How To Grow Eggplant Seedlings

2024 Author: Sebastian Paterson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:47

What a miracle these little blue ones

A vegetable garden is a real help for any family. We have it not very big, but we want to plant as many different vegetables as possible. The season begins with sowing radishes, green crops, followed by cabbage, onions, squash, tomatoes, peppers, other vegetables, and certainly eggplants.

I want to share with the readers of the magazine my experience of growing this particular vegetable, which I always grow in my garden. This is eggplant, which is often called blue by the people. In my family, everyone loves any dish with its fruits, from stews to preparations for the winter.

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Many of my friends say that it is not easy to grow eggplants, as they are constantly plagued by Colorado beetles, and their fruits bring their bitter taste to food. In addition, a lot of space is needed for their landing. Believe me, I say this with all my heart, that everything is not so!

When growing eggplants in my garden, I have never encountered such pests as the Colorado potato beetle, it's just that the whole secret here is to properly care for the plants and do everything so that there are no beetles and their larvae in the plantings.

And if you properly prepare eggplants in one or another recipe, you can completely forget about their bitterness, and this will be the most favorite dish in the family. I have heard that the most bitter eggplant varieties are African (flat). For the sake of interest, I ordered their seeds in an online store, grew fruits, tried to make even a cold summer salad from them, it turned out very tasty. The secret is that I soaked the eggplants in water all day. And the dishes made from them are very tasty!

In addition, I learned from magazines and the Internet that eggplant is also useful for people. The fruits of this plant are low in calories, they contain B vitamins, vitamin C, PP and carotene, as well as all the minerals necessary for the human body - potassium, iron, calcium, magnesium, sodium and phosphorus. Eating eggplant helps lower blood cholesterol levels. The fruits of this plant are very useful for the elderly, they are good for the prevention of atherosclerosis, cardiovascular diseases. Nutritionists recommend including it in the diet for people with intestinal and stomach diseases.

And if you touch on the statements that planting eggplants requires a lot of space in the garden, then this is generally ridiculous. I am planting 300 plants in a relatively small area, about one hundred square meters.

I want to share my experience with other enthusiastic gardeners, with those who love the fruits of these unusually tasty and healthy plants.

Seedling eggplant

It all starts with growing seedlings. Of course, this is not an easy task, requiring some effort and time. But if you follow certain rules, you can get wonderful eggplant seedlings with a well-developed root system. I plant eggplant seeds in plastic pots, in which there are small holes at the bottom for excess water to seep out after watering.

I admit I was very lucky in finding my own eggplant variety. I quickly made my choice, and it turned out to be surprisingly successful. True, at first I grew a good Epic hybrid, but then I could not buy its seeds anywhere. And I had to change the seeds. I chose the Italian variety Rotonda Bianca, but, alas, I did not wait for a big harvest from it! I continued my search and chose two varieties.

They are, in my opinion, super-yielding and super-stable. The best of them is, of course, the early maturing Premier variety. He has a period from germination to technical ripeness of 105-112 days. Fruits are oval-cylindrical in shape, even lilac color, weighing up to 400 grams. They have white flesh and no bitterness. The variety is unpretentious, it can be grown both in the open field and in greenhouses.

The second favorite eggplant variety - Helios - is medium early, it has a high yield. Moreover, the plants of this variety are low, compact, which is good for a compacted planting. His fruits are large, rounded, dark purple with white flesh, he does not taste bitter at all, I even tried to use it raw in food. In addition, it does not darken when peeled.

I sow eggplant seeds in early March (approximately from March 1 to March 3). The soil greatly affects the subsequent growth of seedlings, therefore, be sure to put a layer of dried manure, fine like flour, on the bottom of the plastic pot, then there is the garden soil stored in advance (it is also advisable to mix it with manure). We have a small farm, we keep rabbits, chickens and ducks, so we have our own manure.

I plant eggplants in open ground at the end of the first decade of May or at the beginning of the second. If planted later, for example, on May 20, this is also acceptable. But you cannot delay the landing until June. In this case, I was convinced in practice that the grown fruits will have a higher bitterness during cooking. If you plant it on time, then you will eat delicious fruits.

By the time of planting, the soil should warm up well. I consider a temperature of 20 ° C as normal for disembarkation. It is at this temperature that I plant the eggplant. If in your area in May the soil does not warm up well, then eggplants should be grown in greenhouses or greenhouses.

Transplanting

Usually, by the time of planting, my seedlings are already growing with a good root system. I leave the distance between the plants 20-25 cm. Do not think that I was mistaken, this is the distance I leave, they grow thickened with me, shading each other in hot weather.

Before landing, I make holes with a hoe. But not the same as for peppers or tomatoes. I just make a furrow, and in it there are small depressions with a diameter of 20-25 cm and I plant seedlings in them. Before planting, I thoroughly spray the containers with seedlings with water heated in the sun. I also spill the landing sites well. Then I carefully remove the seedlings from the cups and set them in the recess. It is important to try not to destroy the earthy clod, which is braided by the roots of the plant. After planting the eggplants, I water them again with warm water (30 … 40 ° C) and be sure to sprinkle the planting site with fine dry soil or dry sand. So the plants get more heat and take root better.

Of course, for planting eggplants, I choose an area well filled with fertilizers. Here I use stocks of manure from my farm. The place for the eggplant beds must be well-lit by the sun. Therefore, in order not to shade the plantings, I usually plant sorrel, onions, dill or garlic (that is, low plants or greens) next to eggplants.

Read the next part of the article: Eggplant Care, Eggplant Pests and Diseases →