One of the first steps you take when you are figuring out 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.

The first chance to plant bunching onions in Portage can be figured out by checking out the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Bunching Onions

Frost tolerance for bunching onions:	Tolerant of a very small amount of frost.
When to plant:	Up to 3 weeks before last frost.

Bunching Onions do well in mild cold which tells us that you can plant them a bit earlier in the year than other frost tender plants.

The earliest that you can plant bunching onions in Portage 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 bunching onions and expect a good harvest is probably August. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your bunching onions may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a little bit earlier by starting your bunching onions indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost is on April 15 in Portage. It might get as low as -20°F during the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Portage may not be accurate from year to year the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Half of the time in Portage it frosts late in the year after April 15 so just be sure to be ready to protect your bunching onions in the event of a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Portage

Here is the info for USDA Zone 5a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	October 15
Lowest Expected Low	-20°F
Highest Expected Low	-15°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is -20°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near -15°F.

Plants to Grow in Portage

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