Best time to plant eggplant in Adelaide
Solanum melongena
Also called aubergine, brinjal
Sow eggplant in Adelaide in Sep to Jan.
Eggplant, also called aubergine or brinjal, is a nightshade relative of tomato and potato. Its fruit, botanically a berry and most often purple, is usually cooked, with spongy flesh that soaks up oil and flavours. The skin and seeds are edible as well.
When to sow in Adelaide
Adelaide, SA is in the temperate zone. The zone also plants in Feb, but Adelaide's frost dates make those months risky for a frost-tender crop.
Broadly matches local guides, with some differences.
Your local conditions can shift any months shown here, so treat them as a guide.
Frost in Adelaide
Frost usually arrives in Adelaide around mid July and finishes by late July. In about 1 year in 10 it comes as early as early June or as late as early August, so frost-tender crops are planned around those dates.
From its Bureau of Meteorology station, 1991 to 2020, counting a night at 2°C or lower as a frost. Frost hollows and hillsides can shift these dates by weeks, so ask the growers at your garden too.
On a shared plot: suits a plot
Finishes in a season and stays within its space, so it suits most plots.
Growing details
- How to start
- Sow directly or raise seedlings
- Sowing depth
- 5mm
- Plant spacing
- 30cm
- Row spacing
- 60cm
- Height
- 50cm
- Germination
- Soil 24-32°C
- Time to harvest
- 60 days
- Frost
- Frost tender
- Sun
- Full sun
- Life cycle
- perennial, grown as an annual in cool climates
These are typical figures, and varieties differ. Your seed packet takes priority.