Eggplant Update
 

Hi,
Honu (Ann) in Hawaii kindly sent me some eggplants seeds.

As did Ignacio when he returned to the villages above Madrid !! (Gotta love the t'ville).

Any ideas about these and what I can expect?
Thanks in advance. Grub.

1. Eggplant Thai Purple Egg
2. Eggplant Thai Yellow Egg
3. Eggplant Green Egg
4. Eggplant Thai White Ribbon
5. Thai Green Pea
6. Thai Round Green
7. Thai Long Green
8. Lao Green Stripe
9. Lao White
10. Eggplant Round Mauve
11. Eggplant Apple Green
12. Rose Bianca
13. Sparrow's Brinjal or Mae Wang
14. Udmalbet
15. Turkish Orange (I know this one)
16. Waimanalo Long

From Ignacio in Spain...

17. Listada de Gandia
18. Ping Tung
19. Almagro


Thanks Again.

Thai Long green is incredibly productive and a good container plant also.

Thai Dark Round Green is nearly as productive. The fruit are very pretty.

Round Mauve is a small one , similar to Applegreen in size only light purple.

Applegreen is an earlier maturing type that I usually grow for insurance. Good to heavy producer.

I don't notice any "substantial" flavor differences among the above, but I primarily roast and freeze mine for Eggplant Bhurta, so they all taste the same.

Thai Long Green is my favorite of the varieties listed there. The plant is really something to see.

Jeanne

Grub-I grew Udmalbet this year and pulled it-it not very good. Here is a link to a thread here at Tomatoville: [url]http://www.tomatoville.com/viewtopic.php?t=1990&highlight=[/url]

Ping Tung Long is very good-lots of nice slender purple fruit. We like Applegreen-about the size of your fist, and tender.

Hi Grub,
Waimanalo Long is the standard here.
Here's the University of Hawaii link:
[url]http://www.ctahr.hawaii.edu/seed/seeds.asp#eggplant[/url]
Mild flavor. No need to salt or soak or anything. I like to simply chop and stir fry w/ lots of Thai basil leaves, garlic, Hawaiian red chili peppers, scallions, Thai yellow bean sauce (oyster sauce or fish sauce can be substituted if you can't find this), and tofu (or chicken, fish, or whatever you like).
Also great on a skewer w/ other veggies, drizzled w/ oil and grilled using kiawe (mesquite) charcoal, served w/ dipping sauce.
As for the other varieties, I will be learning along with you, LOL. My Thai friends advise to pick them early before they mature and get bitter.
Happy growing!

Grub-

Listada de Gandia and Rosa Bianca are very productive, beautiful plants and are exceptional in taste. I grow them every year.

Joe

Rosa Bianca is a very pretty fruit for me. Not very productive tho. Taste was quite good. Firm flesh.

I planted Udumalapet this year and tried some tonight in a mixed veggie - chicken coconut curry. I liked the flavor of Udumalapet, even raw.

Thanks
 

They pretty much have all been sown now. About five eggplant seeds per cell. Nice big seeds sure are easy to work with. Strangely, I can't remember such big seeds in the eggplants I eat.

In the end, eggplant germination wasn't too bad. Some good ones in this list. Those in bold are what germinated from the list and which I now have with first true leaves ready for first transplant. Number of each in brackets. Cheers.

1. Applegreen
[b]2. Almagro (x5)[/b]
[b]3. Ping Tung (x3)[/b]
[b]4.Listada da Gandia (x3/4)[/b]
5. Waimanalo
[b]6. Rosa Bianca (x3)[/b]
7. Thai Round Green
8. Thai Long Green
9. Sparrows Brinjal or Ma Waeng
[b] 10. Thai Yellow Egg (x4) [/b]
[b] 11. Thai Purple Egg (x1) [/b]
12. Udmalbet
[b] 13. Lao Green Stripe (x1) [/b]
[b] 14. Round Mauve (x1) [/b]

Thus, I need about 16 pots for eggplants. That's a lot of eggplants. Maybe I will all egged out in the end? Let's fiind out...

Cheers, Grub

[quote]Strangely, I can't remember such big seeds in the eggplants I eat.[/quote]Hi Grub, that's cause you should eat the eggplant when they are immature, before seeds form, otherwise they will be bitter.

Well that makes perfect sense then.

Thanks Honu.

BTW: Great day at sea recently with flocks of gannets, dolphins everywhere, two migrating whales, huge flying fish on the wing, and some ahi for most boats but ours :(. Ah, well, can't win them all.

Articles in the news about the early season hot current out here. So I think it will be a fishy summer.

[quote]Great day at sea recently with flocks of gannets, dolphins everywhere, two migrating whales, huge flying fish on the wing, and some ahi for most boats but ours . Ah, well, can't win them all.[/quote]Sounds wonderful anyway! I always look forward to the return of the humpbacks in winter. Magnificent creatures! I love dolphins -- the spinners off Maui and Lanai are such show offs!

Here are a few surfers in our wake.

[img][url=http://www.freeimagehosting.net/][img]http://img2.freeimagehosting.net/uploads/b5dea23f43.jpg[/img][/url][/img]

And the dolphins feeding with the gannets...

[img][url=http://www.freeimagehosting.net/][img]http://img2.freeimagehosting.net/uploads/48598c3120.jpg[/img][/url][/img]

Thai Green Pea is a late show. :)