Reflections on my 2006 Eggplant

[nctomatoman]

Second of my 2006 look back (following the format I used for Sweet Peppers in the Pepper forum). Note that all eggplant were planted in pots and staked (a few grew quite tall and were loaded with fruit - 2006 was a great year for eggplant!).

Winners:

Zebra F1 - just plain gorgeous (purple with marbled white streaks), very productive, perfect for big slabs (longer than wide, but wide enough for eggplant parmesan) - one of my favorites (I think it is the same as Purple Rain F1, which I've tried in other years, and is its equal in all respects)

Listada di Gandia - could be one of the parents of Zebra, as a Zebra F2 was very similar to Listada last year. Just plain beautiful with its glowing white background with dark purple stripes in contrast. Really produced great for me in 2006. another one that is longer than wide, but still wide enough for versatility in its use.

Black Beauty and New York Improved - very similar varieties, very familiar nearly black color - very wide at the blossom end, the perfect slicer for slabs - can grow very tall, yields pretty well. Fruit are much firmer and sweeter than the store bought eggplant of the same color.

Millionaire F1 - Though the plant was kind of straggly, loads of very long, slender black delicious fruit were produced. As in other black skinned slender types, the flesh is a very pale green. Similar to Ichiban and Orient Express.

Antigua - A more slender, similarly colored version of Listada, yields more heavily, can get quite tall, becoming one of my favorite varieties.

Not at the top of the list for various reasons:

Prosperosa - The fruit I did get were really nice - wide, nearly round, dark purple skin - but the plant has an odd growth habit, very dense foliage, lowest yield of all of my varieties.

Slim Jim F1 - I just didn't find that such small, slender eggplant were all that useful, and it seemed to get overripe pretty quickly. It did pump them out, however!

Thai White Ribbed - very unique, high yielding - nearly looked as much like the old white scallop summer squash as eggplant - flattish, medium sized, lobed. I just didn't find it all that useful in that shape and size.

Rosita - I really liked the color and shape, but it was a very shy yielder for me.

Apple Green - Not sure if I had the real deal - color was like a larger version of Kermit (darker green blossom end, mottled white stem area) - seemed to get overripe quickly (turning yellowish) - yielded well, I may have underrated it.

Bianca di Imola - a really nice oval shaped, snow white eggplant but did not yield all that well - maybe its location wasn't optimal. Deserves another chance.

Kermit - yielded great, pretty little two toned green golf ball size and shape...but what to do with the little devils?

Turkish Orange - and WHAT to do with these??? Very tall plant, white flowers, round dark/lighter green striped fruit ripen orange -get soft...when to eat them? A friend found them bitter.

I didn't grow a few of my favorites in 2006, such as Machiaw F1 and Lavendar Touch F1. I also didn't grow a few well known varieties that I've never found yield all that well - Rosa Bianca, Violette di Firenze, or Italian Pink Bicolor.

[Grub]

Thanks Craig,

I have been looking forward to some eggplant info from you. I will refer back to this thread for some ideas for next year's crop.

Meanwhile, I have about 15 doing really well. Some are lanky things, others very dense. I have one Rosa Bianca among two of these that has to be a cross.

Which brings me to ask: do eggies cross easily? The bees here seem to prefer the eggplant flowers to the tomatoes. As the eggies in pots surround the patch they are proving to be a useful diversion for them.

Keep the eggplant post going when convenient. Eggplants are a new hobby for me. Great in pots. Only harvested Pink Long Tung so far. A good one. But deriving immense enjoyment from them and the bug wars.

I will be posting eggplants pics before too long.

[Grub]

Got a triple post! I will add that Round Mauve is proving productive as far as fruitset is concerned.

[Grub]

Yeh, well, the bees are mad for my eggplants. If they don't cross I'll be very surprised.

[MawkHawk]

My wife cuts up little eggplants into slices then tosses with olive oil and garlic then roasts inthe oven. Delicious!

[LoreD]

I saute the little eggplants in a little olive oil and butter with some onions, peppers, tomatoes and whatever is in the garden. Whip some eggs up, throw in some herbs and pour over sauted vegetables. Put mixture on toast tips or crostini. Eggplant tastes like meat when cooked like this. If you don't put tomatoes in the eggs you can put salsa or bruschetta on top. Kids love it.

LoreD

[Suze]

Originally Posted by Grub

Yeh, well, the bees are mad for my eggplants. If they don't cross I'll be very surprised.

Just like peppers, they can cross readily if you've got a lot of pollinators around.

[mouse]

Craig,

Do you suppose that the 'White Ribbed' is a variety of S. aethiopicum, Kumba group [http://books.nap.edu/openbook.php?re...11763&page=153
]

Also, have read that 'Applegreen' includes S. aethiopicum genes in its pedigree. Quite interesting for such an early [datewise] introduction, but then Prof.Meader was always many years ahead of his times [if i am not mistaken, he was one of the breeders of Applegreen, was he not?]

Solanum aethiopicum ‘Manyire Green’, ‘N24’ and ‘Tengeru White are some other outstanding varieties available from AVRDC, Taiwan, for the asking:

Dr. George Kuo" <gkuo@avrdc.org

[Should Grub or anyone be interested in disease-resistant, perennial 'eggplant' types.]



m

[mouse]

Re pollination:

Some species like S. aethiopicum, some crossbreds of aethiopicum and melongena etc. have a mechanism called 'buzz pollination': bees have to bite down on the anthers and vibrate their wings at a particular frequency to release pollen grains.

Honey bees are unable to accomplish this; carpenter bees can, so can other species. Nightshades and their pollinators are an interesting subject, counterintuitive!!

Also, nightshades have allelopathic effects. Our common American nightshade, S. nigrum growing in fields and fruiting profusely, when crushed and ploughed under, depress bean yields in Wisconsin by more than 10%.

Here is an avenue to use this wonderfully hardy "weed" and produce a herbicide for broad-leaved weeds or a useful agro-chemical from it, and convert it into a paying crop instead of endlessly fighting it.

m

[Grub]

Interersting, Mouse.

How do you know these things. And are the perennial eggplants good eating?

Just got a late haul of pink long tung, small rosa bianca and others

[mouse]

Grub,

There is a free online book published by the US National Academy of Science, the citation from which i have linked in my first post, from which the reader can see the citation how i derived my second post.

So my 'knowledge' is just built on the the firsthand research of others, very generously gifted to us courtesy of the US National ACademy of Sciences that does a magnificent job sponsoring research on plants, cropping systems and livestock of exceptional utility to subsistence farmers, and often evolved by them, but that are neglected in 'mainstream' agricultural research.

One of their greatest contributions is to publish them online and free. You may also for fun just like to read Lost Crops of Africa, Part I.

As you are in Queensland, a huge amount, almost 55,000 ha, of virgin forest annually is cleared for sugarcane. At the same time, cane fields suffer from replant syndrome/cane sickness, costing your country sugar exports worth at least A$200 million/year.

Now, people like myself have spent their lives researching sugar palms like Phoenix sylvestris that would be ideal for Australia, especially as they appreciate chill, and even a bit of frost, yielding best at night tempertures of 40-50 degrees F.

This would take the focus of sugar cultivation away from the tropical forest lands, and even south of Yanco, NSW. A perennial is vastly more efficient because it does not have to replace its structures every year, as does cane, before it produces sugar in preparation to flowering.

There is a New Crops Division in Australia, there is Graham Farquhar, a doyen of C4 respiration, Australia has a fantastic scientific capability tjat could help put this palm on a modern agricultural production, but our feeble voices will not be heard. Just in case yours is, do try. I

For this plant, my research is first hand!!!!!!

m

[nctomatoman]

mouse, what I found interesting is that a few varieties of eggplant that a friend sent me had white flowers - something I had not seen previously. Does this indicate anything in particular about the variety - its origin, etc?

[shelleybean]

Speaking of white flowers on eggplant, has anyone had a Louisiana Long Green plant that produced white flowers? In 2005, I grew two LLG plants and one gave white flowers and the other purple, though the fruit from the two was identical. I am only growing one LLG plant this year but it's from the same seed packet, so we'll see what I get this time. Just curious as to what it should be. Thanks.