Hmmm, no bites? May be this is an exercise in futility. I will give it one more try this fall.
Maybe dig the plant much before the frost date. I did see a couple of references to this online but not much details.

How do you plan to overwinter them? Greenhouse? In the house? Still growing or dormant? I suspect that eggplants would not like temperatures much below 50F or so. Has anyone successfully overwintered them in the garden in SoCal?

An interesting experiment would be to start some new plants from seed right now and try to overwinter them. Just grow them in pots right from the start. I might try this.

My eggplants did survive last winter when temperature were constantly in the 30-40s. But we had no snow like NJ, just ice. They looked dead enough in the winter so I just trimmed the dead top growth and left them in the ground. This spring they came back and bore about the same fruits as last year (I did add some fertilizer because it's in the same spot for two year).

I imaging this would be much harder in your zone 6. With the snow, you had to dig up and store bareroot, which may be about 100 times harder than our over-wintering.

I did find the overwintered eggplants did not bear fruit any sooner than the new ones I planted this year. They started blooming about the same time. So for me, there wasn't a great advantage or extended harvest.

Eggplants are a lot more tropical than peppers, so my guess is that it will be more difficult. On the other hand, they are more resistant to disease. I only bring in my rosemary into the house, and I have to be careful not to bring it in too soon, and get it out first. It catches diseases the moment it comes in and can survive indoors no more than 4 months. By a sunny window too.

But I am willing to try it with the peppers this year.

lilydude, I have a large southfacing window which gets good light in winter. The temperature does not fall below mid 50s but after bluebirdies observations, there probably may not be much of an advantage.
Last year I did let the frost zap the top growth before I pruned it down. I have a late started plant which hasn't grown much, I might use that one.

Bluebirdie, good to know your observations. I was hoping the results may be similar to overwintered peppers. I am going to do this for one plant, just to see if it can make it through.

Glib, (nice sn btw) I had success with cayenne type peppers last year and an earlier harvest this year which prompted the eggplant trial. It would be nice to get eggplants in june but probably not. I am growing a lot more peppers this year and will keep most of the indoor space for them.

green

I think you have a good idea. I tried it with peppers one year in a south facing window, but they all succumbed to spider mites and no matter how much I sprayed the plants with water, they died after a few months. Most houses are dry during the winter, which does bring on spider mites, and as I'm sure you know...eggplants love heat but I don't know if they would survive the dryness. It might be a good idea to keep a sauce with pebbles under the pot, to keep up the humidity (just like that would or could be done with houseplants). This is all just a guess on my part, :) but if you decide to do it, keep us updated please.

If you start plants very early, greenhouse them and get them out early..you can have peppers/eggplant very early. You don't have to mess with spider mites either.

alberta, I closely watched the two pepper plants last year and luckily didn't get any infestation. I also pruned them back a pit with only 8-10" of main stem and a couple of side branches. I also kept them pruned back to a few set of leaves while indoors.
I will have to be more vigilant this year as I will bring more plants in and looks like I already have spider mite infestation on the beans and tomatoes. Maybe a horticultural oil spray before bringing them in.

Frank - I started the eggplants last week of Jan, but they don't put on much growth inside. Outside also, they don't start growing till it has warmed up nicely. I did notice very vigorous growth in the one extra seedling I put in a SWC at the end of June. It is already outproducing the inground plants planted much earlier.
I did put out a couple of early tomatoes very early ( two weeks before last frost date) and had tomatoes last of week of June. Not sure if it will work with eggplants.

We had a somewhat unpredicted "hard freeze" last week -- temps of 28F, and I didn't have a chance to protect my peppers (jalapenos) and eggplants (ichiban). which I was thinking about keeping over the winter. Both were doing fine in temps of 30-40F. The peppers did well in the freeze -- no damage at all, but the eggplants were half-killed. In fact, the peppers were more exposed, and the eggplants were on the south side of the house. I ended up pulling the latter. Comes as a bit of a surprise that the eggplants seem to be a lot less frost tolerant than the peppers. I would have thought they'd both be about the same in that regard, but that they're not is consistent with what I'm reading here.

I am trying to overwinter an eggplant in my greenhouse. I had it growing in a bale of hay to see how that worked. Not a fan of that by the way. I finally got to where it was producing and I knew I wasn't going to have many fruits. Anyway I just lifted the plant and hay and planted it into my greenhouse. I looked awful for several weeks and I thought I had killed it. But now it is looks pretty good and it loaded with blooms. I found a couple of small ones starting. If I am lucky I may have fruit up to January. I am planning to add additional coverage when it gets cool here in SE GA. We have cold weather in January and February.

I tried it several time with already potted pepper plant. Every time I had to let it out to the frost due to aphids. I took them home clean and nice and in 2 weeks they are covered with aphids i can't control.