One of the first steps you take when you are determining 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.

You should be able to determine when it's possible to plant onions by checking out the USDA zone info for Zone 12a.

Planting Calendar for Onions

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

Since onions are very cold tolerant you can plant them quite a bit earlier in the year than more sensitive plants.

The earliest that you can plant onions in Zone 12a is January. However, you really should wait until February if you don't want to take any chances.

The last month that you can plant onions and expect a good harvest is probably November. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your onions may not have a chance to really do well. Starting your onions indoors is a great way to get them started a few weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

In Zone 12a it never frosts. In the coldest months of winter you should expect an average low temperature of 50°F.

Remember that USDA zone info for Zone 12a is an average and the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Since it never frosts in Zone 12a you do not have to be ready to protect your onions if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Zone 12a

Here is the info for USDA Zone 12a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	Never
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	Never
Lowest Expected Low	50°F
Highest Expected Low	55°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is 50°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 55°F.

Plants to Grow in Zone 12a

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Zone 12a.