Fengyuan Aubergine

[Tomaat]

Hello All,

I am thinking of getting Fengyuan Aubergine, it has been advertise to be compact plant (40cm tall or so), productive and early (around 60 to 65 days). It is said to be suitable to be grown at the windowsill (?), produce long fruit like Ping Tung (but shorter) with mild taste and non bitter.
I am so tempted with all those description .

I like to grow small plant which fit in pots (plus this way, I can start early from february onwards).

Have anyone grow it before ? Does/did it really match as what it has been advertise ?

At the moment, I am growing Ping Tung and Baby Rosanna (F1).
Many thanks in advance .

[orflo]

Hi 'neighbour',
I have grown it before, but I think it's a bit on the large size for pot growing, the fruits are good though. For pot growing I prefer morden midget or even diamond, also benarys blaukonigin, but that one isn't available commercially,
Frank

[Tomaat]

Hi frank,

I used to live in Leuven, that (back then) makes us even a bit closer neighbour . in which part are you ?

Many thanks for your info of this aubergine . I read it in a German web with those discriptions, so it doesn't match after all .
I am growing Ping Tung and Baby Rosanna (F1) this year, if the results aren't as I expected, will try your suggestion for next year.

Groetjes,
Nevi

[mresseguie]

Hello, Tomaat.

I've never grown either the Fengyuan or the Pingtung, but I recognize both as names of places in Taiwan. I can only assume they were developed there. Do you know?

I lived in Taiwan for ~16 years as an expat. (OK. I went native, so I wasn't really an expat.) I go back every year or so, and buy seeds that look interesting. I grow lots of Asian greens.

Peace.

Michael in Oregon.

[Tomaat]

Hi Michael,

Yes both of them get their names from their hometown, the Fengyuan aubergine is a pretty new release (around 2006), I found some extra info of it by searching under "egg plant fengyuan".
I must say aubergine growing is pretty new for me. last year I grew the Turkish orange aubergine ,very attactive compact plant with lots of orange colour fruit but taste horribly bitter, yet it was not advertise as having bitter taste .
This year trying Pintung and Baby Rossana. (east meet west and hoping for better result.

I have been to Taipei (only once) during my teenage time, it's a nice modern city (not overly clean like Singapore). Do you speak Mandarin ?
If you ever go back there again, try their special bitter gourd. It has all the goodness of usual bitter gourd but it taste sweet and very less bitterness ,that is good news .

PS. I also grow lots of oriental vegetables (mainly leafy veggie), love them in stir fry .

[mresseguie]

Oh....bitter gourd/melon.....yes......Bitter melon is in my top 3 list of foods I can live without. Hahahaha.

My wife is Taiwanese. She and our son love bitter melon. I even grew it for them three years ago, but I always forego eating it.

I do speak Mandarin, but not as well as when I lived there. I really ought to start studying it again.

I'm trying a lot of Japanese greens this year. Do you grow any Komatsuna, Mizuna, or Tatsoy? I have three varieties of Komatsuna, two of Tatsoy hybrids, and a bunch of different bok choys.

Most of the Asian greens do very well in my climate just as they do in yours.

Check out these three seed sellers:

http://www.kitazawaseed.com/

http://www.agrohaitai.com/onlinecatelogue.htm

http://www.evergreenseeds.com/asveglis.html

[Tomaat]

Hmmm but this Bittergourd is said to be non bitter... don't worry I actually don't really like it that much too (only once or twice per year) and my hubbie don't like it.

I speak Mandarin too (but not that good, learned it while living in Singapore) and now I forget lots of words . Several of my good friends are Taiwanese and I can understand their Taiwanese dialect.

I ordered lots of oriental veg from Agrohaitai and Evergreen. My climate zone is equally 7b (of US ) but our summer tend to be cool and lots of rain (bad news for tomato !). Most brassica grow very well here due to the cool air. I once grew Pak choy (white stem) that was a bit over 1 kg (only 1 plant) before it bolt.

I also grow Water cress, Water konvolvulus, Leaf Amaranth and lots of other things.

There is one Korean summer squash (from Evergreen) which I find pretty tasty : Korean Hybrid Green BT, have you try it ? I am growing the last 2 seeds this year, will probably order more from Evergreen next year

Yes, I got Komatsuna tendergreen (Baker Creek), Mizuna (Evergreen), and Tat soy. Have you tried Kai Lan ? I love it, yummy. I also like Chay sim/ Choy Sum (rape type).
Do you grow Ridge loofa ? I am trying it again this year.

[mresseguie]

I love water convolvulus! It's actually designated an invasive species in Oregon, so I uh....cough.....don't grow it....cough.....uh....cough...

I grew some Chinese melons last year that were very sweet, but also very small. They took forever because of our cool nights here. I've grown loofa here, but it does poorly for the same reason as the melons. I grow a lot of Calabash squash. It needs to be hand pollinated to get a bumper harvest as the bees don't like its blossoms very much.

I like all those greens, but my attempts at growing kai lan were not very successful. I'm not sure why.

I'm happy to 'meet' you. Welcome to our community!

Michael

[orflo]

First of all, fengyuan has been around for some years now, I got seeds 3 years ago. There are lots of Japanese greens: mizuna, mibuna, mispoona (which wasn't developed in Japan though), lots of Chinese greens and cabbages, tah tsai, pak choi, bok choi, and so on. There is also a Japanese parsley, mitsuba, two versions, a common green one and a more unusual purple-red variety, sometimes offered as 'atropurpurea'. There is also a whole range of Chinese radishes, rose de Chine is one of the best, but there are lots of 'daikon' varieties also. Mustard greens are all around, as is an edible chrysanthemum, sometimes called shungiku. Much more is available if you have a search:salsola soda,burdock, wasabi,udo, celtuce, and so on... Most of them are quite easy to grow, certainly in late summer (over here in Western Europe) if you grow the cabbages and radishes. By the way, I'm living 20 kms. south of Gent
Frank

[Tomaat]

Thanks for the welcome Michael, you all are lovely and friendly bunch .
Michael, I have good succes with Kai Lan but the water Konvolvulus and Amaranth is a bit difficult here. Last year was terrible, summer was so cool that these 2 don't seems to grow, too bad I don't have a green house (no more space) but will get one if we get a bigger garden.
I am going to grow golden sweet melon (Baker Creek) this year, it is said to be from Taiwan. Have you grow it before, Michael ?
I am really hoping for great summer to come, meanwhile we are having more cold freezing nights coming ahead again... . It is a real dilemma here, I dare not to sow more as all of my sunny windowsill are fully occupied. My tomatoes are showing tiny bunch of flower buds, tomatillo's flower is blooming... I am happy but at the same time panic and worry because I don't have any proper place for them...oh dear Lord, help me !

Franks, I live in north Limburg (I also speak Flemish). My place is close to Venlo (NL) and around 30' from Maaseik (Be), we still once in a while shop in Maaseik (Colroyt and Delhaize) for the special beers .

I got most of the Japanese/Chinese vegetables you mentioned, Frank. They were mainly from evergreen. This year I am growing more oriental vegetables (and herbs too) such as watermelon radish, china rose ( rose de chine ?), er choy, tsa tzai... but has not grow any burdock, wasabi, mispoona nor Udo. I fear for wasabi, too sharp!
I used to live in a Japanese community while living in Singapore (actually not really their community but over 50% of the condo inhabitant were all Japanese). One of the Japanese family is our very good friend. She used to come to my place with her kids and learn to bake cakes and other cuisine. I have tried her traditional Japanese cooking, love it but the wasabi... I almost cried . The burdock salad is very nice...sorry, a bit off topic.

Frank, (sorry to be cheeky) would you like to help a humanitarian program " Zaden voor het Leven", located close to you, I sent Prof. Cothem a package of seeds last year but he said it never arrive (possibly confiscated )...
here is the link of humanitarian project where he pleaded for seeds :http://zadenvoorleven.wordpress.com/
forgive me Michael, I am not trying to exclude you but the link is written in Flemish/Dutch...
I will try to save as much seeds as I can for him this year.

Really great knowing you both .