I'm giving up on eggplant growing

[z_willus_d]

Originally Posted by Durgan

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.


http://www.durgan.org/URL/?QETKB 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.

http://www.durgan.org/URL/?CNAVT 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.

Thanks for the links. That was fun to walk through (your pics). But I can't imagine I'd ever one to drink more than a sip of that green juice. I'm fairly open to most things, but that just seems gut wrenching. I'm sure it's quite healthy with the kale. Do you use it in cooking or drink it clean?
-n

[zeroma]

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

[tjg911]

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

[shelleybean]

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.

[Cole_Robbie]

Originally Posted by tjg911

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

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

[peebee]

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.

[Gavriil]

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.

[roper2008]

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.

[gryffin]

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).

[peppero]

antoinette i have experienced failure with eggplant way too much but, i keep trying every year. failure has meant stunted plants and/or low production of inferior quality. as always i try again because of the beautiful foliage and blooms and plant several varieties.

this year i have planted them all in medium sized containers about two feet off the ground. this means i have to water them a lot but they are doing well, even producing eggplant. will WONDERS ever cease? i don't know whether this will inspire you to try again but if not, you may be tortured with---what if.

jon

[lakelady]

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).

[tjg911]

Originally Posted by lakelady

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).

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

[JLJ_]

Originally Posted by lakelady

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).

It's better to start eggplant seeds earlier, but you might not be too late, as my plants are still fairly small, but will yield, and your season is probably quite a bit longer than ours.

I never had luck with Black Beauty -- warm season is just not long enough here, but the hybrid Dusky did well here when I could get it -- and now both Park and Burpee have early hybrids that are the same type and do well.

Park's Whopper Hybrid -- 62 day and Burpee Early Midnight -- 55 day.

(Remembering that DTM is useful for comparing varieties, but actual DTM varies)

[Tracydr]

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.

[whistech]

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