I'm giving up on eggplant growing

[shelleybean]

Keeping my fingers crossed for you, Scott!

[Redbaron]

Originally Posted by shelleybean

Keeping my fingers crossed for you, Scott!

It worked! You have magic fingers! My first homegrown eggplant ever.

[shelleybean]

Congratulations! What are you going to do with them?

I've picked three so far but I have a lot more coming. It's so, so hot here lately and the eggplant like it that way.

[Redbaron]

Originally Posted by shelleybean

Congratulations! What are you going to do with them?

I've picked three so far but I have a lot more coming. It's so, so hot here lately and the eggplant like it that way.

They are already sold. I made the mistake of putting out a sign that said "For Sale-Organic vegetables" about 2 weeks ago. I sold out in the first day and have a waiting list for basically everything, but especially tomatoes. The sign is down now. Just waiting on the productivity to surpass the demand before I put it back up again. And sneaking a bite out of anything with blemishes for myself. Luckily this last week of rain caused several tomatoes to split. So I have been eating the split ones and saving all the good produce for sale.

[Crandrew]

Wohoo Scott! Nice. I also enjoyed my first eggplant of the season last week.

but I cant believe you didn't even taste the first fruit to check for flavor

[Redbaron]

Originally Posted by Crandrew

Wohoo Scott! Nice. I also enjoyed my first eggplant of the season last week.

but I cant believe you didn't even taste the first fruit to check for flavor

I figure once the tomatoes start pumping out regular, I can sneak a few eggplants for myself There is at least 8 or 10 small ones still on the plant. Right now I am just struggling to keep the customers interested until that happens, since they want my veggies, but the late spring means not much is ready. People have taken my number and called up the house, and I have customers who left a number for me to call. And so far not much has ripened.

[Crandrew]

Oh ok. Well hopefully stuff starts ripening up soon.

[z_willus_d]

Originally Posted by Durgan

From four plants I obtain about 50 or so large perfect fruit. This plant requires almost no care in my garden. I have grown different types over the years, and they were all far to productive for my needs.


http://www.durgan.org/URL/?QETKB 15 May 2012 Egg Plant
Four plants placed in the outdoor garden. These were purchased as seedlings in flats and placed in individual pots for about ten days in the greenhouse to strengthen the roots. I have grown four plants for several years and seldom used the fruit. Now I will use them for making my typical juice. The plants produce an astonishing quantity of perfect fruit. The Colorado potato beetle attacks the leaves and the plants must be checked regularly for eggs or munchies and removed.

http://www.durgan.org/URL/?CNAVT 23 September 2012 Juicing Peppers,Egg Plant, and Kale.
Fifteen pound of peppers, five pounds of Egg Plant, and five Pounds of Kale was made into fourteen litres of juice.The fourteen litre jars were pressure canned at 15 PSI for 15 minutes for long term storage at room temperature. The process is depicted in annotated pictures.

Thanks for the links. That was fun to walk through (your pics). But I can't imagine I'd ever one to drink more than a sip of that green juice. I'm fairly open to most things, but that just seems gut wrenching. I'm sure it's quite healthy with the kale. Do you use it in cooking or drink it clean?
-n

[Father'sDaughter]

I'm noticing something interesting with my eggplants this year. I purchased seeds for Italian Long Purple eggplant and grew it the last two years. Yields was probably about three or four per plant, which was plenty for the two of us. At the end of last year I decided to try saving seeds from one of the last remaining ones left hanging too long to make for good eating.

This year I wanted five plants, so I started seven of my saved seeds. Only three germinated and I was afraid I hadn't let them mature long enough before saving them last fall, so I started some of my remaining purchased seeds. In the end, I put out the three grown from saved seeds and two from purchased seeds. The three from my saved seeds are not only taller and healthier, but they are starting to load up with eggplants and continuing to pump out blossoms. The two from purchased seeds are much smaller and are just now starting to produce flowers. All five are in one spot in my raised bed so they are growing in identical conditions. I don't know if it's a fluke or some type of adaptation to my growing environment happening (???), but I'm sticking with my saved seeds from now on. If I can keep getting this level of yield from them, I can grow fewer eggplant plants and have more room for sweet peppers!

[Patihum]

Has anyone grown Aswad eggplant before? I didn't get them transplanted until late May because of the freakish weather. They've finally set some on but they're only about the size of a golf ball. At this rate it will be sometime in August before we get to eat any. I'm wondering if they're worth the time, effort and garden space.

[clkeiper]

Antoinette, I started my eggplant in LARGE pots this year and since they were looking so great I cut two bales of potting mix in 1/2 and planted 3 EP in each 1/2. I am getting eggplants like mad now and I never have before. they are sitting on an asphalt driveway, too. It seems the hotter the better. I just water them twice a day. add a little 12-12-12 every now and again and keep picking the fruit literally daily. I planted one bale with Kumba Goya? one with millionaire Hy. one bale with Black beauty (and one bale with Slim Jim just this week and it is in the greenhouse where it is sweltering. It is LOVING the 100 degree days in there). I have been picking the Millionaire Hy for about a month. The BB are just starting to form and the Goya Kumbo is about the size of a shooter marble and the plants stand about 4" tall already. I hope you tried a few of them this way this year since you started this thread so long ago. I was amazed at the difference in productivity.

[peppero]

antoinette i have experienced failure with eggplant way too much but, i keep trying every year. failure has meant stunted plants and/or low production of inferior quality. as always i try again because of the beautiful foliage and blooms and plant several varieties.

this year i have planted them all in medium sized containers about two feet off the ground. this means i have to water them a lot but they are doing well, even producing eggplant. will WONDERS ever cease? i don't know whether this will inspire you to try again but if not, you may be tortured with---what if.

jon

[Greatgardens]

Black Beauty has done well for me in the past, but I gave up on OP eggplant. Low yields, generally ugly fruit (for me). You don't say anything about disease, but if Verticillium wilt is killing your plants before they can really deliver, then you need to consider growing them in a container. When growing them in-ground, in a good year, I might get a modest harvest. In a poor year, the plants would load up and I might get one or two fruit before Verticillium took its toll. So now I grow them in an EarthBox and have more than we can eat -- every year!

Recommended varieties: Dancer (Johnny's), Early Midnight (Burpee), Nadia (Tomato Growers), White Star (Harris), Classic (Harris). I've grown all these very successfully in the EB, using a 4-ft. tomato cage to support the plants. Be aware, these are heavy feeders, so must be fertilized accordingly. This year, I will be trying "the snack" as a supplement. I believe that the lighter-skinned eggplants stay bitter-free than the dark purple ones. But no evidence of that that I know if.
-GG

[barkeater]

GG,

Try Rosa Bianca, an italian heirloom, before writing off OP eggplants. I even got a couple RB's here in zone 3 outside one year!

[Zeedman]

"You don't say much about your growing conditions... I tried to grow eggplant for years and had very spotty results due to Verticillium Wilt. Some years the Vert. wasn't bad and I got a decent crop (mostly Black Beauty). Most years, the plants would load up and then the plants would wilt -- at most I'd get an eggplant or two!" (Greatgardens)

That was my experience in Wisconsin for many years - and I tried a lot of varieties, somewhere around 20. I think it is the occasional cool night temperatures here which weaken the plants' immunity, and the wilt attacks them when they are weak... which unfortunately, is usually just as they begin to bear. The same thing happened with many okra varieties, probably for the same reasons.

Fortunately, I eventually found two OP varieties which are highly resistant to wilt; Diamond (purple) and Casper (white). I'm actually surprised that no one has mentioned Diamond in this thread, because it is the most fool-proof & productive OP variety I know of, and is widely adapted. Casper is more temperamental, and some years doesn't set many... but it has a mild flavor and great cooked texture, and actually seems to prefer cool summers, when it really comes on strong. Most years, I generally grow both, and regardless of the weather, one or the other does well.
Casper (left), Diamond (lower right), a Filipino eggplant trial (upper right). (The Filipino eggplant is also very wilt resistant and productive, I've been selecting it for more consistently elongated fruit.)

For those who have mentioned having excess eggplant, don't throw it away - it freezes well. When mine really begin to take off, I steam them whole, allow them to cool, peel them, and freeze them in vacuum bags. The cooked & frozen eggplant maintains its quality well, we use it throughout the winter. Chopped & added to an egg batter, it makes omelets to die for.

(Edit: the forum software seems to go haywire if you try to use both a quote and photo in the same post, hence the quote format at the start of my post.)