All about growing eggplant
Growing eggplant is a fun way to add variety to your garden. Eggplant is a very picky vegetable, so it’s probably not for first-time gardeners. However, anyone who likes a little bit of a challenge will enjoy growing eggplant.
The best way to grow eggplant is to start your seeds indoors about two months or a little more before the last frost. Make sure you have a good source of heat for those seeds because they prefer soil temperatures that are about 75 degrees. You may want to warm your soil and pots for a week or two before you plant the seeds in them. Just sprinkle the seeds across the top of your pots and put a very light layer of potting soil over them. You don’t want to plant the seeds too deep, or they won’t grow very well. Make sure the potting soil you use has fertilizer in it. If it doesn’t, then you will need to add your own.
Use a mist spray bottle to water your eggplant seeds regularly. You don’t want to pour water directly on them because that could cause the seeds to wash deeper into the soil. There’s no need for heavy watering when you’re growing eggplant, but you should make sure the soil is rather moist while the seeds are starting.
After you’re positive that the last frost has passed, then it’s time to transplant your eggplants into your garden. You should also make sure that the plants have enough roots so they are hardy enough to handle being transplanted into the garden. If an unexpected late frost should sneak up on you after you moved your eggplants outside, then you can cover them to protect them a bit.
When you’re ready to start growing eggplant outside, plant your seedlings a little deeper into the ground than they work in the pots. Make sure you don’t overwater your eggplants because they may get root rot. Just keep an eye on the soil and water your eggplants when the soil starts to get fairly dry. Remember that eggplants tolerate too little water much better than they do too much water, so when in doubt, water less instead of more. Don’t forget to use an insecticide on your eggplant because many insects love to devour the fruit of this plant.
Make sure you keep fertilizer on your eggplants regularly. Applying new fertilizer about once every two weeks will really help your plants grow to be bushy and bear beautiful fruit. Harvest time comes early when you’re growing eggplant. Younger eggplants taste much better than ripened ones, so it’s best to harvest them early. You can pick eggplant as early as when the fruit is a third of its full size. You’ll be able to tell that the eggplant is ready to be picked because the skin will turn glossy. A dull skin on an eggplant means it’s past its prime. Eggplant that has a dull skin is usually full of seeds and doesn’t taste as good as eggplant that was picked earlier.