One of the first steps you take when you are determining 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.

The first opportunity to plant black pepper in Scranton should be estimated by using 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.

Since black pepper are not cold tolerant you must wait until after the last frost before you can plant them.

The earliest that you can plant black pepper in Scranton 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 fully mature. You can get started a little bit earlier by starting your black pepper indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost has passed is on April 15 in Scranton. In the coldest months of winter you should expect an average low temperature of -10°F.

Since the USDA zone info for Scranton may not be accurate from year to year the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Half of the time in Scranton there is a last frost after April 15 so just be sure to be ready to protect your black pepper in the event of a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Scranton

Here is the info for USDA Zone 6a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	October 15
Lowest Expected Low	-10°F
Highest Expected Low	-5°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is -10°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near -5°F.

Plants to Grow in Scranton

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