Everything Eggplant

Eggplant is a favorite vegetable in main course meat substitutions and for omnivores who just love its flavor. Eggplant is tasty when fried, grilled, stuffed, roasted, baked or broiled. While the plant does best in areas with around five months of hot summer weather, it can be carefully tended to grow in a wider range of climates. I find that the more care and effort put into growing my eggplant, the better the harvest. The basic idea behind growing successful eggplant is to get your crop started early and to protect the growing plants from anything that might cause a delay or setback. While eggplants tend to bounce back from a drying out, slight chill or pest problems, the delay or setback could result in little or no harvest from otherwise healthy looking plants.

Location is as important for growing eggplant as it is for sun hungry tomatoes. You want to plant your eggplant in the sunniest location possible, in raised beds. Eggplant does much better in raised beds because the sun will warm the soil faster than in a flat bed. The raised beds also provide the quality drainage that eggplants need; they do not do well in soggy soil. Eggplants will also grow well in large containers, which will allow for proper drainage, warm soil and sunny locations. While choosing your location and preparing the soil for your eggplant a gardener must keep in mind that eggplant needs rich, nutrient heavy soil. I suggest adding manure or compost well in advance of planting, in the fall if possible, to ensure that the soil is rich when it is time to plant. When planning the location of your eggplant keep in mind the details of what you might be planting near and around the eggplant. For gardeners that want to grow the most vegetables possible, and those that want to make the most use of planting space, it is good to think ahead. You can plant some quick crops around your eggplants, such as a lettuce or related plant. Any relatively small plants that will be harvested before the eggplants would be acceptable companion plants. Some flowers, such alyssum, would also do well as companion plants for eggplant.

For those of us in cooler climates I do suggest starting eggplant indoors anywhere from two to three months prior to the average last frost date. Germination for eggplant tends to be slow, taking 10 to 12 days. To speed up germination you can soak the seeds overnight and plant in warm soil, keeping the soil warm up to eighty-five degrees until after the plants sprout. Plant your seeds in loose potting medium and keep the soil over 50 degrees. When seedlings get to be two to three inches tall, you should transplant the seedlings into four-inch pots full of rich, loose soil.

The young eggplants can be set out after all danger of frost has past, but not until the soil and weather is no longer chilly. Hardening them off and bringing the young potted eggplants back indoors at night will start the plants off right. Do not plant them in a raised redistill the weather really begins to warm up. You have a little more leeway as to planting if you are using a large container rather than a raised bed. However, eggplant really does best in warm soil and warm weather, so it is best to wait to plant until conditions will help you plants thrive rather than freezing them. To speed up the warming of the soil you can cover the soil with black plastic, and you can make use of a cold frame to protect young plants after transplanting. You can also cover the plants overnight to protect the plants from cooler nighttime temperatures. However, you might not need to take any of the additional measures if you keep your young eggplants in pots until the weather cooperates with your planting plans. Transplanting the eggplants in larger pots as needed, of course, until the conditions are right.

When you are ready to plant, your young eggplants keep in mind that they will need quite a bit of room. Eggplant grows best with ample space. I suggest planting them at least two feet apart or individually in large containers. The fruits will ripen fastest if the sun can reach them so there needs to be plenty of room for each plant. Growing some lettuce, chervil or other early crop plants would make great use of some of that extra space in the early season, and would not cause problems later for the eggplant. If anything, using some companion plants can provide natural mulch to limit weed growth.

After your eggplants are in their permanent home, whether large container or raised garden bed, it is time to weed and tend to your garden. Do not use tools to tend to the soil around eggplants, because the might cause damage to the shallow roots of the eggplant. Instead, it is best to weed by hand, or use mulch to limit the weed growth. For addition support, you can use a liquid fertilizer or compost tea around your eggplants just as they begin to bloom. You can repeat the application around once a month until harvest time. Do not forget to keep your eggplants well watered, with the well-drained soil moist but not soggy. If you desire, you can pinch off some of the blossoms, bottom suckers or growing tips on the stems to help increase production. However, I have rarely done any of these, and have not done enough to say that any will significantly increase your production. Other eggplant enthusiasts swear by utilizing one or more of these techniques. I find that starting early and keeping a close eye on the eggplants to be sure that they receive the proper sun; water and weather are the most important component in a successful growing season. If your eggplants flower but do seem to be growing fruit, you might need to pollinate the flowers with a small brush yourself instead of leaving the job to insects and nature. Caging or staking certain varieties of eggplant can be very helpful to keep the plants growing in the right direction and healthy, though it is not a requirement for a successful harvest.

When you are ready to harvest your eggplant, there are a few important things to remember. First off, you do not need to wait for a fruit to be fully mature before picking it. It will be worth harvesting and preparing as soon as it is around a third of its fully mature size. Therefore, if weather changes too quickly at the end of your growing season and frost is imminent, you can pick your eggplant and have a feast or prepare and freeze up a batch of baby eggplant. If weather and your own patience allow you to wait until the eggplants reach their full size, then pick them while their skins are still shiny. If the eggplant skins turn dull then they will not taste nearly as good as they would have been if picked while the skin was still shiny.