One of the first steps you take when you are determining your gardening schedule is find your USDA Zone info. The most important data that the zone info tells us is average last frost and the lowest expected temperature for your area.

One way of figuring out when it's the best time to plant welsh onion is to examine the USDA zone info for Salem.

Planting Calendar for Welsh onion

Frost tolerance for welsh onion:	Tolerant of a very small amount of frost.
When to plant:	Up to 3 weeks before last frost.

You can plant welsh onion just a tiny bit earlier in the year because they are one of those plants that can tolerate a tiny bit of cold weather.

The earliest that you can plant welsh onion in Salem 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 welsh onion and expect a good harvest is probably August. If you wait any later than that and your welsh onion may not have a chance to grow to maturity. If you are starting your welsh onion indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a little bit earlier.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is March 15 in Salem. It might get as low as 15°F during the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Salem is an average the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Half of the time in Salem you get surprised by a frost after March 15 so make sure that you are ready to protect your welsh onion if you have a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Salem

Here is the info for USDA Zone 8b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	March 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	November 15
Lowest Expected Low	15°F
Highest Expected Low	20°F

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

Plants to Grow in Salem

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