By gisette
Outdoor Eggplant 2009
Submitted on Sun, 2009/05/10 - 12:20pm
Last updated on Sun, 2009/08/30 - 1:23pm
Began life in the Seed Starting Pageant and Kozy Coats Experiment. Gets its own topic on Mother's Day. Switched from failing AquaShield to red kozy coat yesterday. It's close to reaching the top of its teepee. 8-10 weeks is the normal age to transplant out an eggplant.
It's been outside for only 2 weeks, and has grown lots!
20090603: First twinkle eggplant flower open!
2009-06-07: Removed kozy coat. It's warm enough now, and the plant had a heavy aphid infestation. Used EcoSense insecticide, then washed off insecticide and aphids with water, and tied to a stake for support. Two flowers open now. I suspect the aphids will come back, but... hopefully more predators will get at them without the kozy coat. The plant doesn't seem terribly fussed by the aphids.
2009-07-06: Finally set 3-5 fruit, lots of flowers open. Unsure whether it's the nice dry weather, or finally getting the aphids under control with triazicide (possibly both).
Harvest: 33 (first 2009-07-17)
2009-07-17: First harvest, 4, each bigger than my indoor bambinos. 
2009-08-30: Retired this plant, which was ill though still setting more fruit (looked terrible). Was a nice plant. Next time, I think I want to grow a bigger variety. I bought these seed to try in the AG, and the plant was way too big for that.
Sat, 2009/06/06 - 9:32pm
#2
First twinkle eggplant flower:
Sat, 2009/06/13 - 8:11pm
#3
Both the first flowers fell off without setting fruit. But then, it's been a hard week, heavy rains, first week out of its coat. Used organic insecticide all over this plant, then washed it off, and now plenty of aphids are back. Tossed some lime on top of its soil - don't recall whether I limed this pot at all, but eggplant seems to care.
Sat, 2009/06/20 - 1:42pm
#4
Wed, 2009/06/24 - 4:30am
#5
Gisette,
What does the lime do?
Wed, 2009/06/24 - 6:47pm
#6
Lime "sweetens" the soil - makes it less acidic - and adds calcium. Eggplant are apparently sensitive to having enough calcium. Tomatoes and peppers, too. Cucumbers, too, perhaps - that's what Peat is experimenting with, he thinks his cukes didn't get enough calcium. But people often talk about planting eggshells with tomatoes? That's another add-calcium dodge. Too little calcium is one of the most common reasons for blossom-end rot on tomatoes, I gather. (I found last year that too much calcium leads to the same effect. 
)
Sat, 2009/06/27 - 2:13pm
#7
I do hope this amounts to more than a bug magnet, sooner or later. 
Sat, 2009/07/04 - 3:01pm
#8
I used some serious insecticide (Triazicide) on the twinkle eggplant last week. It seems much better - no longer plump aphid colonies on every leaf, 8 flowers open today. Still no fruit, but the aphids really seem to go for the flowers. 
Maybe this week...
Sat, 2009/07/11 - 2:55pm
#9
Yay! Eggplant still aphid-free, tons of flowers, and has set eggs now. 
Fri, 2009/07/17 - 7:52pm
#10
Yay! First eggplant harvest today - 4 fruits. Didn't get a picture because my daughter is off with my camera. But they were good! Sauteed with olive oil, onions, and garlic and - put on a pizza as usual.
Each egg was bigger than any of my indoor bambino eggplants. I think next time I'll let them get bigger yet. And it's setting more and ripening them like mad now that it's turned hot. (Well, for Connecticut - it reached 80 degrees. And stayed above 60 a couple nights in a row. It's been a cold summer. 
)
Sat, 2009/07/18 - 11:04pm
#11
Outdoor eggplant going great! Hope this keeps going a while - sure looks like it will!
Fri, 2009/07/24 - 1:48pm
#12
Since I didn't get a picture of the first eggplant crop, here's the second crop from a few days ago (picked even more today). Still lots more flowers and eggs.
Made sort of a mini-ratatouille pasta sauce with canned tomatoes and this eggplant and half-zuke. A vegetarian friend of my daughter's was over for supper. Left the tomato and pepper to eat on the side, since my daughter hates peppers (not that she ate the sauce anyway. )
Fri, 2009/07/24 - 5:21pm
#13
I tried to comment ---- durn thing did something and it's gone.
Sat, 2009/07/25 - 4:37pm
#14
Eggplant doing great! Harvested 9 this week, and lots of flowers and a few smaller fruit still in progress. Clearly this plant was not a good choice for an Aerogarden... Reaches my eyes now. These are really good, and I'd like to grow eggplant again next year. But maybe... bigger ones. Lot of peeling...
Sat, 2009/08/01 - 10:31pm
#15
Harvested 4, but then eggplant started dropping many many flowers. This and the tomatoes all got late blight in a big way this week. After removing all seriously blighted leaves and spraying with copper fungicide, and a couple less-AC days, it seems back on track, lots of new eggs set at last.
Sat, 2009/08/08 - 1:53pm
#16
Sat, 2009/08/15 - 12:49pm
#17
Eggplant still producing nicely, but suffering yellow-spotted leaf disease, probably late blight.
Sat, 2009/08/29 - 4:07pm
#18
Still haven't removed the eggplant, though may before next week. The plant looks dreadful, leafbare, with all remaining leaves yellow spotted. OTOH, it's got 3 eggs about ready to pick, and set yet another group. Kinda had my summer's fill of eggplant, tho.
Thu, 2009/10/01 - 7:40am
#19
Hi Gisette,
My Ichiban eggplant plants were looking rough in early August right before vacation (in an earthbox with the automatic watering thing). I clipped the plants so that there was only a couple inches of the main stem left, but didn't disconnect the water. The darned plants grew back! I now have a second crop of eggplants! I may clip them back in July next year!
Beth
Thu, 2009/10/01 - 5:44pm
#20
Good to know, Beth, thank you!!!
This particular one was looking pretty blighted, though. Eh, I got a fairly good harvest out of it - 33 fruit.
Thu, 2009/10/01 - 8:12pm
#21
Pretty amazing the will of these plants to keep trying to set fruit. We got good production in July, then got tired of eggplant. Did 6 or 8 eggplant parmesian in the freezer. Plenty on the grill. I was happy to clip the plants in August. Now I'm looking forward to a few more on the grill! It's really late in the season, though. At least it is on the deck, will stay a little bit warmer. I'll take pix tomorrow.
Beth
Thu, 2009/10/01 - 9:54pm
#22
LOL, Beth! Yeah, part of my plant's demise was that I got tired of eggplant for the year. Especially little tiny eggplant (though the outdoor one had bigger fruit). If I grow them again, I might try Gretel, a white midsize harvestable anywhere from little to medium sized. Peeling fruits the size of quail eggs, four to a serving and never more than 6 ripe at a time, got old. There really wasn't anything practical to do with them except put them on my side of a pizza.
Do Ichiban taste especially good? Or not that different than standard supermarket Black Beauty?
Looking forward to the pix!
Yay! My first twinkle eggplant flower opened today! This plant's making good time. Eggplant are supposed to be grown 8-10 weeks to transplant size, then 50-55 days to first harvest, or 16-18 weeks from seed to first harvest. Blooming at 13 weeks is on track for that, despite being put out early in the kozy coat. (It's actually still a bit chilly out there for an eggplant.)