How to grow eggplant outdoors: useful tips

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

Eggplants are heat-loving southern plants that produce fruits of the most unusual color, at least for our latitudes. It varies from pale lilac to intense purple, almost black. However, an unusual color is not the main advantage of eggplant. The fruits taste great when stewed or fried.

The plant is quite finicky, so eggplant is practically not grown in open ground. Preference is given to greenhouses and greenhouses. But this method is not always convenient, especially since the volume of buildings often does not allow planting all heat-loving vegetable crops in them: peppers, tomatoes, cucumbers, etc. Therefore, a logical question arises about how to grow eggplants in open ground. Let's try to answer it.

Place to land

Before landing, you must choose the right site. It should be sunny and well protected from the wind. It is best if the soil is light, heavy ones need preliminary preparation - they must be fertilized at the rate of one bucket of humus or peat mixtureper square meter of land. Eggplants are best planted after crops such as peas or beans. The beds need to be prepared since the fall: dig, fertilize, remove the roots of weeds. In spring, the soil is dug up again and loosened.

Seedlings

Planting eggplant in open ground is carried out only by seedlings. Our summer is too short to be able to harvest immediately from seeds. It is best to sow in late February or early March. Seeds should be placed immediately in separate cups, two seeds per container. After the sprouts appear, you need to leave the strongest and strongest.

How to grow eggplant outdoors: planting time and care

It is worth planting seedlings only when warm weather sets in, not only without frost, but also without too low positive temperatures. As a rule, this happens at the end of May or in early June. For safety net, it is necessary to prepare a film in order to cover the plants at night, or prepare paper hats-envelopes, which can also serve as protection from a cold snap. Watering is needed regularly, its frequency depends on the amount of natural precipitation. You also need to systematically loosen and weed the weeds. Eggplants need to be fed three times a season (not counting soil fertilization before planting seedlings in spring or late autumn).

What other information is useful in order to know how to grow eggplantin the open field and get a good harvest at the same time? Remember that these plants belong to the Solanaceae family, as well as potatoes, which the Colorado potato beetle loves so much. Therefore, it is necessary either to provide mechanical protection in the form of a nylon mesh, or to spray with a decoction of wormwood or celandine. It is also possible with chemicals, but no later than twenty days before the formation of fruits. You need to collect eggplants in August in several stages with a break of 4-5 days. It is impossible to allow at least one fruit from the bush to reach full maturity - after that the plant ceases to give all its strength to growing the crop and actually goes into hibernation.

So now you know how to grow eggplant outdoors. This is, of course, laborious and painstaking work, but the result will be impressive.