One of the first steps you take when you are getting a good idea 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.

It's possible to determine when it's the best time to plant eggplants by checking out the USDA zone info for East Moline.

Planting Calendar for Eggplants

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

It's probably a bad idea to plant eggplants until after all chance of frost has passed because they do not do well in cold weather.

The earliest that you can plant eggplants in East Moline is April. However, you really should wait until May if you don't want to take any chances.

The last month that you can plant eggplants and expect a good harvest is probably August. Any later than that and your eggplants may not have a chance to grow to maturity. If you are starting your eggplants indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a few weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

In East Moline the average date of last frost happens on April 15. In the coldest months of winter you can expect an average low temperature of -15°F.

Since the USDA zone info for East Moline is just an average the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Half of the time in East Moline there is a last frost after April 15 so make sure that you are prepared to cover your eggplants in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for East Moline

Here is the info for USDA Zone 5b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	October 15
Lowest Expected Low	-15°F
Highest Expected Low	-10°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is -15°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near -10°F.

Plants to Grow in East Moline

You may be interested in your other planting guides for East Moline.