One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us determine your gardening schedule is the USDA zone info. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

One way of determining when it's a good idea to plant scallions is to refer to the USDA zone info for East Alton.

Planting Calendar for Scallions

Frost tolerance for scallions:	Tolerant of a very small amount of frost.
When to plant:	Up to 3 weeks before last frost.

You can plant scallions just a tiny bit earlier in the year because they do ok in moderate cold.

The earliest that you can plant scallions in East Alton is March. However, you really should wait until April if you don't want to take any chances.

The last month that you can plant scallions and expect a good harvest is probably August. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your scallions may not have a chance to really do well. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your scallions indoors.

Last Frost Date

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

Since the USDA zone info for East Alton is not always accurate the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Since half of the time in East Alton you get a frost after April 15 be ready to cover your scallions in the event of a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for East Alton

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 East Alton

You may be interested in your other planting guides for East Alton.