Before planting it is a good idea to find your USDA Zone info to figure out your garden schedule. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

A way of figuring out when you can plant eggplants is to examine the USDA zone info for Columbus.

Planting Calendar for Eggplants

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

It's not a good idea to plant eggplants until after the last frost has passed because they require warm weather.

The earliest that you can plant eggplants in Columbus 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. If you wait any later than that and your eggplants may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a little bit earlier by starting your eggplants indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average all chance of frost has passed is on March 15 in Columbus. It might get as low as 10°F during the coldest months of winter.

Always keep in mind that USDA zone info for Columbus is not always accurate and the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Since half of the time in Columbus last frost occurs after March 15 be ready to protect your eggplants if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Columbus

Here is the info for USDA Zone 8a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	March 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	November 15
Lowest Expected Low	10°F
Highest Expected Low	15°F

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

Plants to Grow in Columbus

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