From the article, you will learn how to grow eggplants, from planting seeds for seedlings to harvesting. Content:
- Early maturing varieties
- Varieties of multicolored eggplants
- Growing seedlings
- Care features
If you know simple techniques, you can get decent yields of eggplant not only in the southern, but also more northern latitudes. In such climatic conditions, they need to be provided with everything they need, and above all - with heat. If the temperature near the bushes drops below + 20 ° C, then the pollination of the "blue" ones and the growth of their fruits stops. There are other conditions, without which it is impossible to get a good harvest.
Early ripe eggplant varieties
In order for the eggplants to grow and give an excellent harvest, it is better to plant popular early maturing varieties. If you want to get the fruits of a traditional dark lilac color, then pay attention to the varieties: Albatross, Black Beauty, Diamond, Epic F1, Fat Master, Vikar, Banana, Black Moon, Purple Miracle.
Let's take a quick look at what each variety is:
- "Albatross" … It will delight you with the fruits of a shortened pear-shaped form. Although the bushes themselves are compact, the fruits can be up to 450 grams! Another valuable quality of this variety is that its fruits do not have bitterness, like the "Black Beauty" eggplants. In the latter, they are also rather big - they grow up to 200 grams. This variety is resistant to diseases, high-yielding, and the fruits are stored for a long time.
- "Diamond" … It will delight you with eggplants up to 20 cm long, weighing up to 100-200 grams. The pulp is pleasant to the taste, without bitterness.
- Epic F1 … The fruits of the hybrid are teardrop-shaped, beautiful purple-black color, early ripening, resistant to many diseases. The hybrid is a high-yielding hybrid.
- "Fat gentleman" … Will produce fleshy round fruits that taste great without bitterness. Eggplants "Vikar" also have excellent taste, they are shortened and pear-shaped in shape.
- "Banana" … A variety with long, slightly curved fruits that keep well. "Violet Miracle" will delight you with cylindrical fruits weighing 135 grams.
- "Black Moon" … Soft taste, delicate pulp - all this eggplant of this variety has. Like the heavenly body, the fruits are spherical and tuberous.
Varieties of multicolored eggplants
Recently, white fruits have been very popular among gardeners, and for good reason. Their flesh is not bitter and tastes like chicken or champignon mushrooms. If you want to grow such on the site, then plant seeds of the varieties Pelican, White Egg, Iceberg, Swan, Bibo, Ping Pong.
Eggplants of the "White Egg" variety have a rich mushroom flavor and an egg-shaped shape. "Pelican" is distinguished by saber-shaped fruits, and "Iceberg" - oval. For Swan eggplants they are cylindrical, for Ping-Pong they are round. "Bibo" will delight you with high yields, disease resistance, the variety has oval-conical fruits. Now breeders have bred eggplants, even yellow! But there are still few such varieties on the Russian market. Gardeners can plant Dutch Golden Eggs eggplant seeds in their greenhouse.
If you want to harvest oval fruits with alternating lilac and white stripes, plant the Matrosik variety. The pink-lilac color is inherent in the eggplants of the Pink Flamingo and Othello varieties, and the deep red is in the Japanese Red variety. Rosa Bianca - white-pink-lavender.
Growing eggplants for seedlings
Eggplants, like peppers, tomatoes, in middle latitudes must be grown through seedlings. The timing of planting seeds is early, the same as for peppers. You can sow them throughout the month of February.
First, dress the seeds in a red solution of potassium permanganate for 20 minutes, then place them in water at a temperature of about + 50 ° C for 25 minutes. After heat treatment, place the seeds in damp gauze on a bowl and let them hatch. To do this, place the container in a warm room, keep the gauze moist throughout this period. When the white dots of the roots appear, plant the seeds. You can soak eggplant seeds for only two days, and then sow in prepared soil.
It should consist of sand, humus, turf in a ratio of 1: 3: 5. Make holes 2 cm deep with a pencil or wooden stick. Dip the seeds into moist soil, cover with earth. Cover the containers with foil and place them in a warm place where the temperature is + 25 + 28 ° C.
When shoots appear, they must be placed closer to the window glass and ensure the daytime temperature is + 16 ° С, and the nighttime temperature is + 13 ° С. In such conditions, seedlings will stay for 5 days. If during this period the temperature in the room is high, then they can stretch out. Next, the seedlings are kept in the light. In cloudy weather, the ambient temperature should be +18, and in sunny weather - + 25 + 28 ° С.
Eggplants do not like transplants, so each seed should be immediately planted in a small separate pot. You can plant 2 seeds in plastic or peat cups or pots, and then leave only a stronger shoot. Instead of picking, it is better to use transshipment later. When the roots of the plant fill the container, you need to get the seedlings out of it and, together with a lump of earth, transplant them into a more spacious pot. Then the eggplants are shaded for 2–4 days so that direct sunlight does not fall on them, and they are kept at a temperature of about + 25 ° С.
When the third true leaf appears, the plant can be fed with fertilizer for seedlings or a weak solution of complex mineral fertilizer, diluted according to the instructions, which contains nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium and trace elements.
Half a month before planting seedlings in a permanent place, they are hardened. To do this, take the plants out to the glazed balcony during the day, if at night it is also quite warm there, then you can leave them for this time of day.
Features of eggplant care
It is necessary to plant eggplants in the greenhouse on May 20-30, when at night they are no longer threatened by spring frosts. During the day it is well spilled, and then watering is repeated 2 hours before planting the seedlings of "blue". Compact varieties are planted at a distance of 40 cm from each other, more spreading ones - after 50 cm.
If you do not live in a region with risky farming, then you can plant eggplants not only in a greenhouse, but also in open ground, when warm weather sets in and the return of spring frosts is excluded. In this case, the seedlings should be 10 cm in height and have 5-7 true leaves.
Eggplants grow well after cucumbers, onions, legumes, early cabbage, carrots, melons and other crops. But after nightshades, including eggplants, they can be planted only after 3 years.
The land must be fertile. Good results are obtained by adding 1, 5 tbsp to each well. l. fertilizer "Giant" with its embedding in the soil. The holes must be shed well, then plant the eggplants and mulch the soil around with dry earth, peat or humus.
During the first 10 days, the seedlings are not watered so as not to injure the growing roots. After this period, the plants are watered, and the next day they are fed with organic fertilizer, diluting 1 liter of manure or 500 g of bird droppings in 10 liters of water. The second time such feeding is done after 20 days, and the third - at the beginning of fruiting. The second and third feeding can be organomineral.
Eggplants need to be periodically watered at the root with warm water, but remember that they do not like high humidity, so the greenhouse should be ventilated and closed in the evening no earlier than an hour after watering.
Periodic loosening will help the growth of adventitious roots, which helps to increase yields. How to grow eggplants - watch the video:
About a month after the beginning of flowering, the first harvests can be harvested, when the fruits acquire the color characteristic of their variety and become glossy. They are cut with a stalk. Then, delicious eggplant blanks are made from the fruits or, after cooking, are used in the near future. For some time, the fruits can be kept fresh in a cool room or refrigerator.
