When to Plant Pearl onions in Petersburg, VA

Before planting it is a good idea to find your USDA Zone info to figure out your garden schedule. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

You should be able to estimate when it's possible to plant pearl onions by looking at the USDA zone info for Petersburg.


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.

You can plant pearl onions a bit earlier in the year because they do ok in moderate 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 Petersburg 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 fully mature. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your pearl onions indoors.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is April 15 in Petersburg. In the coldest months of winter you can expect an average low temperature of 5°F.

Since the USDA zone info for Petersburg is an average the actual date of last frost is different every year. Half of the time in Petersburg you get surprised by a frost after April 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 Petersburg

Here is the info for USDA Zone 7b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)October 15
Lowest Expected Low5°F
Highest Expected Low10°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is 5°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 10°F.

Plants to Grow in Petersburg

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