Not sure whether I followed or not Karen's advice?!
The plants went into black 5 gallon pots, with a hole in bottom for net pots into the rain gutter system. Container mix was same as what I did for tomatoes, 3 parts sunshine 4, 2 part bark fines, 1 part perlite, 1/2 part steer manure, and a ring of down-to-earth vege fertilizer at the top. Once I saw first flowers forming, I began top-watering once a week with agrothrive flowers/fruits/veggies (left over from last year).
Well.. had my first Kamo and Millionaire varieties this weekend, grilled over charcoal. Also compared to a store-bought eggplant. All three were delicious, amazing texture, with the Kamo winning as far as flavor - no bitterness, sweet, and fantastic. The Millionaire and store-bought were similar in flavor, with the store one have a bitterness to it.
The Millionaire now has 6 fruit set, and 22 more flowers. The Kamo has a dozen flowers and two more fruit set. The Ao is finally catching up (seeds did not germinate, so it's 2-3 weeks behind) and has 3 flowers. The Italian Rosa Bianca has just presented its first flowers now, this one is a mid-late variety.
So far, these are turning out way better than my tomatoes! No mealyness, no excessive growth, no end rot, etc. Something seems to have begun eating the leaves, I found a couple caterpillar eggs this morning, but no hornworms or anything similar yet.