Eggplant grows well under certain conditions. It is important to know what kind of soil they prefer, what should be the air temperature in the greenhouse. You will find this and other useful information in this article. The content of the article:
- Eggplant varieties
- How to plant seeds for seedlings
- Growing seedlings
- Transplanting
- Subtleties of care
- Eggplant picking and storage
Gone are the days when eggplants were only dark purple in color. Now many varieties have been bred, the fruits of which are white, yellow, green. They are variegated, with light purple veins. The form is also for every taste. There are elongated, short fruits, some have several edges, are round and look more like a large tomato in shape.
Eggplant varieties
If you are interested in early maturing varieties and hybrids, note the following:
- Long purple;
- Galina FI;
- Emerald FI;
- The dark woman.
Mid-season varieties:
- Swan;
- Esaul FI;
- Matrosik;
- White Night.
Long Violet is great for canning. Its flesh is greenish-gray, and the dark-colored fruits themselves are purple, elongated.
Fruits of the "Galina FI" hybrid have a white dense pulp, the outside of the skin is black and purple.
Emerald has green fruits, elongated, cylindrical in shape. The pulp without bitterness is white-cream color.
The "Smuglyanka" has greenish-white flesh and dark purple skin.
The Swan variety has an original color, its fruits are snow-white. Their shape is elongated pear-shaped, the skin is thin, the pulp has a mushroom taste.
Fruits "Esaula FI" without bitterness, cylindrical shape. The skin is dark purple. The hybrid is great for baking.
The "Matrosik" has an original coloring. She is lilac with white stripes. The pulp is white, dense, without bitterness.
The White Night variety lives up to its name. He has not only a snow-white flesh, but also a white outer color. Fruits are elongated in shape, pear-shaped.
How to plant seeds for seedlings
Sowing dates for eggplants are the same as for tomatoes or a little early. Seeds begin to be prepared in early - mid-February. First, place the eggplant seeds in a small glass jar, cover it with a double layer of bandage, and tie it with a string or elastic band. Pour a weak solution of potassium permanganate into a jar, drain it after 25 minutes, rinse it with running water and immerse it in a solution of trace elements or in a growth stimulator for 10 hours.
Put half a piece of cloth on a flat container, spread the seeds on it, cover with the second part of the cloth. Leave the container in this position for 4-5 days. Remember to check daily to make sure the fabric is damp.
Eggplant: growing seedlings
After this time, you can start planting work. Plant the seeds in a bowl of moist soil to a depth of 1.5 centimeters. Cover the container with foil with holes for excess moisture to escape. Move the bowl to a warm place before the seedlings germinate. When small sprouts appear, place the seedling box on the windowsill. A month after that, make a pick into separate small pots.
Seedling care is usual - infrequent watering with water at room temperature, mandatory additional lighting. If the seedlings are weak, 10 days after the pick they are fed with a solution of trace elements.
Eggplant: planting seedlings
The bed for heat-loving eggplants should be in a sunny place, protected from the winds. "Blue" are very fond of light sandy loam or loamy soils. If your soil is not the same, then, while digging in the fall, add peat, humus, sawdust, coarse river sand. Straw will help make the soil lighter. It needs to be cut and repaired in the garden. If the soil is peaty, add humus and turf soil. On sandstones, sawdust, peat and clay soil are added.
Manure is also brought in in the fall, but in the spring it cannot be added fresh to the garden bed, only as humus. In the fall, you need to apply fertilizers: urea, potassium sulfate, superphosphate. If you did not have time to do this before, then add the indicated fertilizers to the soil 3 weeks before planting the seedlings.
Eggplants are a thermophilic culture, so they are planted in a greenhouse when the late autumn frosts are over. Make holes on the ridges in two rows, the distance between them is 45 cm. Pour the depressions with warm water properly, lower the root part of the seedlings there, cover with soil until the first true leaf. Spread a layer of peat and dry earth mulch around the bushes.
Tall varieties must be tied up, for this, immediately put a support on them and tie to it. For the seedlings to take root better, shade them. Sometimes gently loosen the soil around the bushes, then more oxygen will flow to the roots, and the survival rate will accelerate.
You can make foliar feeding at this time, spray the leaves of the plants with a weak solution of urea.
Eggplant care
"Blue" love when the soil is wet, so you need to water it often enough, but only with warm water. After watering, it is necessary to ventilate, since this culture does not like high air humidity. As the bushes grow, huddle them up, this will help stimulate the adventitious roots, which helps to increase yields.
Feed the plants 3 times during the season. The first one - 10 days after planting the seedlings, the second after another three weeks, the third top dressing is done at the beginning of fruiting. To do this, you can use bird droppings, slurry, diluted in water.
It is important to observe the temperature regime. During the day, the temperature in the greenhouse should be +23 - +30 degrees, at night +20 - +25. If the daytime temperature rises above +35 degrees, this will negatively affect the quality of pollen, which will make fruiting much worse. For better fruit setting, do foliar spraying with 1% boric acid solution or Ovary preparation.
Eggplants do not like acidic soils, so dolomite flour must be added. In addition to the fact that it reduces this indicator, it contains magnesium, these plants are very fond of this trace element. Dolomite flour is added at the rate of two tablespoons per square meter of area.
Eggplant picking and storage
The fruits are harvested when they are ripe, without giving them overripe. If you delay with this process, the pulp will become rough, tasteless. Cut off "blue" with pruning shears or a sharp knife together with a stalk 2 cm long. This must be done carefully so as not to damage the unripe fruits remaining on the bush. Eggplants do not store for a long time, they are used for making preparations for the winter, cut into circles, and dried.
If you want to keep some of the fruits fresh for a month, put them in a dark place where the temperature is +2 degrees. There are other storage methods as well. Wrap each fruit in a separate sheet of paper, place in a box in one layer. You can put the eggplant in a plastic bag without covering it tightly, and put it in a cool place. In no case should it be stored in the light, in such conditions the fruits will not only lose their taste, but also the skin will burn out. If you need to keep the crop for two weeks, put it on dry straw, cover it with burlap on top, the room should be cool.
Video about growing eggplant:
