How to Grow Eggplant Successfully Complete Guide
Home gardening is a great hobby for young and old. Eggplant is an excellent choice for the gardener looking to add to his growing crop list. It's fun to grow and she has many recipes to make for the family. In the How to Grow Eggplant Successfully article, I'll show you how to grow this garden delight.
What is eggplant?
Most people know about eggplant. In fact, millions of people love to eat this vegetable. Eggplant provides you with a good supply of potassium and fibre. With only 25 calories and less than 1 gram of fat per serving, we can eat it without fear of harming the diet.
Eggplant, also called brinjal or eggplant, depending on where you are, is a vegetable that produces a vegetable with a fruit-like body. The part of the eggplant that we eat is the berry surrounded by a fleshy substance. It is used in many different dishes, either raw or cooked, and can be stuffed, fried, baked, or boiled.
Choose the right type of eggplant.
Choose the right type of eggplant for your climate and growing conditions. Eggplant comes in several varieties, such as:
Graffiti
Italian
Japanese and Chinese
fictional story
white
Indians
black beauty
long lilac
Where and when to plant?
As with most vegetables grown in our garden, location is high on the priority list. Eggplant loves hot weather and needs 6-8 hours of full sun. So, choose an ideal area for sunflowers. This vegetable thrives in warm weather, so wait until after the last frost to plant it. There are three main environments for growing eggplant:
directly into the ground
Raised beds
containers
Soil preparation for planting.
To ensure a successful eggplant harvest, it is important to prepare the soil before planting. Organically rich, well-drained soil is preferred by eggplant. Start by clearing the planting area of any weeds or trash. Next, work in a generous amount of compost or manure to improve soil fertility. Eggplant also prefers slightly acidic soil between 5.5 and 6.5, so consider testing the soil and making any necessary amendments before planting.
Vegetable eggplant.
Once the soil is prepared, it's time to plant the eggplant. When transplanting your young plants, follow these steps:
Dig a hole larger than the container the plant is in.
Add a handful of compost to the bottom of the hole and mix it with the soil.
Place the plant in the hole after removing it from its container. Ensure that the root ball's top is parallel to the soil's surface.
Backfill with soil mixture.
Space your plants 18 to 24 inches apart for proper growth.
Support each plant with a sturdy pole or tomato cage.
Provide a generous amount of mulch for each plant. This layer of mulch helps retain moisture and reduce weeds.
Give your plants healthy water, and you're done.
With the right care and attention, you'll have delicious eggplant in no time!
Companion planting
A excellent gardening technique to master is companion planting. Knowing which plants work well together in the garden helps create a better garden setting. Companion plants can help keep pests away from your eggplant as well as provide them with some extra nutrients that they may need.
Here are some companion plants you can try:
Tomatoes
Tomatoes are perhaps the perfect companion to eggplant. The strong smell of tomatoes helps repel some eggplant pests. The tomato plant benefits from much-needed nitrogen through its partner. Be careful not to let the tomato plant block the eggplant's sunlight.
Basil
Basil is a great companion to many different plants, but it works particularly well with eggplant. The strong scent of basil repels many insects that love to attack eggplant. It has been proven that basil increases the volume of eggplant.
Garlic
Another great companion for eggplant is garlic. Like basil, garlic will repel some pests like aphids, thrips, and whiteflies.
Care and maintenance
Daily monitoring of your plants will ensure their health. No matter the size of your garden, you need to maintain and take care of it on a regular basis.
Create a monthly schedule that is broken down into weekly and then daily. If you neglect this aspect of gardening, it will surely turn away from you. Monthly activities include:
Give water
weeding;
compost
pruning / harvesting
Pest Control
crop
Watch out for cucumber beetles, squash bugs, and aphids. These are garden bugs that will surely try to chew on plant leaves.
Give water
Eggplant needs to be watered regularly. Depending on the environment that you provide your eggplant with, you will determine the amount of water. (directly in the ground, raised beds, or containers)
Follow these tips:
Watering place: water the soil, not the plants.
Watering: Usually 1 inch per week - more during hot spells
Waterlogging will cause plants to wilt, grow inconsistently, and produce poor fruit.
Overwatering will kill your plants.
Compost
The starting fertilizer you place in the planting hole with the plant will help get the young plant on the right track. It should be a slow release granular organic fertilizer. An organic fertilizer of 10-10-10 or 12-12-12 is fine.
This is the next step that you need to watch and focus on. Each of these plants will require a water-soluble fertilizer every two to three weeks. This nutrition is essential and goes directly to the plant. Eggplants are heavy feeders. I learned this the hard way!
My favorite slow-release product is Dr. Earth Organic 5 Tomato, Vegetable and Herb Fertilizer. It helps the soil to provide the highest nutrients for the plant.
The water soluble fertilizer I use is Lily Miller fish emulsion fertilizer. Fish emulsion is one of the best organic fertilizers for the vegetable garden. Adding fish manure to the water every two to three weeks will go directly to the plants. I use this fertilizer, and it has not let me down yet. The Quartet bottle will last you a long time.
Harvest
In the final analysis, you will measure your success as a gardener by your vegetable harvest. Here are some tips for harvesting eggplant:
You don't want to wait too long to get the fruit.
Pick the eggplant when it's firm and shiny.
Cut the fruit off the stem with scissors or a knife.
Harvest regularly to encourage continuous production.
The fruits will keep in the refrigerator for 4-5 days.
Gardening is a learning process. The more you learn and put into your garden the more you will get out. I like to think I'm learning something new for my garden every day. This article outlines the basic procedures to ensure a successful eggplant crop. By following these simple steps, you'll know your eggplant will thrive and produce bountiful crops.
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