
Your complete guide to growing tender, flavorful eggplants in warm summer gardens
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Types
The standard eggplant produces egg-shaped, glossy, purple-black fruit.
- ‘Black Beauty’ is the traditional eggplant size. One plant produces 4 to 6 large rounded fruit. Other regular types include ‘Black Magic’, ‘Purple Rain’, and ‘Early Bird’.
- ‘Black Bell’: classic oval to round, 6-inch, purple/black fruit; disease-resistant
- ‘Dusky’: classic pear-shaped, 6- to 7-inch, glossy purple/black fruit; excellent flavor; disease-resistant
Other interesting eggplant varieties include:
- ‘Applegreen’: oval, 5- to 6-inch, tender, pale green fruit
- ‘Bambino’: oval, walnut-size, purple/black fruit; 1 1/2-foot-tall plants
- ‘Casper’: cylindrical, 6-inch, snow-white fruit; mushroom flavor
- ‘Cloud Nine’: teardrop-shaped, 7-inch, white fruit; disease-resistant
- ‘Kermit’: Thai type; round; 2-inch, green fruit with white-striped shoulder
- ‘Rosita’: pear-shaped, 6- to 8-inch, rose-pink fruit; sweet flavor
The long, slender Japanese eggplant has a thinner skin and a more delicate flavor.
- ‘Ichiban’: 10- to 12-inch, slim, purple/black fruit; bears until frost. Expect a dozen or more fruits from one plant.
- ‘Little Fingers’: finger-sized purple/black fruit; good for containers. Small-fruited varieties tend to be especially heavy bearers.
Ornamental varieties are edible but of poor eating quality.
- ‘Easter Egg’ is an ornamental eggplant, usually white in color. (Not edible.)
Gardening Products
Cooking Notes
- Eggplant is excellent grilled, roasted, breaded, fried, or baked! The thinner varieties (‘Ichiban’) are more ideal for grilling and roasting and the traditional varieties (Black Beauty) are great breaded or fried; the round fruit is also good as a “boat” for stuffing.
- Use a stainless steel knife (not steel) to cut eggplant or it will discolor.
- If your eggplant is oversize, the skin may be too tough to eat. Peel before cooking or bake the eggplant and then scoop out the flesh. If you’re baking eggplant, first pierce the skin a few times to allow steam to escape.
- Many Italians will tenderize an eggplant so it’s less bitter. Slice them and sprinkle with salt at least 1 hour before use.
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Comments
Tomatoes and eggplants are companion plants and basil grows well with both. Make sure that you have pollinators in your garden. If the flowers don't get pollinated there will be no fruit. Shaking the plants a couple of times a week may help. Also make sure to give the eggplants plenty of water.
Thanks for bringing this up! You reminded us to pick some up to have tomorrow! Tony, sounds to us like you may be a little on the tight side with your space, but nothing ventured, nothing gained. Eggplants form a fibrous mass of roots that will fill the space allowed (and be rather shallow, too, i.e., close to the surface), but they do best with a lot of root surface, as they love water and are finicky at times, so we try not to sqeeze ours. One rule of thumb is that they would like the space of five 1-gallon milk jugs (which you can consider as four jugs juxtaposed in a square, and the fifth "gallon" taking up the space in that "cube" left over from the space where the jugs taper at the top -- so, four jugs, plus a little taller). But we suspect that you're "close enough for government work," as the saying goes -- or eggplant work, in this case.
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Hi Liz,
If you don't see eggplants or pieces of the fruit on the ground we suspect squirrels. The best defense is netting. Secure the net around the plants.