One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us figure out 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.

The first chance to plant onions in Madison can be determined by reviewing the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Onions

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

Since onions are one of those plants that can tolerate quite a bit of cold weather you can plant them quite a bit earlier in the year than other plants that might not handle the cold.

The earliest that you can plant onions in Madison is February. However, you really should wait until March if you don't want to take any chances.

The last month that you can plant onions and expect a good harvest is probably September. If you wait any later than that and your onions may not have a chance to really do well. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your onions indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average all chance of frost has passed is on April 15 in Madison. In the coldest months of winter you can expect an average low temperature of 5°F.

Since the USDA zone info for Madison is not always accurate the actual date of last frost is different every year. Since half of the time in Madison you get surprised by a frost after April 15 be ready to cover your onions if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Madison

Here is the info for USDA Zone 7b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	October 15
Lowest Expected Low	5°F
Highest Expected Low	10°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is 5°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 10°F.

Plants to Grow in Madison

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