Looking for Eggplant Pals

[Grub]

Would someone please talk to me about eggplants?

This is my first serious year and I have about 20.

Some sources say stake as for tomatoes, ie, 8ft!

Sheesh! I dun want any more 8ft stakes. I have 62 tomatoes.

Others say they will reach about 4ft.

In each 8gal pot I have stuck a 4ft stake. Will this be okay.

1. How were your eggplants this year?
2. I have one from the Spanish hills, a village, that I hope will be good and I can share seeds for.
3. I have been searchign the www and there is not real dedicated eggplant forum but for one that was hacked.
4. I think Liistada da Gandai and Rosa Bianca look the same in pics I've seen.
5. Ping Tung sounds so great.
6. Thai Green Pea has germinated very late. But it sounds awful. Any backers for this one?

Okay, now talk eggplant to me

Grub.

[mdvpc]

Grub-You are going to have a lot of eggplant! I had 7 plants and we have been eating it 3 times a week for weeks and weeks. I am still picking fruit, even though we are getting as low as 55 degrees f at night here (12.77 c).

I use short cages for my plants, I have never had an eggplant get taller than about 3 feet or so. The only problem I see with the stake is that if you have fruit that is big, like Black Beauty or the Italian varieties you have, they may get very heavy on the vine and tear the branch. Myabe you can figure out some kind of support when they start to get big, if they do. I use 5 gallon grow bags for my plants, and I feed heavy with my tomato tone.

You feed and water them like tomatoes, using the same fert. Make sure you pick them when they are shiny, because they get bitter if they are too long on the vine. Most people will err in picking them smaller, rather than waiting for them to get to their biggest size. The good thing is that you are going to have so much fruit that you can experiment what stage of ripeness you like.

My biggest problem with eggplant growing is that they seem to attract a lot of aphids. I use diatomaceous earth on the plants, and it helps to keep the aphids down. I also use an organic spray or soap spray on the aphids.

Ping Tung Long is a wonderful variety-and it will produce well. The fruit is long, slender and very shiny when ripe. We sometimes pick them short and sometimes wait until they get almost full size. I dont know your Thai variety.

The wife took some eggplant last night, put it in some kind of aluminum baggie thing, put olive oil, garlic, garlic salt, onions in it and put it on the grill to cook-it was wonderful!

Start looking for recipes and people to give fruit to, because with 20 plants you are going to have lots of fruit.

What else can I tell you. I love eggplant-its so sad when winter comes and no fresh eggplant. The stuff you buy in the store is tasteless.

[Sorellina]

Ciao Grub,

I can add a wee bit to what Michael is saying here because we had a bumper crop this year. You know how sometimes you can over-compensate when you have a sub-par season? That's what happened. I had one row of 12 plants at the end of the main tomato bed in 2005 and they got some dappled sunlight because of a plum tree. I had maybe 20 eggplants total that year. So...I asked for 2 additional raised beds for my birthday because I didn't want to put all the eggplants I wanted to grow in containers. I lost my mind for a split second and decided 48 was a good number.

The raised beds are in direct sunlight, ideal growing conditions, new conditioned composted soil. They all grew to between 3-4 feet tall. I used wimpy 2' bamboo stakes at first and they did ok until late in the season when all the plants were loaded and the thunderstorms were frequent. I replaced them with sturdier, taller bamboo stakes but they still did the leaning tower of Pisa thing if the fruit burden was too heavy. What I suggest for you, Grub, is to use 4' sturdy stakes of either 1/2" wood or 1/4" metal, something that won't topple over with a lot of fruit. You've got Listada di Giandia and Rosa Bianca which we can find at grocery stores here in Toronto because our neighbourhood is very Italian. Those are some BIG fruit. Get some velcro ties, they're easy and you can re-use them. Eggplant stems are fairly woody and thinner than tomatoes. Also, use gloves...eggplants have thorns.

As for recipes, I'll be posting some of mine. I got very creative this season..I had to! I canned a ton of caponata, something my Sicilian side of the family is famous for, eggplant parmesiana, baba ghanouj (which you can freeze, I was so elated to hear that), moussaka, and fritti. I've also grilled them with an Asian honey-soy glaze. Just ask if you don't see what you need on the recipe side.

Cheers, Grub and buona fortuna with all your efforts!

[mdvpc]

Julianna-I love Sicily-best food on the planet! The wife and I spent a week near Palermo, and it was wonderful.

[giardiniere]

Originally Posted by Sorellina

I canned a ton of caponata, something my Sicilian side of the family is famous for, eggplant parmesiana, baba ghanouj (which you can freeze, I was so elated to hear that), moussaka, and fritti. I've also grilled them with an Asian honey-soy glaze.

So, when am I invited over for dinner?? BTW, my grandparents were born in Sicily, unfortunately they both passed away before I was born.

[Grub]

Hi Eggplant Friends

I can't wait to reply and chat about what you've very kindly posted for me.

I will take some pics for fun soon. And I think I will have to cut some tomato stakes in half because the stakes I have in the pots are 4ft tall but 1/2in diameter.

But great news about their height. Phew!

Sounds like I will be swimming in eggplants.

(I've just had some computer issues and have a newspaper deadline, so I'll get back to this forum in about four hours).

Till then. Thanks so much.

[Grub]

Back for a break...

Thanks Michael and Sorellina (lil' Sis).

Grub-You are going to have a lot of eggplant! I had 7 plants and we have been eating it 3 times a week for weeks and weeks. I am still picking fruit, even though we are getting as low as 55 degrees f at night here (12.77 c).

Does sound a bit scary as there's only two of us and I think perhaps only so many eggplants you can eat. But I will forge ahead with my plans for about 20. I think I have 15 potted up already.

I use short cages for my plants, I have never had an eggplant get taller than about 3 feet or so. The only problem I see with the stake is that if you have fruit that is big, like Black Beauty or the Italian varieties you have, they may get very heavy on the vine and tear the branch. Myabe you can figure out some kind of support when they start to get big, if they do. I use 5 gallon grow bags for my plants, and I feed heavy with my tomato tone.

Now I'm really thinking seriously about short cages. I could buy some wire and make some extras for my short tomatoes.

Thanks so much for the feeding and watering tips. I will treat them like tomatoes. I know how to do that. I will pick them shiny and spray with pyrethrum.


Ping Tung Long is my strongest so far. I can't wait to cook some eggplants. I love eating it. And I have saved plenty of recipes in preparation.


Sorellina,
You have some great advice there and I'll be sure to be following it too. And I'm going to watch for your recipes. I love baba G. and baked eggplant with veal and tomato, basil and stuff, cooked to where the eggplant is kind of like meat. Mmm.

I am very excited and hooked on eggplants. Hopefully, they get enough sun at anywhere from about 6-12 hours depending on their location.

Did you say 45 eggplants!!!! Omigosh. I can only imagine.

So which ones did you both grow and what are you favourites or must-grow eggplants? Do they vary in flavour?

Thanks.

[mdvpc]

Sorellina -I am quite sure that both Grub and I willl welcome you for dinner anytime-just let us know! Because I live in such heat, 45 eggplant plants would overwhelm us-we would have hundreds of ripe fruit-maybe in Canada the plants dont produce so much. Eggplant is a hot weather veggie, at least from my perspective. I have tried to grow it in the greenhouse during the fall/early spring and it doesnt do well.

Ping Tung Long was a favorite, so was a green when ripe eggplant called green giant. Applegreen was very good for me, Casper was not my favorite. The others were hybrids, one was good called Fairy Tale, that I got from Johnny's and it was very good-tender and tasty.

[Worth1]

Grub with any luck at all you will be swimming in the things.
Where I live you can get over a 100 of the things from 20.
(((easy)))
Here's a link that will help.
http://www.tomatoville.com/viewtopic.php?t=433

Worth

[Grub]

I think my eggplants will grow faster in the heat then.

Sorry for asking, but one last question: would you put peppers or eggplants, which are both in 5 gal pots, in spots that cop hot afternoon sun?

The ones from Almagro are slow after transplant. I'm growing three of them from five seedlings. Plus I have...

Ping Tung (x3),
Listada da Gandia (x4),
Rosa Bianca (x3)
Very strong Thai Yellow Egg (x4) (maybe just grow 2)
Thai Purple Egg (x1)
Lao Green Stripe (x1)
Round Mauve (x1)

So there should be some pretty harvest pics with the tomatoes and peppers.

[Worth1]

To the contrary Grub I have had better luck with the hot afternoon sun NOT being on them.
Morning to mid afternoon sun, then late afternoon shade is better.
But of course it gets 110 F here in Texas at times.

Just my measly opinion though.

Worth

[Grub]

That is the problem Worthy,

Some of my spots get hot afternoon sun and I have no choice.

So if you had to put something there, which I do, would you go peppers or eggplants?

I have made sure the C.Pubescens peppers only get morning sun.

House is encircled by pots. It's like the Indians are here.

[mdvpc]

Grub-I would distribute them out-if you have 2 containers of a certain variety, I would try one in the afternoon sun and one out of it-that way, you could see how they do. Peppers and eggplant do drop blossoms from heat, but in my experience, not like tomatoes. You could also use some shade cloth for the hottest weeks. My peppers and eggplant are in sun most of the day because any spots with afternoon sun go to the tomatoes.

[Sorellina]

Ciao Grub,

I grew 3 varieties this season, 2 were new for me. Normally, I've only grown Violetta Lunga, an elongated Italian teardrop-shaped eggplant because that's what my family always grew. It doesn't do as well up here as it does in California where I grew up. Michael didn't like Casper, but that was our favourite this season. I grew Aubergine Blanche from Solana Seeds last year and I like the mild flavour of the white eggplants, but it's not OP, so I opted for growing Casper with the idea of saving seeds. What a great producer! The skin is very tender and the eggplant is a kind of mushroomy flavour. We really liked this one. The other one was Antigua, another elongated teardrop-shaped Italian with purple and white striped skin. This one tended to be quite seedy for us, so that took away from some of its flavour. I harvested them small and that was better, but for whatever reason, Casper at the same size had way smaller or no seeds. I had to wait for the Caspers to turn yellow before the seeds were ready to harvest.

On a blistering sun note...early in the season, I used shade cloth for the eggplants. They wilted in high heat until the roots developed big enough systems and the leaves got big enough to handle it. After that, they were fine, even in the high humidity we get here. Peppers do a bit better overall in blistering heat. They'll look a bit bedraggled at times, but they recover nicely.

My door is always open so give me a few hours warning and you're welcome to drop by any time. We always make enough, just in case the Pope decides to show up, lol. I'd love to visit Grub..he's always got the loveliest fish! Road/sea trip anyone?

Cheers!

[mdvpc]

Sorellina-Interesting about Casper since it was tough for us-it was right next to Applegreen, which was much better-tasted like butter.