when to plant black pepper is to use the USDA zone info for Red Wing.

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.

Since black pepper require warm weather you need to wait until after the last frost before you can plant them.

The earliest that you can plant black pepper in Red Wing is May. However, you really should wait until June 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. If you are starting your black pepper indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a couple of weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

In Red Wing the average date of last frost happens on May 15. You can expect an average low temperature of -25°F in the coldest months of winter.

Keep in mind that the actual date of last frost is an average because it is based on the USDA zone info for Red Wing and it changes from year to year. Since half of the time in Red Wing it frosts late in the year after May 15 be ready to protect your black pepper if you have a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Red Wing

Here is the info for USDA Zone 4b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	May 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	September 15
Lowest Expected Low	-25°F
Highest Expected Low	-20°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is -25°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near -20°F.

Plants to Grow in Red Wing

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Red Wing.