Eggplant: how to grow it right

2024 Author: Howard Calhoun | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 10:16

In the spring and summer, people begin to think about what vegetables to plant in their backyard. Popular crops include eggplant. How to grow seedlings, take care of plants, fight pests? Our article answers these questions.

General characteristics

Eggplant is a heat-loving plant from the Solanaceae family with a powerful stem that has thorns. Its leaves are large, oval, fruits are oval, cylindrical, pear-shaped, spherical. The color of eggplant is usually purple, but there are varieties of unusual colors: white, black, lilac, purple, striped. Fruit weight from 20 g to 2 kg, length - from 5 to 65 cm.

Eggplant: how to grow seedlings

First of all, you need to decide on the variety: preference is given to early maturing and hybrids that are insensitive to the length of daylight hours. The fact is that the plant has one peculiarity: for optimal growth and high yield, it needs a day length of 12-14 hours. Such indicators are all year round at the equator, in other places in the summer months the lightthe day is longer.

This explains that some varieties form few ovaries in June-July, and only in August eggplant begins to catch up.

How to grow seedlings? The following conditions must be met:

• the soil mixture should have a large proportion of humus or rotted compost;
• for better germination of seeds, they can be soaked in aloe juice for a day;
• it should be warm in the room where the seedlings are grown;
• top dressing should be carried out with an increased dose of nitrogen (urea or "Mortar");
• seedling growing period is 70 days.

When planting in a greenhouse or soil, remember that the plant must be transplanted carefully, without damaging the root system, otherwise fruit growth will be significantly delayed. It is allowed to plant tomatoes and peppers together with eggplants, but it is better that they be in a separate “shelter”.

How to grow eggplant in a greenhouse

The plant is placed in a greenhouse in mid-May (15-20th), but you need to prepare the soil in advance and cover it so that it warms up to 16 degrees Celsius. Soil preparation - digging and applying two buckets of humus and 100 g of complex fertilizers per square meter. When planting, 30 cm is left between plants, and 60 cm between their rows. Eggplant seedlings are not buried.

In the greenhouse, you need to provide a temperature of 20-28 degrees, otherwise the ovaries will form poorly and fall off. Care comes down to watering (2 times a week under the root),top dressing (1 time in 14 days), loosening row spacing, weeding as needed. There is one more nuance that concerns how to grow good eggplants: you need to water them in the afternoon with warm and settled water.

Formation of plants comes down to pruning the lower, non-fruiting branches, removing diseased leaves, and tying if necessary. Shaking the stem daily ensures good set.

It must be remembered that the plant does not tolerate blackout, so low leafy vegetables should be planted nearby: onion, dill, sorrel.

Eggplant: how to grow to protect against pests

The main pests are Colorado beetles. They can destroy the plant completely. Therefore, Colorado potato beetles must be fought: do not plant eggplant near potatoes and periodically inspect the stems and leaves. Chemicals can only be used before the appearance of ovaries, so gardeners use folk methods, such as:

• sprinkling with s alted flour left over from frying fish;
• sprinkling the soil with wet wood ash, followed by a spray of water (once a week).

Eggplants are demanding plants, but the more pleasant the fruit ripening will be. And how many dishes can be prepared from the “blue ones”…