One of the first steps you take when you are making a decision about your gardening schedule is find your USDA Zone info. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

In Rockaway you can determine when to plant black pepper by checking out 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.

Black pepper require warm weather which tells us that it is important to wait until it warms up after the last frost before you can plant them.

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

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost when the weather gets warmer is on April 15 in Rockaway. It might get as low as -5°F during the coldest months of winter.

Always keep in mind that USDA zone info for Rockaway is just an average and the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Half of the time in Rockaway last frost occurs after April 15 so always be ready to protect your black pepper if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Rockaway

Here is the info for USDA Zone 6b.

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

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

Plants to Grow in Rockaway

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