One of the first steps you take when you are figuring out 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.

One way of determining when it's the best time to plant bunching onions is to refer to the USDA zone info for Wheeling.

Planting Calendar for Bunching Onions

Frost tolerance for bunching onions:	Tolerant of a very small amount of frost.
When to plant:	Up to 3 weeks before last frost.

You can plant bunching onions just a tiny bit earlier in the year because they are barely cold tolerant.

The earliest that you can plant bunching onions in Wheeling 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 bunching onions and expect a good harvest is probably August. Any later than that and your bunching onions may not have a chance to really do well. You can get started a few weeks earlier by starting your bunching onions indoors.

Last Frost Date

In Wheeling the average date of last frost happens on April 15. It might get as low as -15°F during the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Wheeling is just an average the actual date of last frost is different every year. Half of the time in Wheeling you get surprised by a frost after April 15 so just be sure to be ready to cover your bunching onions if you have a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Wheeling

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 Wheeling

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