When to Plant Pearl onions in Salamanca, NY

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.

In Salamanca you can estimate when you can plant pearl onions by looking at the USDA zone info.


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 are one of those plants that can tolerate a tiny bit of cold weather which tells us that you can get them planted just a bit earlier 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 Salamanca 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. You can get started a few weeks earlier by starting your pearl onions indoors.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is April 15 in Salamanca. In the coldest months of winter you can expect an average low temperature of -20°F.

Remember that USDA zone info for Salamanca is an average and the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Since half of the time in Salamanca last frost occurs after April 15 be ready to cover your pearl onions if you have a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Salamanca

Here is the info for USDA Zone 5a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)October 15
Lowest Expected Low-20°F
Highest Expected Low-15°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is -20°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near -15°F.

Plants to Grow in Salamanca

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