As far as timing goes for eggplant, treat it like a pepper plant. It is a summer plant. They love heat and will stunt in the cold. This is a good time to start them inside but don't put them outside until mid-May or when night temps stay above 50 degrees.
I'm in zone 7a and even I have to start things earlier because eggplant and okra has been my least productive plants because they take forever and I didn't start them early enough. So I have growing. I'm going to be moving them into the greenhouse. I have to buy hot/cold varieties of certain plants like collards and lettuces because we get too hot too quickly. But can still dip down into the 20's occasionally. But if I don't buy heat and cold tolerant varieties, they bolt.
The weather has been so bizarre up here in WI zone 5a, I planted broccoli seedlings in wall of waters, and sowed carrot seeds in a cold frame today. I usually do not get my broccoli out until the middle of April. Started yarrow, beebalm and alyssum today, plan on getting my tomatoes going before the end of the week. After the tomatoes will do more annual flowers then, last not least, gourds, squash, melons and cucumbers. The latter will all be in soil blocks. Stay Well!!!
Hi there. Watermelon seedlings are large and grow quite fast so if you start them at the beginning of March, how do you manage the size of them ? If the vines start taking up too much space inside, do you trim them back?
Continue transplanting to large size pots. You can trim them back if you need to but make sure the plant is hardy enough to take a pruning. I treat mine like my vining houseplants n let them vine up. Only the container itself with the main plant n stem needs the light, not so much the remaining vines if in a temporary situation.
I’m in 9b NorCal and my last frost already passed a month ago. I don’t start watermelon until April and transplant in May. They grow so fast. How do you protect them for so long before it warms up?
They stay indoors under my full spectrum grow light. They get transplanted to larger pots and the vines get anchored onto the wall like my other Vining houseplants. Sometimes I'll trim down the vines if they get too outta control. The plant has to be hardy enough.
