Commonly known in households as aubergine or brinjal, eggplants are a widely-consumed vegetable, mostly eaten during warm weather. This beautiful, purple-colored vegetable is consumed in many parts of the world but no one can beat South Asians when it comes to eating and using this plant in various fashionable eateries.
The scientific name for eggplant is Solanummelongena and it grows as a perennial plant in most regions. However, nowadays many gardeners are treating this plant as an annual one, enjoying it for longer times spans. To sum up a bit, these plants grow like tomatoes i.e., they hang down from a branch and grow to a particular size over days.
If you live in regions with summers that are warm enough for subtropical and tropical plants to grow, you can grow eggplants in whatever space you have. You simply need the basic knowledge on eggplant gardening, to begin with, and, if you do it right, a season later your dining table will be filled with different eggplant dishes for you to devour.
Below, we are shedding a little light on all those aspects that you must know to be able to grow eggplants properly.
Different Types Of Eggplant
Before anything else, it is important that you know about the most commonly harvested varieties of eggplants. This helps you decide on the best and most suitable variety that, when grown in your garden, can bring you’re the kind of benefits you always wanted from an eggplant garden to provide you with.
The most common eggplants you can grow to include the following:
Black Beauty: Thisis that regular eggplant you get to see in abundance everywhere. It is purple and has glossy skin. Often the purple color intensified to give rather a blackish look. The traditional eggplant is around 7-8 inches length-wise and each plant has around 5-6 individual fruits or hangings
Black Bell: Thisone is almost similar to the traditional eggplants in its colors and skin. However, instead of growing in length it grows in oval or round shapes and is often more disease-resistant than other eggplant types.
Apple Green: This is a greenish eggplant, way smaller in size than the regular ones. Often used in salads’ dressing and for garnishing.
Dusky:As the name indicates, these eggplants resemble the color of the sky at dusk. They have a pear-like shape and grow no more than 6 inches with blackish and glossy skin.
Bambino:This one resembles a walnut in size and shape and its plant does not grow more than 1 and a half feet. The edible portion is purple or black in colors with skin having lesser glossiness compared to regular eggplants.
Easter Egg: This one is an ornamental variety of eggplant that you cannot eat. It is often white or off-white in color and is used in Christmas trees and other decorations during the festive season.
Some other, grafted or hybrid varieties of eggplant include the following:
Casper
Cloud Nine
Rosita
Ichiban
Japanese eggplant
Little Fingers
Kermit
Eggplant Harvest Time
Eggplants are harvested in the summers. However, they first need to be kept in pots indoors for a good 8 to 10 weeks before they can be exposed to the sunlight. Hence, it is best that you begin planting them in smaller, indoor pots around 8 weeks before the expected end of spring.
Once the temperature outside rises, you can move the pots outdoors and let these plants face the sun. You can also simply buy 8 weeks old nursey transplants for eggplant and sow them in your garden right when the temperature starts rising.
You can harvest these anywhere between 80 and 100 days after you have transplanted them.
Water And Light Requirements
Since the seeds of eggplants germinate best when it’s hot, the plants have to be kept under direct sunlight. Make sure your eggplants are not covered by frost even for a single day else their chances at growth severely decline.
As far as the water is considered, eggplants need to be watered daily if the bed you have selected for their growth has no shade nearby and dries out easily.
Eggplant Growing Method
You can follow the steps below to ace it at planting the eggplants for the first time:
Choose a spot in your garden that receives the most sunlight. Prepare the soil in a way that is sandy and very organic. Try balancing its pH between 5.8 and 6.5 to make it most nutritious for the plants.
After the soil is prepared, cover it with dark-colored plastic mulch and leave it for some days to ensure warmness and get the soil ready for transplant.
After that, carefully divide the soil into lanes with 4 inches between each row and add some fertilizer to the bed.
Now, plant the young transplants and stake them just an inch from the plant so that they can climb upwards without any problems later.
Now, water the beds and add some mulch. Keep the plants under observation to prevent future problems.
Common Pests And Diseases
The most common eggplant problems include:
Flea Beetles:These are the worst eggplant enemy but cannot do much harm to a healthy and fully grown plant as such.
Mildew:The white powder on your eggplant’s leaves can affect its growth and often arises because you don’t water the plant daily. Once the mildew starts, there is no going back so make sure to keep the plants hydrated and allow for proper air circulation.
Remedies And Caring Tips For Disease Prevention
Allow for proper ventilation of the plants without making the surrounding temperature drop
Never water the leaves or flowers of the eggplants, only keep it limited to the soil level
Use fertilizers, sprays, and mulch on the soil to keep it healthy
Make sure you regularly remove the weeds and other wild herbs growing in your crop’s vicinity
If the temperature drops mid-way, make sure to direct sunlight and heat to the plants using whatever method you can
