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.

It's a good idea to determine when it's the best time to plant black pepper by reviewing the USDA zone info for Aiken.

Planting Calendar for Black pepper

Frost tolerance for black pepper:	Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	After all chance of frost has passed.

Black pepper are not cold tolerant which means that you must wait until it warms up after the last frost has passed before you can plant them.

The earliest that you can plant black pepper in Aiken 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. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else 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 all chance of frost has passed is on March 15 in Aiken. It might get as low as 10°F during the coldest months of winter.

Just be sure to remember that the actual date of last frost is not always accurate because it is based on the USDA zone info for Aiken and it changes from year to year. Since half of the time in Aiken you get surprised by a frost after March 15 be ready to protect your black pepper in the event of a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Aiken

Here is the info for USDA Zone 8a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	March 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	November 15
Lowest Expected Low	10°F
Highest Expected Low	15°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 15°F.

Plants to Grow in Aiken

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