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 USDA zone info for Whitewater can be reffered to in order to estimate when it's a good idea 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 has passed.

You should not 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 Whitewater 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 fully mature. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your black pepper indoors.

Last Frost Date

In Whitewater the average date of last frost happens on April 15. It might get as low as -20°F during the coldest months of winter.

It's important to remember that USDA zone info for Whitewater is just an average and the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Half of the time in Whitewater last frost occurs after April 15 so be sure to be ready to protect your black pepper if you have a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Whitewater

Here is the info for USDA Zone 5a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	October 15
Lowest Expected Low	-20°F
Highest Expected Low	-15°F

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

Plants to Grow in Whitewater

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