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 Winchester can be reffered to in order to figure out when to plant shallots.

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 are barely cold tolerant which tells us that you can start planting them slightly earlier than other plants that might not handle the cold.

The earliest that you can plant shallots in Winchester 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 grow to maturity. You can get started a little bit earlier by starting your shallots indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost when the weather gets warmer is on April 15 in Winchester. It might get as low as -10°F during the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Winchester is just an average the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Since half of the time in Winchester it frosts late in the year after April 15 be ready to cover your shallots in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Winchester

Here is the info for USDA Zone 6a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	October 15
Lowest Expected Low	-10°F
Highest Expected Low	-5°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is -10°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near -5°F.

Plants to Grow in Winchester

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