Looking for Eggplant Pals

[Sorellina]

Ciao Michael,

Maybe it's the difference between a dry hot climate and a humid one. It gets quite humid here and we have thunderstorms often in the summer. Dunno, maybe Craig can weigh in on this.

[Grub]

That's a great idea. I'll split the pots. And I'll have to give try Casper.

Now I have new ones poking up in one of the cells after several months!

'Waimanalo Long' - a new eggplant
Tanaka, J. S. 1972
Hawaii Farm Science 21(2): 11
Derived from the cross Takii Long Black X Molokai Long, Waimanalo Long is an early, high-yielding variety with high-quality fruit.

My only eggplant hybrid and it sounds interesting.

Thanks Honu!

[Grub]

I'm using pots with 4ft 1/2in stakes for my eggplants.
The tomatoes behind are all spares on death row.



As you can see they are only little guys.



But there are lots of pots all over the place. Here they have peppers and shorty tomatoes and have surrounded my fall patch.



Cucumbers up the back under mulch of seaweed or seagrass really.



Spare peppers including decorative Peruvian Purple and Variegata and more...



... for the front of the house. A remaining project is to plant them out.



Because the tomatoes are mainly done.



Including the Sneezy F2s for the Dwarf Project like this one, my favourite, a PL version.



And the Salad Bar is coming along, with more peppers and eggplants out of frame behind. All good fun.

[mdvpc]

Grub-looking very fine, indeed! keep them coming.

[Sorellina]

Ciao Grub,

I think you'll be ok with those stakes. How far down are they sunk? All the way to the bottom of the containers or is there a hole in the container that you've sunk the stake through it and into the ground? Eggplants are short enough that you shouldn't have issues with containers falling over unless you've got powerful winds in the summer like we can get here. Get yourself some velcro ties and you're all set. Your set-up looks fab, btw.

Here, the glaciers are only a few weeks from returning, sigh.

[Grub]

Jules,
The stakes go to the bottom of the pot, then I lean down and compact the potting mix around them, then water, then compact, then plant out, then mulch, then wet that and compact that. It seems to create a better base for the stake.

If they start to buckle under the load, first I'll celebrate . Then I might make up some guide ropes, kind of like a tent, and add them. I just wish they would take off and grow faster that they are.

Gotr 18 eggplants in now. Have two more to go. Might plant a few remaining ones in the front garden. I'm guessing the Thai Yellow Eggs are quite pretty. Providing I can keep the bugs away.

[Mantis]

Looking good Grub. Most of the work done by the looks.
Now just, beers to drink, fish to catch, a swelling tummy to rub and feel for kicking feet, ahhh life is gooood.

[robbins]

Hey Grub - things are looking great! Can't have enough eggplant. As for staking - we don't stake any, but they are grown in the ground, two plants side-by-side, down the rows. Make sure to check out the thread in the eggplant forum on Thai Pea Eggplant - mine were 10 feet tall and needed no staking, but didn't produce until the second year and the fruit was so bitter we couldn't eat it. A great looking plant though!
Our favorites are usually Antiqua, Neon, Zebra,and violetta Lunga. We don't do well with the whites or greens - too many cucumber bugs attacking.
All your plants look great. Thanks to all you SH folks for the great pictures, etc. Keeps us sane (well......) through the winter.
Robbins

[nctomatoman]

Yes, indeedy - great inspiring pics, Grub! Our favorites this year were Zebra, Antigua, Black Beauty, Listada di Gandia and New York Spineless. We will miss them...never eaten so many eggplant in our lives!

[Grub]

Mantis,

Been wandering around, inverting leaves, pulling off grubs here and there. Tied up the tomatoes with stockings y'day. Baby is growing like mum's tummy. Very low, though, which is fine, but mum's peeing more than me on a friday night.

Robbins,
Thanks for the feedback on Thai Green Pea and I did note your earlier report. I actually enjoy those little green eggplants in a thai curry, however, I don 't get around to making that curries all that often. And this eggplant is very slow growing thus far. So I'm not too fused about it. And I can substitute soomething else 11ft iis mad. I would need to anchor the pot.

Craig,
Good to hear about your holiday and see you back here. I will try for Zebra, Antigua, Black Beauty and New York Spineless next year. Listada di Gandia I have. I can't wait to eat these eggplants. What's more, I appear to have a spare flower bed in front of the house that gets about 6hrs morning sun and spare seedlings. Hmmm.

I woke at 4am this morning to a bird calling like a squeaky gate. From there to 6pm my mind was completely overwhelmed by thoughts of my peppers and eggplants. It's that boyish excitement like on Xmas eve.

[MawkHawk]

Impressive, Grub.

This past summer I grew eggplants in pots in my new little greenhouse and the same number and varieties in my garden. The GH plants grew to 3x the size of the garden plants and yielded about 3x as well. It got quite hot in there, often > 95F, but the EP's thrived. They're still growing even now.

[Grub]

Thanks Mark for your notes. Did you enjoy growing them and cooking with them?

I am thinking it's just not quite hot enough here yet for the eggplants to thrive. They are slow, but I'm sure they'll get there in the end. The lows are still pretty low.

We're getting days around 63F to 77F, but lows in the last week to 55F at night. Daily highs from 54F to 100F in the last few weeks.

So as you can see it's all over the shop and rather changable. But the humidity should kick in next month. I think the eggies will like that

[MawkHawk]

This was my first serious season with eggplants and a greenhouse and I really enjoyed them both. I love the taste of homegrown eggplant now, much to the dismay of my family. I guess it's an acquired taste....

I've read that EP's are slow to start after transplanting and that was the case for me. They grew slowly the whole season and the plants really didn't get very large.

Others here with more experience (Craig) can provide much better comments in this area.

The night temps here are freezing now and some of my GH EP's bloomed yesterday, if you can believe that. Maybe I'll put my little heater in there and see if I can have EP's for the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday next month.... :wink:

[LoreD]

Grub,

I found that I did need to stake my eggplants because many times I would have eggplants on one side of the plant and not on the other and the plant would lean to one side or fall over with the weight.

I live in Chicago which has fairly high temps in the summer and they seemed to like the heat. My friends have found they grow best planted near a brick or stone wall which holds the heat during the night.

Eggplants are really sloooow to produce so planting them early under vented plastic really helps. If you have a long planting season then it really doesn't matter. The most productive year I had was 2005 during an intense drought with temperatures in the upper 90's and above 100 degrees.

I've grown Black Beauty, Rosa Bianca, Round Mauve, Casper, and an asian eggplant mix ( which means I don't know what kinds that I grew) and they all were great. Usually bitter taste is due to growing conditions or picking them when they are too mature.

LoreD

[Grub]

Thanks LoreD.

They slowed down there for a while, but now they're tearing away again.

On closer inspection the growing tips and emerging leaves got burnt from an application of pyrethrin that I applied from a bottle, stupidly, in the heat of the day.

But for a few distorted leaves I think they will be okay. Plenty of sprouting going on.

I'm very excited. Of those you mention, I have Round Mauve and Rosa Bianca growing I have some spares that I'm thinking of planting in front of the house in what was a flower bed but which is now a hot pepper display or will be when the bubs in there reach a decent height