When to Plant Pearl onions in Farmington, MI

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 way of estimating when it's possible to plant pearl onions is to examine the USDA zone info for Farmington.


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.

Since pearl onions are barely cold tolerant you can plant them a bit earlier in the year than other plants that might not handle the cold.

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

The earliest that you can plant pearl onions in Farmington 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. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else 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 little bit earlier.

Last Frost Date

In Farmington the average date of last frost happens on April 15. You can expect an average low temperature of -10°F in the coldest months of winter.

Keep in mind that the actual date of last frost is just an average because it is based on the USDA zone info for Farmington and it can change quite a bit from year to year. Since half of the time in Farmington last frost occurs after April 15 be ready to cover your pearl onions if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Farmington

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 Farmington

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