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.

By checking out the USDA zone info for Knoxville it's a good idea to figure out when 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.

It's not a good idea to plant eggplants until after the last frost because they do not do well in cold weather.

The earliest that you can plant eggplants in Knoxville 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

On average the last frost when the weather gets warmer is on April 15 in Knoxville. It might get as low as 0°F during the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Knoxville may not be accurate from year to year the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Since half of the time in Knoxville there is a last frost after April 15 be ready to protect your eggplants in the event of a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Knoxville

Here is the info for USDA Zone 7a.

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

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is 0°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 5°F.

Plants to Grow in Knoxville

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