When to Plant Onions in Palmer, AK

The USDA Zone info is a great tool for gardeners to help us estimate your gardening schedule. The most important data that the zone info tells us is average last frost and the lowest expected temperature for your area.

A way of estimating when to plant onions is to use the USDA zone info for Palmer.


Planting Calendar for Onions

Frost tolerance for onions: Very tolerant of frost.
When to plant: Up to 7 weeks before last frost.

Onions are one of those plants that can tolerate quite a bit of cold weather which tells us that you can get them planted much earlier than other frost tender plants.

JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Legend 
A good time to plant onions
Possibly ok, but a risky time to plant onions
Probably not a good time to plant onions

The earliest that you can plant onions in Palmer 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 onions and expect a good harvest is probably August. Any later than that and your onions may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a little bit earlier by starting your onions indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average all chance of frost has passed is on May 15 in Palmer. You can expect an average low temperature of -25°F in 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 Palmer and it is different every year. Since half of the time in Palmer it frosts late in the year after May 15 be ready to cover your onions in the event of a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Palmer

Here is the info for USDA Zone 4b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)May 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)September 15
Lowest Expected Low-25°F
Highest Expected Low-20°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is -25°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near -20°F.

Plants to Grow in Palmer

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