The high-yield cultivation of eggplants is considered an accolade among home gardeners. Important questions should be clarified in advance so that the gardening challenge results in a bountiful harvest of delicious egg fruits. In this guide you can read all the answers about successful cultivation in beds and containers - practical, compact and easy to understand.
How do I grow eggplants successfully?
For successful eggplant cultivation, you need a sunny, rain-protected and well-ventilated location, ideally with 6 hours of sunshine daily. The temperatures should be between 23 and 25 degrees Celsius and nutrient-rich, loose soil or substrate should be used.
Which location offers ideal conditions?
The pronounced heat requirement of eggplants significantly limits the choice of location. Cultivation is crowned with success under the following conditions:
- Sunny location with at least 6 hours of sunshine per day during the flowering and growing season
- Ideal temperatures between 23 and 25 degrees Celsius
- Rain-protected location, surrounded by air and with low humidity
The following locations can be considered: a south-facing balcony, a greenhouse or winter garden with shading, a protected garden bed within winter hardiness zone 7 or 8.
What should the soil and substrate be like?
As a nightshade family, eggplants are heavy feeders. Garden soil or pot substrate should be correspondingly nutrient-rich. A loose, well-drained structure and a fresh texture are further quality features for productive cultivation in beds and containers.
Prefer egg plant – how does it work?
Early sowing behind glass is the key to success in growing eggplants. Summer time in the Central European climate is too short for the exotic nightshade plants to waste even a single day of the growing season. Preferring young plants by sowing seeds therefore makes sense. The following overview summarizes the most important key data for cultivation:
- Sow seeds: between the end of January and the end of February
- Seed soil: peat-free mix of sand and garden soil or coconut fiber substrate
- Germination temperature: 25 to 28 degrees Celsius
- Germination time: 14 to 28 days
- Important: Sieve seeds no more than 0.5 cm high with sand
Eggplants have an aversion to high humidity even as seedlings. In contrast to the classic sowing process, in this case there is no transparent cover during the germination phase.
When is planting time?
If a greenhouse is available for cultivation, you can plant young eggplants from a height of 20 cm into the basic bed. For outdoor cultivation, the planting time begins in mid to late May, when nighttime temperatures no longer fall below 15 degrees Celsius. If you plan to grow eggplants in a bucket on the balcony, pot the plants with a height of 25 cm. The egg plants should stay behind glass at night until mid-May.
When is flowering time?
The beginning of the flowering period depends largely on when the seeds are sown and the young plants are planted out. As a rule, the first beautiful flowers sprout when a shoot has 5 to 6 leaves. Violet bell-shaped flowers with a diameter of up to 5 cm unfold.
How do I plant an eggplant perfectly?
In the basic bed and garden bed, prepare the soil loosely and free of weeds. While cultivating the soil, place the root balls in the growing pot in soft water until no more air bubbles appear. This is how the planting goes in an exemplary manner:
- Dig planting pits at a distance of 50 to 60 cm with twice the volume of a root ball
- Mix the excavation thoroughly with sifted compost and a few handfuls of horn shavings (€52.00 at Amazon)
- Unpot the eggplant and plant it in the middle using the enriched soil
- Put a support rod into the ground next to the root ball
Press the soil well and water generously. A mulch layer of nettle leaves, leaves or straw keeps the soil moist and warm for longer.
Don't forget the drainage when planting in a pot
With its beautiful flowers and decorative fruits, the eggplant looks good in a pot on the balcony. Planting follows a similar process to that in the bed or greenhouse floor. To protect against harmful waterlogging, add additional drainage between the substrate and the floor opening. Inorganic materials such as pebbles, expanded clay balls or pottery shards have proven to be effective for this purpose.
Beneficial mixed culture on the balcony
Balcony gardeners with a penchant for growing balcony vegetables don't let the free growing space in the eggplant pot go to waste. Combined with radishes, spinach and dwarf basil not only increases the harvest yield on the balcony. If these neighbors thrive on their root disk, the eggplant benefits in the form of vital growth and improved aroma.
How long does the harvest last?
A ready-to-harvest eggplant shines with a shiny, stain-free, completely colored shell. Under normal, sunny, warm weather conditions, the harvest time for early varieties begins at the beginning of August. When grown in a greenhouse, you can sometimes harvest late varieties well into the winter.
Tip
The close relationship with tomatoes means that eggplants are more susceptible to late blight and brown rot. Watering without wetting the leaves and an air-dry location in the greenhouse or under a rain cover are the best prevention. When growing eggplants, you should also ensure that they are as far away from potatoes as possible.