GardenBanter.co.uk - View Single Post - Growing Eggplants For The First Time This Year

Zootal[_5_] · 06-03-2010, 12:26 AM posted to rec.gardens

(EVP MAN) wrote in
:

I never grew eggplants before so I really don't know what to expect.
I'll be growing Black Beauty which is an old heirloom. I really don't
know how tall the plants get but I'm going to put stakes in just in
case their needed. I'm planting them in the same row as my tomatoes
and peppers. Not sure about production either. Not sure how many
eggplants to expect each plant to produce??? One thing I'm sure about
is the fact that I love them breaded and fried

Rich

I might add that slugs and flea beatles will devour the plants. Around
here (mid Wilamette Valley, Oregon) slugs are *everywhere*, and they can
decimate a young eggplant plant overnight.

If your springs are long and cool, don't be in a hurry to plant the
seeds, or put them outside. As others have said, the plants won't grow
if it's cold - they will just sit there and be eaten by insects and
slugs.

If you are adventurous, try a few different varieties. Japanese white
egg grows well and sets dozens of white egg sized and shaped fruit per
plant, and they are tender and quite tasty. Ping Tung is a long dark
purple fruit that gets easily a foot long, and is (IIRC) green fleshed
and also very tasty. I think I got about 15 fruit per plant, maybe more
- they are very prolific. There is one that grows small oblong
lavender-white fruit (I forget what it is called) that does well here,
also.

I planted about 30 plants last year. I lost several to the slugs before
I got them under control, several were devoured by flea beetles before I
discovered Neem, and a few varieties just don't seem to like it here.
The ones that did produce did fairly well and I had eggplants coming out
my ears and then some. I must have chucked a hundred pieces of fruit in
the compost pile by the end of the season - 30 plants is really too many
:-)