One of the first steps you take when you are estimating 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 it's the best time to plant shallots is to look at the USDA zone info for Bristol.

Planting Calendar for Shallots

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

Shallots do ok in moderate cold which tells us that you can get them planted just a bit earlier than other plants that might not handle the cold.

The earliest that you can plant shallots in Bristol 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 shallots and expect a good harvest is probably August. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your shallots may not have a chance to fully mature. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your shallots indoors.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is April 15 in Bristol. You can expect an average low temperature of 0°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Bristol may not be accurate from year to year the actual date of last frost is different every year. Half of the time in Bristol you get a frost after April 15 so make sure that you are prepared to protect your shallots if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Bristol

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 Bristol

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