The USDA Zone info is a great tool for gardeners to help us determine your gardening schedule. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

One way of getting a good idea when it's possible to plant pearl onions is to refer to the USDA zone info for Rockford.

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 can survive in some cold which means that you can plant them just a tiny bit earlier in the year than more sensitive plants.

The earliest that you can plant pearl onions in Rockford 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. You can get started a little bit earlier by starting your pearl onions indoors.

Last Frost Date

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

Since the USDA zone info for Rockford is an average the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Since half of the time in Rockford there is a last frost after April 15 be ready to protect your pearl onions in the event of a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Rockford

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 Rockford

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