On 10/23/2015 9:29 PM, T wrote:
On 10/23/2015 07:02 PM, George Shirley wrote:
On 10/23/2015 5:55 PM, T wrote:
On 10/23/2015 03:24 PM, George Shirley wrote:
We're still getting goodly amounts of eggplant

I got one final greenish yellow eggplant. Something's
wrong with that boy!

What is your trick to growing eggplant? I only
get littles ones and very few at that.
Nothing wrong with green eggplant, we grow one called the "Louisiana
Green" and it is prolific.

Rich soil and lots of water, any kind of eggplant or squash needs lots
of water. We have raised beds and they dry out quickly so everything
gets watered at least daily. Right now by hose and sprinkler as the
soaker hose's sucked and cracked quickly. I'm thinking seriously of drip
lines now.

During the squash season this past summer we harvested green zucchini
that weighed three lbs without a seed in them. At that time we were
getting lots of rain on a daily basis. One day we got twelve inches or
rain in less than 24 hours, lots of Houston and the surrounding area
flooded heavily with more than ten dead from drowning. Weather forecast
for 7am Saturday through Sunday evening is another gulley washer. I'm
just hoping for an inch or two.

We have probably harvested twenty lbs of eggplant off three plants, two
Ichiban and one Black Beauty. Lots of eggplant fritters in the freezer
for later use and lots of family and friends got gifted, some
reluctantly. G

Except that my eggplant are black beauty and the other fruits
were black. All the fruit have been really small, about
5 inches.

Maybe I did not use enough compost or water?

Do you know if your soil is acidic or alkali?
We don't have soil, we garden in raised beds with Mel's Mix from Square
Foot Gardening. One third vermiculite, one third peat moss, one third
compost, we use the "Black Cow" compost. Black Cow is composted cow
manure from feedlots, so far it is pretty good. In addition we have a
compost barrel that gets emptied maybe twice a year. All garden throw
aways get chopped with a machete or the mower, all the grass clippings,
kitchen vegetable scraps, etc. Occasionally I will sprinkle a cup of
"compost booster" into the barrel to keep it ginning. Mel's Mix is
basically neutral as far as my tests have shown.

We do use some commercial fertilizers but sparingly, particularly after
heavy rains. So far this morning we're just getting a drizzle but the
weather heads are bleating about lots of rain soon. We shall see,
weather forecasting is, at best, an educated guess.

Mine turns my blue garlic red, which means it
is alkali, I think.