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

You should be able to estimate when you can plant black pepper by referring to the USDA zone info for San Marcos.

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.

You really shouldn't plant black pepper until after the last frost because they require warm weather.

The earliest that you can plant black pepper in San Marcos 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 fully mature. You can get started a few weeks earlier by starting your black pepper indoors.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is March 15 in San Marcos. In the coldest months of winter you should expect an average low temperature of 15°F.

Since the USDA zone info for San Marcos may not be accurate from year to year the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Since half of the time in San Marcos it frosts late in the year after March 15 be ready to protect your black pepper in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for San Marcos

Here is the info for USDA Zone 8b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	March 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	November 15
Lowest Expected Low	15°F
Highest Expected Low	20°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is 15°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 20°F.

Plants to Grow in San Marcos

You may be interested in your other planting guides for San Marcos.