When to Plant Onions in Homewood, IL

One of the first steps you take when you are determining your gardening schedule is find your USDA Zone info. The most important data that the zone info tells us is average last frost and the lowest expected temperature for your area.

You will be able to determine when it's the best time to plant onions by referring to the USDA zone info for Homewood.


Planting Calendar for Onions

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

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

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 Homewood 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 fully mature. If you are starting your onions indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a couple of weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost has passed is on April 15 in Homewood. In the coldest months of winter you can expect an average low temperature of -15°F.

Since the USDA zone info for Homewood 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 Homewood you get surprised by a frost after April 15 be ready to protect your onions in the event of a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Homewood

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 Homewood

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