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

A common way of determining when it's a good idea to plant pearl onions is to check out the USDA zone info for Tuscaloosa.

Planting Calendar for Pearl onions

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

Pearl onions tend to make it in a tiny bit of cold which means that you can plant them a bit earlier in the year than other frost tender plants.

The earliest that you can plant pearl onions in Tuscaloosa 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 pearl onions and expect a good harvest is probably August. Any later than that and your pearl onions may not have a chance to fully mature. Starting your pearl onions indoors is a great way to get them started a little bit earlier.

Last Frost Date

On average all chance of frost has passed is on March 15 in Tuscaloosa. It might get as low as 10°F during the coldest months of winter.

Remember that USDA zone info for Tuscaloosa is an average and the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Half of the time in Tuscaloosa there is a last frost after March 15 so be sure to be ready to cover your pearl onions in the event of a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Tuscaloosa

Here is the info for USDA Zone 8a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	March 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	November 15
Lowest Expected Low	10°F
Highest Expected Low	15°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 15°F.

Plants to Grow in Tuscaloosa

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