The plants will be fine for a few days until you get your planting bed prepared. I would keep them in bright shade. No one can tell you how often to water because we don’t know your daytime temperatures or humidity. Lift the pots to see how they feel when they’ve been watered. When they start to feel lighter you can water again. Don’t fertilize now. You can fertilize after they are planted in the ground.

After your plants start to grow, check them every day for signs of insects eating the leaves. I don’t garden vegetables but I do know tomato worms can damage your tomato plant. Watch for a little black balls of poop on the leaves and then look for a green worm the exact color of the tomato leaf. Pick it off and throw it away.

have fun!

Edited to be "tomato leaf"

Just to clarify, it's probably a little early for the eggplant and okra, but they won't die, they just won't make any top growth until it warms up a little.

Follow the instructions on the fertilizer package. If you have pets, dig it into the ground a little because dogs and cats (I assume) will try to eat blood and bone meal.

Basil is the most cold-sensitive plant of that group.

I have seen pictures here of people "hardening little plants" while they are in small pots, before transplanting them. Is there a specific height (above soil) that these plants have to reach, before i move them from Bonnie pot into my huge containers ? (I understand that this may differ from plant to plant - for eg. the strawberry will never grow high, and hence i can transplant it already at its current height of 4 inches (above soil), in the bonnie pot).

I am also not sure about how to harden these plants. So currently, i am keeping them outside in early morning (out of direct sunlight), for few hours each day.

I have a partial answer to my original question of this thread. I bought these plants from home depot 20 days ago. When i bought them they were all between 3 to 6" high (okra was the only small one at 3"). So, i would guess that they have been at HD for atleast 1 week. The container for the okra was also the smallest. Over last 2 days i moved them from original Bonnie containers. Found that all of them had full root balls developed, occupying the entire container. There were signs of some circling happening, but i am not an expert who can identify root circling easily.

So, i would say that the plants can remain in the original Bonnie containers for about 1 week, maybe 10 days. It is better to transplant them soon, in order to give the roots space to develop. There are many experts in this forum, who may correct this idea.

The plants were outdoors at HD, so no need to harden off. When you plant something with roots circling, just "tease" them a little with your fingers before you put the plant in the hole. The tomato can go deep and the others should be planted at the same level they were when you bought them.

Temperature at night is in the range of 49 to 53, for the next 10 days. It is rare to see May temperatures this low in SF bay. These plants have all grown to be 4" to 10" tall (above soil level). I trans planted them (for temporary measure) into 2 gallon bags because i need to bring them into the home during night time (I am not sure if they will survive temperature below 50 at nights for 5 hours). They have room to grow for another week or two, in those 2 gallon pots. Then, the plan is to move them to their permanent location (that is getting prepared now). After june 1st, the night time temperatures are expected to stay consistently above 52.

Growth is good, except for the leaf white spots/ brown spots (not in all, but some leaves). Big Bertha bell pepper and Crookneck squash have many flower buds coming up now. Information in this forum is split - some say take defensive preemptive strikes against fungal and other diseases; some others say, just feed them good, and do not apply any fungicides or broad-spectrum pesticides. There is so much to learn and so little time.

"There is so much to learn and so little time."

Many people, myself included, have been gardening for a lifetime and are still learning constantly. And I have a degree in horticulture!! You will never know it all....it will continue to be a learning process as long as you engage in this pasttime :-)

I would not bother to bring the plants in at night. If they are hardened off - and being sold out of doors would indicate so - then there is no need for that extra effort. They will survive 50F nighttime temps perfectly well although will not put on a lot of growth until both soil temps and air temps are adequately warm enough.

They'll survive temperatures above freezing. I sometimes get ripe tomatoes as late as Christmas. (They have very thick skins and taste like grocery store tomatoes, but they're still tomatoes.) Just put them in the ground already. They'll be fine!

I looked at the size of all the plants (mentioned in my original post above) and figured out that some will grow above 3 feet tall, but not others. So, i am wondering if i can plant thai basil, cilantro and Quinault strawberries along with a tall plant like Eggplant or Tomato. This will be done in a 24 gallon grow bag that has 20 inches diameter x 16 inches height ( big and heavy ). After 6 months all plants are going to be discarded. All plants will be in a location that gets more than 10 hours of sun throughout the season. Plant monitoring is being done daily.

Wanted to add some more relevant information to this thread. The plants were moved from Bonnie pots to 2 gallon grow bags (as a temporary measure, since my big containers had not arrived yet). I let them grow in the 2 gallon bags for a month, before i started moving them to the final big containers for them to grow. 1 month was too long for them to sit in 2 gallon bags. The roots were fully occupying the 2 gallons (say 1.5 gallons because there was mulch at top and pumice stones at bottom). So, if you want to keep the bonnie plants in a temporary bag for about a month (when they would have established strong growth), then i would say, choose a 3 gallon bag and do bark mulching only at top for about 0.5" and rest should all be soil mix.

The pumice stones at bottom was an experiement i did, which is discussed in a separate thread. They turned out to be useful (as i had expected). The roots will grow through them, if there is sufficient nutrients and water at bottom.

I have 2 problems, after repotting all the plants into big grow bags.

1. My Big bertha bell pepper is about the same height as it was in the smaller 2 gallon container (except that it has grown the first fruit - ie. pepper - doubling its size in about 2 weeks of in this 25 G container). The pepper is little over 2 inches, but it will get to atleast 6 inches (according to Bonnie). The plant size or leaves has not dramatically changed (as is the case with my eggplant which was also transplanted at the same time). The height has stayed around the same 1 feet, since repotting. I have not pruned this since i got it, and it has about 16 leaves (and some leave buds that popped up in last couple of days). Should i take out the fruit (assuming that it is eating up all the growth energy) that is at the bottom of this plant ? Should i prune into only 2 branches (like seen in some youtube videos on pepper plants ? )

2. My tomato (ACE 55) has curled up leaves. Even the leaves that are young and at top, are curling on the edges even though they look green and healthy. I am watering all the grow bags once in 2 days and the 1 inch below the top (ie. top has mulch is 1 inch in height), the potting mix stays moist to the touch. All plants are in CA sunlight of atleast 8 hours / day. There is enough slow release fertilizer in the grow bag and i am feeding liquid fert once a week. In the 2 weeks of repotting this, there are about 5 tomatoes that have started up. The bottom leaves have some disease (fungal i guess), but the top looks good. I am spraying Neem oil + water mix once a week. Why the leaves curl at top ?

Found answer to the second item in following article....

Leaf curl in tomato - causes