Saving this years eggplant seeds

[livinonfaith]

This year I grew a Ratnayake eggplant, a long thin cream colored one with maroon stripes. Very nice eggplant.

The first fruit in Spring was marked for seed saving. I left it on the plant until mid August, waiting for it to get soft. It never did, but did turn a lovely bright yellow with maroon stripes. Finally, I picked it and put it in my kitchen, expecting that eventually it would lose its shine and become soft.

Again, it never did. Here it is, late December and it was still bright yellow, fairly shiny, and pretty firm. I finally decided to cut the darn thing open to see what was inside, especially since it will be time to plant seeds soon.

Well there were hundreds of beautiful seeds, and they seemed to be mature, but I'm still a bit amazed at the flawless condition of the outside of the eggplant.

Is this normal?

[FreyaFL]

Sorry, I've no experience with this variety, but would love to know where you got the seeds for this? You make it sound lovely! How is the taste compared to other eggplant? I'm currently growing Black Beauty and Ping Tung (both in 5 gallon swp's). To my surprise, the plants are huge and covered in flowers and, now, small fruit. (Last two times I tried growing eggplant were complete failures.) So, of course, now I want to try other varieties. Thank you for any insight!

FreyaFL

[livinonfaith]

FreyaFl, the Ratnayake seeds are from Amishland last year. That's the only place I've found one that looks quite like it so far. http://www.amishlandseeds.com/eggplant.htm (It's down the page a bit.)

It is long, but not quite as long as the the Pingtung, which I also grew last year. They seemed pretty similar in taste, as both were fairly mild and don't have to be peeled if picked young. (Honestly, I don't think I compared the two, just sauteed or fried them together.)

It is a very pretty and worthwhile eggplant, but if you are looking for something completely different from Pingtung, there are others that are more so. While I plan to keep Pingtung and Ratnayake because they are both great, I'll be adding Rosa Bianca to the line up this year for some variety. Supposedly, it's really tasty in Italian dishes!

[FreyaFL]

What a pretty eggplant! (Though your description and the pictures seem different...?) I'll have to think about adding this one next year. Thanks!

FreyaFL

[livinonfaith]

Yes, it starts out looking like the one in the picture, cream with light maroon/purple stripes, but as it matures, it turns a brilliant shiny yellow/gold with darker maroon marks.

I certainly enjoyed it through the Fall. It almost didn't look real.