The USDA Zone info is a great tool for gardeners to help us estimate your gardening schedule. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

A way of determining when you can plant onions is to use the USDA zone info for East Peoria.

Planting Calendar for Onions

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

Onions do well in quite a bit of cold which means that you can plant them earlier in the year than plants that are more sensitive to the cold.

The earliest that you can plant onions in East Peoria 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. Any later than that and your onions may not have a chance to really do well. Starting your onions indoors is a great way to get them started a couple of weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost is on April 15 in East Peoria. You should expect an average low temperature of -15°F in the coldest months of winter.

Just be sure to remember that USDA zone info for East Peoria is not always accurate and the actual date of last frost is different every year. Half of the time in East Peoria you get surprised by a frost after April 15 so make sure that you are ready to protect your onions if you have a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for East Peoria

Here is the info for USDA Zone 5b.

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

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is -15°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near -10°F.

Plants to Grow in East Peoria

You may be interested in your other planting guides for East Peoria.