When to Plant Pearl onions in Aberdeen, SD

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.

One way of making a decision about when to plant pearl onions is to consult the USDA zone info for Aberdeen.


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 tend to make it in a tiny bit of cold which means that you can plant them a bit earlier in the year than plants that are more sensitive to 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 Aberdeen is April. However, you really should wait until May 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. If you wait any later than that and your pearl onions may not have a chance to really do well. You can get started a few weeks earlier by starting your pearl onions indoors.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is May 15 in Aberdeen. It might get as low as -25°F during the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Aberdeen is an average the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Half of the time in Aberdeen there is a last frost after May 15 so just be sure to be ready to protect your pearl onions in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Aberdeen

Here is the info for USDA Zone 4b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)May 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)September 15
Lowest Expected Low-25°F
Highest Expected Low-20°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is -25°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near -20°F.

Plants to Grow in Aberdeen

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