When to Plant Pearl onions in Zone 1a

One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us figure out your gardening schedule is the USDA zone info. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

A common way of figuring out when you can plant pearl onions is to look at the USDA zone info for Zone 1a.


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 well in a tiny bit of cold which tells us that you can plant them just a tiny bit earlier in the year than other plants that might not handle the 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 Zone 1a is June. However, you really should wait until July 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 July. If you wait any later than that and your pearl onions may not have a chance to really do well. Starting your pearl onions indoors is a great way to get them started a little bit earlier.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is June 15 in Zone 1a. In the coldest months of winter you can expect an average low temperature of -60°F.

Remember that USDA zone info for Zone 1a may not be accurate from year to year and the actual date of last frost is different every year. Since half of the time in Zone 1a last frost occurs after June 15 be ready to protect your pearl onions if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Zone 1a

Here is the info for USDA Zone 1a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)June 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)July 15
Lowest Expected Low-60°F
Highest Expected Low-55°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is -60°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near -55°F.

Plants to Grow in Zone 1a

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Zone 1a.