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Growing Eggplants

Eggplants are one of those vegetables that you either love it or you can leave it. I for example have every year planted at least 1 or 2 eggplants; I eat one and give the rest away. I don't love them but just feel the garden isn't complete without one. This year I planted 4 bought a package of 4 and wouldn't you know all four survived 2 frosts and a hail storm.

I have an abundance of eggplant on hand now.

Growing eggplant is really simple for the most part. If you live in a warmer climate where you have a long growing season you can plant seeds but us northerners normally put out plants that were started indoors or in greenhouses.

The growing period from seed to maturity can be 100-150 days depending on your growing conditions so you will need to judge from your location whether you will plant seeds or transplants. The plants prefer temperatures in the 80-90s.

Soil for Your Eggplant

Eggplants prefer loamy fertile soil so if you don't have that you may want to add some manure or better yet start a compost pile and add compost through the season. Some people get all technical when it comes to soil ph and such but in all honesty I have never tested my soil and have always gotten at least one or two eggplant for the table.

Another important consideration is the soil temperature eggplants like their feet warm all the time and will not do well if the soil temperature drops below around 65 degrees. A way to avoid this is once the plants are in the soil cover the ground around the plant with black plastic; I use black garbage bags for all my warm footed plants.

A little extra heat helper is using a few rocks to hold the plastic in place. During the day when the sun is shining the rocks warm up and will act as heaters during the night releasing heat to the plants.

An added advantage to using black plastic is the black attracts heat and the plastic helps to keep weeds from growing up around your plants.

Spacing your plants is important also. Most directions I've read say to plant them 18-24 inches apart but I have never planted them more than a foot apart and they have done just fine. You can also grow eggplants in 12 inch pots so go ahead and put one on your patio or deck they are an attractive plant and a great conversation piece when they start to bare fruit.

Starting from Seeds

If you are going to start your eggplant from seed it's a good idea to soak them in water overnight to help the germination process then plant them about inch

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