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.

The USDA zone info for Santa Ana can be looked at to estimate when it's the best time to plant eggplants.

Planting Calendar for Eggplants

Frost tolerance for eggplants:	Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	After all chance of frost has passed.

You should not plant eggplants until after all chance of frost has passed because they are not cold tolerant.

The earliest that you can plant eggplants in Santa Ana 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 eggplants and expect a good harvest is probably September. If you wait any later than that and your eggplants may not have a chance to really do well. If you are starting your eggplants indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a couple of weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is January 31 in Santa Ana. You can expect an average low temperature of 30°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Santa Ana is not always accurate the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Half of the time in Santa Ana you get surprised by a frost after January 31 so make sure that you are prepared to cover your eggplants if you have a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Santa Ana

Here is the info for USDA Zone 10a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	January 31
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	December 15
Lowest Expected Low	30°F
Highest Expected Low	35°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is 30°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 35°F.

Plants to Grow in Santa Ana

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Santa Ana.