When to Plant Pearl onions in Edwardsville, IL

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 USDA zone info for Edwardsville should be reviewed to figure out when to plant pearl onions.


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 one of those plants that can tolerate a tiny bit of cold weather you can plant them slightly earlier in the year than other frost tender 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 Edwardsville 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. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your pearl onions may not have a chance to grow to maturity. If you are starting your pearl onions indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a little bit earlier.

Last Frost Date

In Edwardsville the average date of last frost happens on April 15. You can expect an average low temperature of -10°F in the coldest months of winter.

Keep in mind that USDA zone info for Edwardsville is not always accurate and the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Half of the time in Edwardsville it frosts late in the year after April 15 so just be sure to be ready to cover your pearl onions if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Edwardsville

Here is the info for USDA Zone 6a.

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

Plants to Grow in Edwardsville

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