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.

A common way of getting a good idea when it's possible to plant pearl onions is to use the USDA zone info for Independence.

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 one of those plants that can tolerate a tiny bit of cold weather which means that you can plant them slightly earlier than other plants that might not handle the cold.

The earliest that you can plant pearl onions in Independence 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 fully mature. If you are starting your pearl onions indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a couple of weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost is on April 15 in Independence. You should expect an average low temperature of -5°F in the coldest months of winter.

Always keep in mind that the actual date of last frost is just an average because it is based on the USDA zone info for Independence and it changes from year to year. Half of the time in Independence there is a last frost after April 15 so make sure that you are prepared to cover your pearl onions if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Independence

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 Independence

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