tranplant time, and container size.

[GardenJester]

I'm about to transplant all my eggplants, zukes, cukes, peppers in the next couple of day. What time of the day is good for transplanting? morning, afternoon, or evening?

I'm thinking of tranplanting my eggplants to some containers that's 13.9"dia X 10.75" tall planting. I figure the eggplant will grow to about 3'-5' feet tall, is it big enough? Is there a rule of thumb concerning plant size and container size?

[rainbowgardener]

Late afternoon or early evening is good for transplanting, so that they can rest and get settled in, before facing a day of sunshine.

The most important part is how well hardened off they are. If you did that step well, the when to plant won't be as important.

So you are going to be transplanting IN to containers, growing them in containers?

I don't know a general rule of thumb, depends on the plant and what kind of root system it has. I don't grow eggplant, not familiar with it. The peppers don't need a real big container - grow one plant per container, at least one gallon size, maybe a bit bigger.

[garden5]

When to transplant: As RG said, late afternoon-early evening. One other thing to considers is trying to plant on a cloudy, still day. It won't shock the plants as much if they haven't been hardened off well.

Size of container: I'm no expert on this, but since eggplants seem to resemble the same growth habit as their relative, the tomato, it seem logical to with the same sized pot as you would with a tomato plant. The preferred size for a tomato plant seems to be a diameter of 9 in. to 14 in. and a minimum 9 liter volume. This is what I've read, but I'm sure a 5-gallon bucket would work great as well.

I hope this helps.