One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us estimate 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.

The USDA zone info for Matthews can be reffered to in order to estimate when you can plant eggplants.

Planting Calendar for Eggplants

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

It's not a good idea to plant eggplants until after the last frost has passed because they are not cold tolerant.

The earliest that you can plant eggplants in Matthews 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 few weeks earlier by starting your eggplants indoors.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is April 15 in Matthews. You should expect an average low temperature of 5°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Matthews is an average the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Since half of the time in Matthews you get a frost after April 15 be ready to cover your eggplants in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Matthews

Here is the info for USDA Zone 7b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	October 15
Lowest Expected Low	5°F
Highest Expected Low	10°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is 5°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 10°F.

Plants to Grow in Matthews

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