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 Oak Ridge should be read to figure out when to plant onions.

Planting Calendar for Onions

Frost tolerance for onions:	Very tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	Up to 7 weeks before last frost.

Onions do well in cold which tells us that you can get them planted much earlier than more sensitive plants.

The earliest that you can plant onions in Oak Ridge is February. However, you really should wait until March if you don't want to take any chances.

The last month that you can plant onions and expect a good harvest is probably September. If you wait any later than that and your onions may not have a chance to really do well. You can get started a little bit earlier by starting your onions indoors.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is April 15 in Oak Ridge. It might get as low as 5°F during the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Oak Ridge is just an average the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Half of the time in Oak Ridge last frost occurs after April 15 so make sure that you are ready to protect your onions if you have a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Oak Ridge

Here is the info for USDA Zone 7b.

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

Plants to Grow in Oak Ridge

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Oak Ridge.