When to Plant Onions in Tonawanda, NY

One of the first steps you take when you are figuring out 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.

The best time to plant onions in Tonawanda can be figured out by looking at the USDA zone info.


Planting Calendar for Onions

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

Onions are very cold tolerant which tells us that you can start planting them much earlier than more sensitive plants.

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 Tonawanda 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. Any later than that and your onions may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a few weeks earlier by starting your onions indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost when the weather gets warmer is on April 15 in Tonawanda. It might get as low as -10°F during the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Tonawanda is not always accurate the actual date of last frost is different every year. Half of the time in Tonawanda it frosts late in the year after April 15 so be sure to be ready to protect your onions if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Tonawanda

Here is the info for USDA Zone 6a.

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

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is -10°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near -5°F.

Plants to Grow in Tonawanda

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