All depends on your temperatures. They won't set fruit unless the air temps are at least 75 degrees or higher and if soil temps drop below 70 the plant will shut down completely. EP is a tropical hot weather plant.

So for most of us the EP season is over. ;) Some try transplanting to containers to move inside. May be worth a try but it will all depend on if the extra work is worth it to you.

Dave

Thanks for the specifics digdirt! I'm 800 ft. uphill in Los Angeles, its been a hot fall and I'm having flowers and fruit on my eggplant. I will watch and see when things slow down. Meanwhile my watermelon are still flowering and fruiting, but not really ripening, time to rip them out.

Your eggplants might not die in the winter, they usually go dormant. We prune them and lleave them alone, sometimes we are tempted to take them out so we have the space to plant something else in their spot, so it is up to you. Last year we let them be and they rewarded us with an early crop, and continuous production all the way until november or december (we have new flowers and fruit in lots of plants just growing now). We figure, once pruned they do not take up so much space, so we will continue treating them as perennials.

When I lived in San Diego, I was able to over-winter eggplant several times. I covered them overnight on the few occasions when frost threatened. As Cabrita mentioned, they would go dormant, and look half-dead until the weather began to warm again. When the plants began to sprout, I would prune them back to the 3-4 strongest branches, and trim back the ends to encourage new growth. I was able to keep them alive for several years, but after the second, the yield really fell off. I wasn't fertilizing, so better results may be possible.

I wasn't aware that eggplants had such longevity. How drastically should I prune these?

Good to know; I almost ripped mine out. But I will keep them and see what happens next spring. I have the same question: how much to prune? Three strongest branches, but how many leaves should I leave on them? Also, I still have fruit on mine. Some just came in the last couple of weeks. It's been hot this week in SoCal.

I know, it was 97F yesterday! We harvested over a pound of okra and several eggplants. I'd say, wait until the fruit is ready to be picked and prune afterwards. When the plant is done for the season, the leaves look really bad, brown and drying. Some branches look brown, so I prune those, even if there are fruit on other branches. I also selectively prune the lower branches so the long skinny eggplants do not end up hanging on the ground, but I do this with the new young plants in the spring. Then as far as winter pruning, most of the leaves and branches once they start turning brown and not producing anymore. I'd say a pretty drastic pruning but it should be pretty obvious (it is hard to explain but it was obvious to me the first time). I would also say we are not ready for winter pruning yet ;-)