When to Plant Onions in East Rochester, NY

Before planting it is a good idea to find your USDA Zone info to figure out your garden schedule. The most important data that the zone info tells us is average last frost and the lowest expected temperature for your area.

A common way of figuring out when to plant onions is to check out the USDA zone info for East Rochester.


Planting Calendar for Onions

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

Onions can survive in pretty solid cold which tells us that you can plant them earlier in the year than plants that are more sensitive to the cold.

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

The earliest that you can plant onions in East Rochester 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. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your onions may not have a chance to grow to maturity. If you are starting your onions indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a few weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

On average all chance of frost has passed is on April 15 in East Rochester. In the coldest months of winter you should expect an average low temperature of -5°F.

Keep in mind that USDA zone info for East Rochester is an average and the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Since half of the time in East Rochester there is a last frost after April 15 be ready to protect your onions if you have a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for East Rochester

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 Low0°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 East Rochester

You may be interested in your other planting guides for East Rochester.