One of the first steps you take when you are making a decision about 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.

By looking at the USDA zone info for Dunkirk it's a good idea to determine when you can plant eggplants.

Planting Calendar for Eggplants

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

Eggplants do not do well in cold weather which tells us that you have to wait until it warms up after the last frost has passed before you can plant them.

The earliest that you can plant eggplants in Dunkirk 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 couple of weeks earlier by starting your eggplants indoors.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is April 15 in Dunkirk. It might get as low as -5°F during the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Dunkirk is just an average the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Since half of the time in Dunkirk you get a frost after April 15 be ready to cover your eggplants if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Dunkirk

Here is the info for USDA Zone 6b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	October 15
Lowest Expected Low	-5°F
Highest Expected Low	0°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 0°F.

Plants to Grow in Dunkirk

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