When to Plant Onions in Turlock, CA

Before planting it is a good idea to find your USDA Zone info to figure out your garden schedule. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

One way of figuring out when it's the best time to plant onions is to consult the USDA zone info for Turlock.


Planting Calendar for Onions

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

Onions can survive in cold weather which means that you can plant them quite a bit earlier in the year 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 Turlock is January. However, you really should wait until February if you don't want to take any chances.

The last month that you can plant onions and expect a good harvest is probably October. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your onions may not have a chance to really do well. Starting your onions indoors is a great way to get them started a few weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost has passed is on February 15 in Turlock. You can expect an average low temperature of 25°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Turlock may not be accurate from year to year the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Since half of the time in Turlock last frost occurs after February 15 be ready to protect your onions in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Turlock

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 Turlock

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