One of the first steps you take when you are getting a good idea 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.

By referring to the USDA zone info for Santa Clara it's possible to determine when it's a good idea to plant pearl onions.

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 means 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 pearl onions in Santa Clara 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. If you wait any later than that and your pearl onions may not have a chance to really do well. If you are starting your pearl onions indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a couple of weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is March 15 in Santa Clara. You can expect an average low temperature of 10°F in the coldest months of winter.

Always keep in mind that USDA zone info for Santa Clara is an average and the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Since half of the time in Santa Clara it frosts late in the year after March 15 be ready to cover your pearl onions if you have a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Santa Clara

Here is the info for USDA Zone 8a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	March 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	November 15
Lowest Expected Low	10°F
Highest Expected Low	15°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 15°F.

Plants to Grow in Santa Clara

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Santa Clara.