When to Plant Onions in Rocky Mount, VA

Before planting it is a good idea to find your USDA Zone info to estimate your garden schedule. 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 to plant onions is to consult the USDA zone info for Rocky Mount.


Planting Calendar for Onions

Frost tolerance for onions: Very tolerant of frost.
When to plant: Up to 7 weeks before last frost.

Onions do well in pretty solid cold which means that you can plant them much earlier in the year than plants that are more sensitive to the cold.

JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Legend 
A good time to plant onions
Possibly ok, but a risky time to plant onions
Probably not a good time to plant onions

The earliest that you can plant onions in Rocky Mount is February. However, you really should wait until March if you don't want to take any chances.

The last month that you can plant onions and expect a good harvest is probably September. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your onions may not have a chance to fully mature. You can get started a little bit earlier by starting your onions indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost is on April 15 in Rocky Mount. In the coldest months of winter you should expect an average low temperature of 0°F.

Since the USDA zone info for Rocky Mount is not always accurate the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Half of the time in Rocky Mount it frosts late in the year after April 15 so be sure to be ready to protect your onions in the event of a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Rocky Mount

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 Rocky Mount

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Rocky Mount.