One of the first steps you take when you are making a decision about 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 common way of estimating when to plant pearl onions is to examine the USDA zone info for Magnolia.

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 do ok in moderate cold which means that you can get them planted just a bit earlier than other frost tender plants.

The earliest that you can plant pearl onions in Magnolia 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. Any later than that and your pearl onions may not have a chance to grow to maturity. If you are starting your pearl onions indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a few weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

In Magnolia the average date of last frost happens on April 15. It might get as low as 0°F during the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Magnolia may not be accurate from year to year the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Since half of the time in Magnolia there is a last frost after April 15 be ready to cover your pearl onions if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Magnolia

Here is the info for USDA Zone 7a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	October 15
Lowest Expected Low	0°F
Highest Expected Low	5°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is 0°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 5°F.

Plants to Grow in Magnolia

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