Before planting it is a good idea to find your USDA Zone info to figure out your garden schedule. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

The USDA zone info for Sikeston should be reffered to in order to estimate 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.

It's a bad idea to plant black pepper until after the last frost has passed because they are not cold tolerant.

The earliest that you can plant black pepper in Sikeston 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. If you are starting your black pepper indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a little bit earlier.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost when the weather gets warmer is on April 15 in Sikeston. It might get as low as 0°F during the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Sikeston is an average the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Since half of the time in Sikeston you get surprised by a frost after April 15 be ready to cover your black pepper in the event of a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Sikeston

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 Sikeston

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