When to Plant Pearl onions in New Cumberland, PA

One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us determine your gardening schedule is the USDA zone info. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

A way of making a decision about when it's a good idea to plant pearl onions is to refer to the USDA zone info for New Cumberland.


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 do ok in moderate cold which tells us that you can get them planted just a bit earlier than more sensitive plants.

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 New Cumberland 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. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your pearl onions may not have a chance to fully mature. You can get started a little bit earlier by starting your pearl onions indoors.

Last Frost Date

In New Cumberland the average date of last frost happens on April 15. You should expect an average low temperature of 0°F in the coldest months of winter.

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

USDA Zone Info for New Cumberland

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 Low0°F
Highest Expected Low5°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 New Cumberland

You may be interested in your other planting guides for New Cumberland.