One of the first steps you take when you are estimating 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 figuring out when it's the best time to plant pearl onions is to look at the USDA zone info for Charlestown.

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.

Pearl onions are barely cold tolerant which means that you can start planting them slightly earlier than plants that are more sensitive to the cold.

The earliest that you can plant pearl onions in Charlestown 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. If you wait any later than that and your pearl onions may not have a chance to grow to maturity. Starting your pearl onions indoors is a great way to get them started a couple of weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is April 15 in Charlestown. In the coldest months of winter you can expect an average low temperature of -5°F.

Keep in mind that the actual date of last frost is not always accurate because it is based on the USDA zone info for Charlestown and it will vary from year to year. Half of the time in Charlestown it frosts late in the year after April 15 so be sure to be ready to cover your pearl onions in the event of a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Charlestown

Here is the info for USDA Zone 6b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	October 15
Lowest Expected Low	-5°F
Highest Expected Low	0°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is -5°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 0°F.

Plants to Grow in Charlestown

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