One of the first steps you take when you are making a decision about 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.

A common way of making a decision about when it's possible to plant shallots is to consult the USDA zone info for Yorkville.

Planting Calendar for Shallots

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

Shallots tend to make it in very little cold which means that you can plant them a bit earlier in the year than other frost tender plants.

The earliest that you can plant shallots in Yorkville 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 shallots and expect a good harvest is probably August. If you wait any later than that and your shallots may not have a chance to fully mature. You can get started a little bit earlier by starting your shallots indoors.

Last Frost Date

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

Keep in mind that the actual date of last frost may not be accurate from year to year because it is based on the USDA zone info for Yorkville and it will vary from year to year. Since half of the time in Yorkville last frost occurs after April 15 be ready to cover your shallots in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Yorkville

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 Yorkville

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