I've got the same question but with my Lako seedlings. I live in California and our summers are long and hot. I don't want to introduce them outside and have them roast.

We have been having some freaky weather here. Very drastic weather changes. Thurs night I don't remember the low, but ay 11pm it was 51..Sat night the temps went down into the 20's..where the heck that come from? Now tomorow we're supposed to be at almost 70. They keep changing our forecast so much you can't trust it for sh!t. I can check in the morn, then by the afternoon its completely dif. Wasn't supposed to rain today, supposed to be in the 50's and partly cloudy. nope, its in the 40's and rainy. How do these weather forecasters keep their jobs??? Jersey just sux anyway. Daniella

I'd say they can stay inside 3 weeks, 4 at the max. Cucurbits don't really like being transplanted but if it's necessary then it needs to be done while the plants are young. The larger the pot the more time you might have before they must be planted in the garden. Rodney

I can tell you that bananas do not grow below 52 degrees, so not much point moving them out earlier unless you are dying to make room in your house. Tropical hibiscus aren't crazy about temperature swings, you may get some yellow leaves when it gets chilly, but they'll definitely survive down to 40 degrees with no trouble. But they won't grow much. I usually go for the first week of May, onto my front porch which has a roof and faces east, so it's a little more protected from sun, wind and possible frost. Most of my plants are so big that I'm NOT moving them in again until fall! I suppose if you want a rule of thumb, I would guess maybe 50 degree low at night and no lower would be suitable, but I'm sure others have different opinions. If you're really ambitious, you could look up each kind of tropical on the web and see what recommended minimum temps are.