When to Plant Pearl onions in Milpitas, CA

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 earliest that you can plant pearl onions in Milpitas can be estimated by referring to the USDA zone info.


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.

Since pearl onions are barely cold tolerant you can plant them just a tiny bit earlier in the year than more sensitive plants.

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

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

Last Frost Date

On average all chance of frost has passed is on February 15 in Milpitas. It might get as low as 25°F during the coldest months of winter.

Remember that USDA zone info for Milpitas is just an average and the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Half of the time in Milpitas last frost occurs after February 15 so make sure that you are ready to cover your pearl onions in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Milpitas

Here is the info for USDA Zone 9b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)February 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)December 15
Lowest Expected Low25°F
Highest Expected Low30°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 30°F.

Plants to Grow in Milpitas

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