461-Day Fairy Tale Eggplant Grow Across AeroGarden Farm Systems

Burpee has free shipping on seeds (today at least), so I'm headed to the catalog to see what looks good!

Sorry, Shawn, the Burpee free shipping on seeds promo ended at midnight on 12/26/22. I just found that out.I ordered some new seeds anyway: two kinds of Brussels sprouts, a bush-style Blue Lake green bean, some more Mocha Swirl peppers, sweet banana peppers, and a multicolor green pepper assortment! I want to try the green beans next, I think.

Day 413. Today I did an R&R on the Immortals, and harvested 9 good-sized dwarf eggplants. Discarded two because they'd been left too long and were losing their color and gloss. The plants still have lots of large leaves and big purple blossoms. They've been neglected of late--the R&R was a week overdue (21 days, not 14). Added the usual 24ml AG nutes, 10ml CalMag+, 8ml KoolBloom.

For some reason, the eggplants love that location. I guess that it's the coolest spot in the room. They also like the Aerovoir. All plants seem to like having the stable water level made possible by the Aerovoir, or by a jug arrangement like the one that maskedsonnet has for some gardens.I don't want to add Aerovoirs to the Farms in the carpeted living room, though, unless I can figure out something that will guarantee no spillage. The Roomba occasionally hits things fairly hard.

Yes, it's fun just growing them. I feel guilty about not eating all of the eggplants, though. Go figure!

The Fairy Tale eggplants have a lot of blooms and harvestable eggplants on them, again. This will be the fourth harvest. I'm going to tend to them tomorrow or on the weekend, so there will be a photo or two if there is anything new to show.

You are so funny, Sher!

The two Fairy Tale eggplants are definitely producing new leaves and blooms. I really want to plant something else in their Farm 12XL, but I can't until we find out just how long they will continue to produce!Photos to come soon.

Today I weighed the haul, and it came to 2 lbs. 12 oz. That's enough for 2.5 scalloped eggplant recipes, so I'm going to cook it all up and then freeze half of it. Don't know how well it will survive freezing, but Chef Google says you can freeze eggplant casseroles, so I'll find out!🍆🍆🍆🍆🍆I'm really intrigued by airscapes 's recipe, but that will have to wait until the next harvest. I don't have all the ingredients on hand.

What I do, is pollinate the heck out of the eggplants. As soon as a bloom develops a yellow center, I start vibrating the center with a kid's toothbrush every day until the blossom (pollinated) or blossom and stem (unpollinated) falls off.In the 24-pod Farm, I'm adding 24ml AG nutes, 10ml CalMag+, and 3ml KoolBloom every two weeks after an R&R. Until the plants had blooms, I used only the standard AG nutes and amounts.Sometimes I add extra CalMag+ if the leaves look stressed and it's a week before the next R&R. The + is some form of iron, I think, and whatever it is, it is the antidote to some symptom that the leaves developed a while back that has since gone away.I will be following your eggplants, Sher. Mine wouldn't have been at all successful if you hadn't taught me about pollinating them! 🍆🍆

Omigod, a purple thumb! I love eggplants, and sometimes talk to them, so maybe that's the secret!

Great, Sher! My two plants have a bunch more eggplants that are about ready to harvest--I really wonder how much longer they'll be producing. They need pruning again.

The solo Fairy Tale eggplant (the one that was drastically pruned) is dropping its blossoms. However, The pair of eggplants upstairs have both blooms and developing eggplants.I'll probably do an R&R on the solo tomorrow. If I can't figure out what's the matter, I'll terminate the plant in another week or two. I'd like to try something else tall in that Farm 12XL.I turned the thermostat down in the house, so cooler downstairs room temperature may be a factor. Upstairs, I'm trying to cool off the room, as it gets over 80 degrees F. In the late afternoons.

At Day 155, I terminated the solo Fairy Tale eggplant because it was dropping blooms and I needed the Farm 12 Plus for something else.The plant had a very healthy root ball that hadn't spread into the pump or float. I tested the nutrient solution and the pH was 7-7.5, so that wasn't too bad.There were lots of blooms, a ton of leaves, and three developing eggplants. Probably I wasn't getting all the blooms pollinated, because they were hiding under the leaves. However, I suspect that it was a mistake to give the plant KoolBloom, or else I gave it too much KoolBloom. There were so many blooms, there were probably more blooms than the plant could support as developing eggplants.There are still two healthy Fairy Tale eggplants growing upstairs. They have both blooms and eggplants. I'm going to keep them until they stop producing, because I want to know how long they'll go on producing.

All three Fairy Tale eggplants are blooming again, so these are definitely good for a second crop.I only wish that the blossoms wouldn't hide underneath the big leaves! It makes them a bit of a chore to pollinate, given that you have to avoid getting stuck by an occasional thorn.

Yesterday (1/12/22) I harvested another batch of Fairy Tale eggplants. There was enough for a substantal side dish for two people. There are only four blooms showing on the three plants, after 120 days.This is an annual plant, so it remains to be seen whether the plants will produce a second batch of blooms. It's looking like growers should focus on pollinating as many blooms as possible when they first appear, rather than expect the plants to continue to produce over a period of months.

I just realized that you were suggesting using a mirror to help with the pollination, Shawn . That's a nice idea, but the eggplant likes to hide the blooms under the big leaves. (The eggplants love the extra space that's available in the Farms, but it's easier on the grower if the garden is on a table of some kind.)The exercise is good for my knees, actually. They've stopped cracking, and I just saw something from Web MD that said you should NOT rest your stiff knees.

Sher, thanks for the pollination tips! I guess that I'd better focus on the buzzing (using my "Be the Bee"). I didn't know that the yellow portion would open up, as mine don't seem to be doing that. Patience is the key, I suppose.

Stan & Cadie have personality! I see why the Queen likes corgis.

The eggplants have a lot of buds, and 4-6 open or partly open blooms. Today I removed several large lower leaves from the pair of plants in the Farm XL. The leaves were seriously blocking the flowers and buds, and I wanted better access for pollination.I don't know whether this was a good thing to do, as the AG blog says to remove upper leaves that may be blocking the light from those below. This is the opposite of the pruning advice it gives for tomatoes and peppers.Is it really better, with eggplant, to leave the older, lower leaves alone, and to take off the newer leaves when pruning seems advisable? Any thoughts, given your experience with eggplant, mike and Sher ?

Yours had lots of blooms, Sher. So far no blooms, just leaves.

To my surprise, the eggplant that went into planting mix outdoors seems happiest of all. The only thing I did was make sure that the soil was fully saturated (and it rained 4" on Sunday). I always water the heck out of transplants for the first few days. I figure that if they've been growing in water, they won't mind having wet roots. 😄I just remembered something, though. The potting soil has MiracleGro in it, supposedly good for 6 months. Maybe the plant likes the exra nutes. 😄

Your photos are the proof, mike. (Beautiful!) I'm going to leave my eggplants in the Farm 12 XL for a little while longer, to see what happens. In a few days it will be time to add nutrients, and I'm going to look at the roots then.This is from the AG blog:"Something to remember about the Fairy Tale Eggplant is that much of the care is identical to any other flowering fruit or vegetable you may grow in an AeroGarden. It's important to give your plants room to grow, so we recommend putting no more than 3 seed pods into your tall garden (Bounty, Farm Plus or Farm XL) and covering the remaining holes with spacers."Won't be the first time that AG has recommended planting more pods than an AG can hold and produce healthy plants. The AG eggplant kits come with 3 pods and spacers.Looking at my plants, I'm really wondering about growing even ONE Fairy Tale eggplant in a Bounty.

You could produce a coffee-table book with your photos, mike ! I hope that I'll get at least a few blooms like yours.