When to Plant Tree onions in Wilmette, IL

One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us determine your gardening schedule is the 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 Wilmette can be reffered to in order to figure out when you can plant tree onions.


Planting Calendar for Tree onions

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

Since tree onions are one of those plants that can tolerate a tiny bit of cold weather you can plant them just a tiny bit earlier in the year than other plants that might not handle the cold.

JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Legend 
A good time to plant tree onions
Possibly ok, but a risky time to plant tree onions
Probably not a good time to plant tree onions

The earliest that you can plant tree onions in Wilmette 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 tree onions and expect a good harvest is probably August. Any later than that and your tree onions may not have a chance to fully mature. You can get started a little bit earlier by starting your tree onions indoors.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is April 15 in Wilmette. You should expect an average low temperature of -15°F in the coldest months of winter.

It's important to remember that USDA zone info for Wilmette is an average and the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Since half of the time in Wilmette you get surprised by a frost after April 15 be ready to protect your tree onions in the event of a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Wilmette

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 Wilmette

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