Caged.

{{gwi:37412}}

Wow! My eggplants usually don't get that big. I do neither.

You are in zone 5, booberry, grandad in zone 9. Longer growing season ;-)

My eggplants don't get that big either, but size might just be variety. What I noticed was how woody those stems are all the way up the plant. Eggplant in my area will only get woody lower down the plant before cool weather stops their growth.

I lightly stake eggplant with a single bamboo stake and some twine loosely wrapped.

Thanks for the replies.

Dale

Those were Rosita eggplants. The Ichiban I plant don't get nearly that large. I cage the Ichiban also but they are certainly "stakeable".

I grew Black Beauties last year for the first time and I did nothing. They got big and fell over. I think a stake would have been fine. My plants produced nice eggplants even in thier horizontal mode, but doing something to keep them upright probably would have increased yield.

I usually need some sort of support for them. Typically a bamboo pole will suffice

Dale-

I grew mine on cattle panels last year, but that was overkill. Going to use the cheapie tomato cages that are worthless for tomatoes this year.

never having aeten/grown eggplant I have a ? for ya.....what do you do with it besides eggplant parm and ratatouille?

barngod
Its wonderful grilled on the barbecue.

I have grown them a few times and staked them the second year of trying, the plants got so laden with fruit that the toppled over, making hartvesting a pain. My tallest plant (black Beauties) was almost 5 and 1/2 ft tall. The second tallest was a veriety called casper (white one) and that was almost as high, so when they fell it went right into the next veggie bed. I like them in Stir fries (pretty much use like mushrooms)

mark

In my garden they get 2 feet tall then the leaves turn to lace where the flea beetles have lunch. That is the end of the eggplant.

I have never eaten eggplants myself so I am looking forward to growing and eating them. I have made my garden very large this year and am growing many things mostly peppers I went from a 24x17 to a 110x30.

Dale

holy expansion, podpiperman! Better start looking up recipes now, especially for eggplant which is prepared in wildly different ways. The old stand by of egg plant Parmesans is a really terrible way to try it if you ask me since Chicken parmesan is much better.

Eggplant is an odd thing. It has little taste of it's own, but massively takes on the taste of whatever it it cooked with.

I think grilling it with whatever seasoning one likes is best. This avoids the tedious 'sweating' of the slices and also avoids the inferior uses of eggplant to substitute meat in a recipe.

It allows the eggplant to be experienced on it's own terms.

Grilled, stir fry, put in soup for richer flavor, eggplant bread (similar to zuc bread), baked, broiled, etc.

Eggplant is usually prepared in our household as Caponata, EP Parmesan, grilled, and deep fried. There are other recipes that we've tried but these seem to be the favorites -- the deep fried one particularly.

On a related note, I used to plant Black Beauty, the ubiquitous heriloom. For me this variety often turned out bitter... bitterness is why many recipes will call for salting eggplant as the first step in preparation (the salt removes the bitterness). I no longer plant Black Beauty. Rosita (an Italian heirloom), Ichiban, and Millionaire are my favorites. I generally add a few "experimental" choices to the mix. No need to salt these.. e.g. Simply 1) Pick, 2) Slice into rounds, 3) Wet with milk or half&half, 4) dust in large bowl of seasoned shrimp fry (or similar powdered coating), 5) deep fry @ 325-350 for about 3 minutes...6)remove onto paper-toweled pan and add any additional seasoning (if needed). 7) ENJOY - YUM, YUM, YUM - (I'm ready, can't wait!!!)

Here is a link that might be useful: An April 2004 GW Thread on Eggplant

Forgot Baba Ganouj.. Another favorite on my list...

Don't forget kashk-e-bademjan either, my favorite.

Oh and mirza qasemi is awesome too.

Hmm thanks for the info. I was debating planting some this year, as I have a couple of spare spots in the garden as an experiment, but couldn't find any other recipes.

Thanks again!!!

BG

i have been struggling to grow eggplants here in a cool, canadian part of the pnw, i now grow them directly in the soil, in a rather open plastic green house shelter, we have to do the same here for tomatos, must keep the rain off due to the curse of the blight. the eggplants seem to need this extra heat and it no doubt keeps them a bit warmer over night, some years it is necessary to spray down the flea beatle with safers soap for a few weeks, pick slugs early morning, as it turns out they luv eggplants too,(a whole different story) I have experimented with many varieties and so far millionaire has been the best for this marginal climate. Grandad...my mouth fell open when i saw your plants, it is a bit of a challenge to grow them up here but this is what we do with the first fruit.... pick the fruit young, before it gets all full of seeds, peel(or not) cut into slices 3/8" thick, put in a fry pan with lots of olive oil, when they are brown on both sides, drip a bit of soy sauce on each slice, sprinkle them liberal with crumbled feta, turn off the pan and cover for few min till the feta warms through, i like it best as a garnish for meat, turns out as if it were a portbello mushroom, mousaka is great also, salmon or smoked salmon mousaka gives it that west coast flavour.

I grow Ichiban eggplant and stake it with those worthless tomato cages. If you slice 'em real thin and use grandad's recipe for deep fry, they're almost like potato chips. Maybe not the healthiest, but who cares?

Hehehe I could care less about "healthiest" lol healthy is taken care of by the garden I'm looking for "good food!!!" LOL. Thanks for the recipe advice gonna try an grow a few this year and see what happens!

BG

We are a good in btw area from Louisiana and NY. We stake, but usually later in the season and only if we notice the plant leaning as fruit begins to grow. Last year for example we didn't stake at all...we were in a drought all year and the plants did not suffer at all!

I stake mine. This year I'll have two dozen growing in a greenhouse. I'm going to try clipping them to strings the same way I clip tomatoes and cucumbers.

What do you do with them? There are quite a few great suggestions above. I just ate breakfast and your making me hungry! For something quicker, you can cut the eggplant into strips & deep fry them. Then dip them in marinara sauce or a garlic yogurt dip. Yum!

IN THE MIDWEST WE ALSO FRY OUR EGGPLANT--PEEL, SLICE 1/4TO 3/4 THICK DREDGE IN FLOUR WITH S&P THEN IN EGG/WATER MIXTURE, THEN IN CRACKER CRUMBS AND FRY. YUM YUM. WE ALSO DO OUR WILD MUSHROOMS THIS WAY. PAULA

I grew 4 Rosita eggplants last year and they produced fruit like crazy, all tucked into those rinky-dink tomato cages. Noobie luck I suppose.

My wonderful Italian neighbor was the beneficiary of most of the fruit, but no matter how she prepared it, I found it to be one of the most disgusting things that had ever crossed my palate.

What on earth is wrong with me? LOL

I grew 4 Rosita eggplants last year and they produced fruit like crazy, all tucked into those rinky-dink tomato cages. Noobie luck I suppose.

My wonderful Italian neighbor was the beneficiary of most of the fruit, but no matter how she prepared it, I found it to be one of the most disgusting things that had ever crossed my palate.

What on earth is wrong with me? LOL

Holly-2006, there's absolutely nothing wrong with you, other than you don't care for eggplant! Me, I think cilantro tastes like soap and won't have it in my garden... Eggplant, on the other hand, is one of nature's great gifts! I'm trying 2 kinds this year for the first time (3-year old house, finally a new garden put in) and I'm drooling already.

My eggplants are about 12 inches long. Still thin. Do I need to support them and with what?

Thank you

I have 6 eggplants growing in containers. They are flowering yet not making eggplants. The leaves are green and do not indicate needing fertilizer. I have taken a q-tip and tried to pollinate them myself since I haven't seen any bees around. Still no luck. I have been doing this to the container tomato plants with great results.
Suggestions as to what might be wrong or what I need to do to get the eggplants to producing?
New to the forum.
TIA
Val

Holly-2006, did your Italian neighbor deep fry any eggplant for you? If so and you did not care for this then I'm with Mgpaquin, you're just not a fan of eggplant. Otherwise, you may want to try this method.. it seems to be the favorite way by far to prepare it. (Case in point, I like okra cooked only ONE way - deep fried.)

Akamothernature, I'm thinking eggplant should be self pollinating. I recall a recommendation for growing eggplant for seed and keeping it true. To prevent pollination from nearby plants of a different variety, the recommendation was to put a bag over the flower before it opens. This was done so that no insect crossed the desired eggplant with eggplant of the other variety.

So is the flower falling off? If so, maybe the plant is unhappy with the "QTip approach".. Otherwise, maybe the plant is too small to support fruit at this stage... i.e. needing to get a bit larger.

Just curious, what variety of eggplant did you plant (not that this matters to the problem..)?

Grandad -
I believe it was Eggplant Parmesan she fed me. Tried it on the grill, in Moussaka (sp), to no avail. Just one of the yuckiest things I've ever had. Well, except for the Italian Oregano that I grew this year. That is one vile weed. She's getting all of that too!

She actually smacked my bottom and said "Youa bada girl, maybe no likea Italians?" LMAO But I do! The food too! And I have a Black Beauty growing just for her - the plants and flowers are so pretty.

As for fruit set, in my limited experience - the first flowers sometimes do not produce fruit. As grandad said, maybe the plant is just not big enough yet. In time, you'll see fruit galore. And the more you despise eggplant, the more fruit you'll get.

Holly, sounds like you had the "real deal" on preparing eggplant. Eggplant Parmesan seems to be a favorite of many. So I guess you're just not an eggplant "fan". (I was going to suggest you try deep frying one of your Black Beauty eggplants.. But, on the other hand, I've not done well with these - they seem to too often come out bitter, which is why I grow the other types. Anyway, deep fried eggplant has a whole different taste from the other recipes you mentioned.)

Hey, grandad...I'll take that recipe. Don't think for one minute that I won't try preparing a 'plant or two myself!

As a kid, I hated asparagus. Today, I can put any truffle sniffing pig to shame. LMAO!

I grow mine around a large cage and tie them all to it as they grow, but they do not need tons of support.

Sure am enjoying this discussion of eggplant, one of my favorite veggies. I'm getting quite a bit of Ichiban right now, and am seeing Black Beauty set on. I was late.

Don't know if you know this, but Ichiban means "number one" in Japanese. I like it prepared Chinese style, stir fried with pork, garlic, jalapeno peppers and green onions. Same recipe works for zucchini too.

Raisemybeds, I'm going to try your large cage method next year. Sounds like a good idea.

With regard to those flea beetles: The one eggplant I have growing in a homemade earth tub has no flea beetles.(sorry the name escapes me, but you know the kind with the water in the tub) All the others growing in the ground do have flea beetles. I find that worthy of comment.

I like to precook the eggplant and then lay the slices down into a lasagna. I have to precook the eggplant or else it will remain raw in the lasagna.

To cook them I use a glass covered microwave bowl. Nothing added to the bowl except the eggplant. I cook to soften them up.

This adds some nice low calories to the lasagna.

I am growing the diamond open pollenated eggplant from Fedco. I save a few seeds. Fedco likes Diamond for growing up North and being non hybrid.

Caponata is a great way to use eggplant. I've tried many recipes, the best include capers, olives, mushrooms and golden raisins. It doesn't sound like the flavors work well together but they do. It freezes really well too!

Hello Expert Egg plant folks,

I've got two Black Beauties in my homemade self watering container and they have four egg plants on each, about the size of an 8 ball right now.

Question: Should I let them get bigger, if so, how much before picking

Question: If i pick them early will they produce more than if I hadn't?

gracias,

Andy

Another yummy recipe is eggplant curry. Simply dice it up, cook with a little oil, and coconut milk, Add your favorite curry powder, and when it's well cooked and nice and soft, check if it needs salt and stir in some sour cream.

Yummy!

Andy, take a look at Grandpa's eggplants in the picture. I'd pick yours when they get about that big. Also, I found this:

Harvesting:
To harvest large eggplants, remove most of the side shoots and select two or three fruits to develop on one plant. For smaller fruits, allow the plants to develop naturally. For best flavor, harvest while fruit is young and shiny. Cut fruits from the plants with an inch of stem attached. Allow 60-100 days to reach maturity from transplanting.

Enjoy your eggplant. I love watching them grow larger and larger every day.

Hello everybody,
This is my first time to plant vegetable. I bought chinese eggplant from the nursery. Since I have limited space, I planted it beside my brussel sprouts. My eggplant is almost 1 month old and it is only almost 12 inches tall, I was able to harvest 1 eggplant from each plant ( I have 6 plants) I use Miracle gro 10-10-10 slow release to fertilize all my vegetables ( cucumber,okra,peppers,fava beans,watermelon,tomatoes) Why are my eggplants not growing properly ? The only vegetable growing tall is tomato, even my okra is only 2 feet tall but is having fruits as well. Please help.

My fav eggplant recipe combines it with whatever else is available from the garden. For me that is usually onion, tomatos, squash and/or zukes, bell peppers and a snippet or two of basil. If you afraid the eggplant is bitter, peel and slice it into rounds first and pour a little milk over it and let it sit while you slice the rest of the veggies. Start layering the veggies into a buttered or oiled loaf pan in whatever order. Occ. sprinkle with salt, pepper and parmesean cheese. When you get to the top of the pan or run out of veggies, top off with 2 or 3 slices of bacon. Bake at 350 for about 30 or 45 minutes until veggies are just tender. I usually turn the bacon over once while it is baking.

Alicia, "only almost 12 inches tall" is not necessarily out of line. But I really don't know since I'm not familiar with your climate. Do they otherwise look OK? What variety/cultivar did you plant?

I just made a trial planting of 6 Rosita eggplant for a late fall harvest. These 4 to 5 inch tall plants seem to be in a slow-growth mode. Probably because of the heat. (However, the 4 to 6 foot tall spring planted eggplant which are in the garden do not seem to be bothered by the heat. If these continue to grow I'd guess they are goint to be similar to the ones shown in the photo above.)