I'm giving up on eggplant growing
 

unless someone can tell me otherwise. Last year I grew 4 varieties, and none of them were really very productive. It seemed like an awful lot of work for about 4 fruits per plant. I had Rosa Bianca, and Indian variety, and 2 others that were not too memorable.

I've never done much eggplant growing, and the only one that seemed to really rock out was the little Prince from Renee's Seeds. (hybrid baby eggplant).

Does anyone have a good eggplant that is really productive?

I have a variety called Swallow that is pretty productive. I got several fruits off of one plant- it produces early and keeps going. Pingtung Long is pretty productive also.

In general, I think that the Japanese types are more productive than the Italian ones- I love Rosa Bianca but I've never gotten more than 4 fruits off of one plant. It could be because New Hampshire isn't really prime eggplant territory!

I'm hopeful that the Dancer I got from Johnny's will produce well. It germinated better than any eggplant I've ever started.

Antoniette - I've had excellent results with the old standard heirloom Black Beauty -- it's all I'm growing this season.

[QUOTE=jerryinfla;338574]Antoniette - I've had excellent results with the old standard heirloom Black Beauty -- it's all I'm growing this season.[/QUOTE]


If you have never grown Black Beauty you should before you give up all together. I've never done as well with any other variety.

I'll suggest black beauty too.

Worth

I've grown Rosa Bianca, Swallow and Black Beauty. Both Swallow and BB produced more than RB...all 3 were very tasty. I had about 6-8 plants and couldn't keep up with them; ended up giving some away. I planted them in an area with some large rocks that held the heat and I think that made the difference; it was my best yr for eggplants.

Ping Tung Long is a magic act. How can 12 inch plants hide 10 inch fruit under their leaves? Then they continued to grow to 3 foot x 3 foot plants and produced until frost. The only mistake I made was planting 40 plants in case they didn't do well.

I've had great luck for two years now with Fairy Tale, a nice small fruit that my market customers seem to love. For the standard big purple ones, Galina works well here.

There are several I like but the most consistently productive variety for me is White Beauty. They've always done well for me but last summer I had two WB's and I picked at least 50 eggplant, no kidding. As we got into fall, they were much smaller, of course, but they just kept blooming and producing eggplant about the length of my hand until frost.

[QUOTE=saltmarsh;338595]Ping Tung Long is a magic act. How can 12 inch plants hide 10 inch fruit under their leaves? Then they continued to grow to 3 foot x 3 foot plants and produced until frost. The only mistake I made was planting 40 plants in case they didn't do well.[/QUOTE]

LOL sounds like something I would do. IF I could fit 40 plants in!

I've heard Ping Tung Long is excellent. Probably too late to start seeds now though by the time i get them. Maybe I'll find a plant at the garden center.

[QUOTE=shelleybean;338622]There are several I like but the most consistently productive variety for me is White Beauty. They've always done well for me but last summer I had two WB's and I picked at least 50 eggplant, no kidding. As we got into fall, they were much smaller, of course, but they just kept blooming and producing eggplant about the length of my hand until frost.[/QUOTE]

no way! holy cow that's a lot. Okay, next year I'm going to try WB and Ping Tung Long. :).

I have too many peppers I sowed this year (and I only wanted about 5 of the 20 varieties I am growing lol). No more room!

I could send you seeds if you want to try.

Ping Tung Long and Japanese Millionaire, one of each, gave me so many fruits last season, I got sick of them and whacked Millionaire down at ground level. It came right back and started setting fruit again, so I let it be.

This year I am growing Kamo and Ping Tung Long. The Japanese varieties DO seem to keep on pumping out the fruit (and I have grown the Italian ones before with less success).

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.


[url]http://www.durgan.org/URL/?QETKB[/url] 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.

[url]http://www.durgan.org/URL/?CNAVT[/url] 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.

I just finished sowing 2 hybrid varitiy, Black King and Millionaire because that is what our garden group purchased...10 seeds of each.

On average, what would you with experience growing eggplant say was a 'good harvest' from one average plant? I think maybe 20 plants will be like having summer squash! LOL

Antoniette the problem is you are growing them in the ground, my assumption. i used to grow them in 5 gallon pails with excellent results. the pails heat up, the ground is cool. i used to get so many i couldn't eat them all. i have 1/3 of the driveway paved and 2/3 is not. place the pails on the asphalt, water daily, put where they get full sun all day and i think you'll be surprised at the amount of fruits you'll get. and as an added bonus NO flea beetles unless you place the pails near the garden soil.

tom

Mine are in raised beds but I add a few inches of compost at the beginning of each season.

I'll still have my White Beauty this year but I am trying Pingtung this time so I'm glad to read people get good results with that one. Pintung is my only new eggplant this year. I also have Louisiana Long Green, Rosita and Prosperosa.

Is it too late to sow seeds now? I did my peppers in February, and Tomatoes in March (okay, I snuck a few more tomatoes in last week ).

My driveway is mostly shade unfortunately. The dock on the lake is good sun most of the day. My garden area is mostly sun, but quite full already (on paper that is).

The only ones I've had good production with is the long
asian types. I always buy a few black beauty's, but never
get any good eggplants from them..but I bought 3 of them
a couple days ago to try again. Maybe I'll get it right this
year.

The asian's I'm growing is Thai Long Green, and Machiaw F1.

The oriental types are pretty early. I started my seeds about 1 week ago- I'm in Zone 5a/5b. Your season should be longer than mine so between that and the early maturity, I think you would might still have a good harvest window, just not as long as if you had started them earlier.

According to the source from which I bought Swallow, it is 51 days from transplant, Pingtung Long is 58 days from (compared to Rosa Bianca at 88 days from transplant).

[QUOTE=lakelady;338637]LOL sounds like something I would do. IF I could fit 40 plants in!

I've heard Ping Tung Long is excellent. Probably too late to start seeds now though by the time i get them. Maybe I'll find a plant at the garden center.[/QUOTE]

Ping Tung Long is my favorite, too. Crazy productive. Always sweet and tender. Wonderful for grilled eggplants. They're heat lovers so it should be okay to start a little late. Put them in the hottest, sunniest place you can find. 5 gallon pot or Gro-bag is fine. I grow mine in full sun in AZ. Basically the only thing besides okra that I put in full sun for the summer. Oh, and long beans.

[QUOTE=tjg911;338695]Antoniette the problem is you are growing them in the ground, my assumption. i used to grow them in 5 gallon pails with excellent results. the pails heat up, the ground is cool. i used to get so many i couldn't eat them all. i have 1/3 of the driveway paved and 2/3 is not. place the pails on the asphalt, water daily, put where they get full sun all day and i think you'll be surprised at the amount of fruits you'll get. and as an added bonus NO flea beetles unless you place the pails near the garden soil.

tom[/QUOTE]


That sounds like a really good idea. Hot weather cooks my container tomatoes, but maybe I can still grow container eggplant.

One trick you can try, when your plant stops producing, is to prune it in half (yes, I know it sounds drastic) and any side suckers, and be SURE to fertilize well as soon as you do it, by either making 4 holes around the perimeter of the pot, then dropping in your dry fert, covering, and watering in, or you can use your liquid. I used to have poor production in-ground, then swtiched to pots, and saw better results, but then my plants would stall mid-season. So after I learned of this pruning method which is quite common in Japan, I tried it and now I do this every time. It is important to fertilize at this point, remember.

As for flea beetles...in my area, they are everywhere. Yes, I tried putting pots away from my garden, on concrete, on tables, you name it, thinking I could fool them. They found every little plant, no matter where they were. I've become quite the expert in crushing them by hand, but its a daily battle. :evil:

Ordered some Ping Tung Long Seeds about 3 years ago didn't try planting them till this year indoors and couldn't get them to germinate.
Have always had productive plants when buying Ichiban plants from Walmart.
Except in extreme heat.

[QUOTE=lakelady;338716]Is it too late to sow seeds now? I did my peppers in February, and Tomatoes in March (okay, I snuck a few more tomatoes in last week ).

My driveway is mostly shade unfortunately. The dock on the lake is good sun most of the day. My garden area is mostly sun, but quite full already (on paper that is).[/QUOTE]

too late to start eggplant from seed? i think so. i never grew it from seed but iirc it's like peppers - you have to start them a month or more before tomatoes. i always bought plants and you can do that in another month.

so put 5 gal pails in a full sun spot, it shouldn't be near or especially in the garden to avoid flea beetles. the asphalt would kick up the heat but on the dock or ground is ok. the air around the pails will be hot, the ground 5" down is cool even in august.

tom

I had two of my eggplants in the most unlikely spots. One accidentally grew next to an air conditioner with hardly any room, maybe about 3 inches between the AC and the sidewalk. Poor plant. It was there for 4 years before freezing this winter! The other was next to the dryer vent getting huge amounts of hot air, even in the summer, here in AZ!
Both plants grew to be small trees and I was very sad to lose them in our freezing weather this winter. It took a really hard week of freezes to lose them, too, since they were so close to the house and I've always protected them from freezes.
My other plants were in more conventional spots but production was similar. Actually, the older plants produced more, probably because they had tree trunks? I would prune them hard to keep them about 4 feet in height two or three times a year.

Shellybean, how long does it take your Louisiana Long Green eggplant to start setting fruit?

Around 75 days. In some catalogs I see they list 100 days at the DTM but I have never had them that late. I have a lot of heat and humidity 24/7 here in the summer though and they like that. The LLG are no later than any other variety for me. The earliest eggplant I've grown is Early Black Egg.

Black beauty did well. I am doing Florida high bush this year too. They seem to love the heat.

Michele, thank you for your response. I have some seed started and I know it's late, but this is my first year gardening and I'm trying to grow the Louisiana Long Green eggplant because I thought it should do good here since it's a Louisiana variety that is not supposed to be bitter. I have never been a big fan of eggplant because they always tasted bitter to me. We also have hot weather and extremely high humidity here, so I think I should be ok. Again, thank you for sharing the information with me.