Grow log by Sher · Original thread
What you can learnAn excellent eggplant diary showing space allocation, flower-drop troubleshooting, precise pollination timing, repeated harvest, and culinary use.
*The days were calculated automatically and approximately.
What a haul!
now the recipe can be expanded to a casserole an we can all pop on over for a virtual lunch
Shawn, that doesn't include the 2 we already ate, or the one small one I left on the plant. They really do produce!
Y'all come!
WOW! What a harvest!
I have blossoms coming, no pretty purple pedals yet, but I think very soon. What was the best way to fertilize them? I have a "be the bee." Do you have to touch each flower inside on the inside or just buzz the outside, or the branch. Or were q-tips the best?
joes, they need vibration to pollinate them best. Some people use q-tips and artist's paint brushes. I finally had the best results touching the back of an electric toothbrush to the yellow part of the flower. If the flower is ready to be pollinated, the little yellow sections will separate slightly. You will often see puffs of yellow pollen fly out. I pollinated all my flowers every day to make sure I got them all. A Be the Bee would be perfect. I was just too cheap to buy one. A lot of flowers will fall off. Don't worry about it. I think the plant only hangs onto the amount of fruit it can support.
Thanks sher01! I am looking forward to watching the eggplants grow.
I was wondering whether I should remove the bottom leaves on my eggplants!
Yes. And any huge leaves that are blocking light to leaves underneath them.
Yumm!
That looks so delicious. Kudos on the low carb creativity
Thanks! It was loosely adapted from this recipe.
Wonderful!
You are doing really well with these.
Very pretty plant. I hope mine looks like that someday. Right now it is about an inch and half tall.
Once it takes off, it grows fast!
Your eggplants look divine, sher! Do you have some recipes to use these? It seems the only way I really know how to cook eggplant is by using the larger ones and baking them in the oven. But I found the skin on the baby ones so tough I never grew them again because I did not have a suitable recipe for them. If you (or anyone) have a good recipe for the baby eggplant please share because I would like to grow these again this winter.
I'm at a little bit of a loss on how I'll prepare these. After I started growing the eggplants, my doctor put me on a low carb diet. And eggplants are carby. My very favorite way to eat eggplant is battered and fried, and that's out now. I have thought of marinating them in Zesty Italian Dressing, sprinkling them with herbs, and cooking them in an air fryer. I also love Baba Ghanoush dip with pita chips. I think I will eat the large one tonight since it's so much bigger than the others. I wonder if cutting it in slices would make the skins not seem so tough. I'll let you know.
I don't fry anymore. But I try air frying with my NuWave Oven. It'll never be as good as frying. But for vegetables, I like making an egg batter with eggs, grated parmesan cheese, chia and sesame seeds, butter, garlic powder, Old Bay, chipotle powder and basil. I like it.
That sounds good, Mike. I am also toying aroung with the idea of making a single serving eggplant parmesan of sorts.
Nice tiny eggplant
Mine is just a sprout right now. Thanks for the lessons learned. Hopefully, I will gently pollinate the flowers and get more fruits.
Joes, I see three more small ones this evening, but will wait a few days to post another picture. Hopefully there will be more by then.
I wish I had something much to offer here. My DWC bucket produced beautiful plants with gorgeous blooms, that kept falling off. I eventually gave up on the project. My conclusion was the Apollo Horticulture light was inadequate to provide the light necessary for the job. This was reinforced by not having success with any super-hot pepper projects with them. Jalapenos, yes, but nothing hotter.I did read that eggplant is notorious for dropping blooms. The AG Bounties and Farms provide plenty of light. Stick with it. I really regret that I didn't wait longer on mine.
Thank you, mike . I will definitely keep it going for a while. I added a tiny bit of Bloom Boost to it. Not that it needs it for flowering, but maybe the extra phosphorus will help with fruit set.
I tried pollinating with the back of an electric toothbrush today. A couple of the flowers shot out clouds of pollen. I didn't see anything happening with the other flowers, but maybe it helped. I did drop a couple more flowers. Anyway, since I saw the pollen fly, I'm trusting that at least two baby eggplants will appear soon.
I find some plants that shaking it too rough. Sometimes a simple brush ove the flower is enough. Other times you need to shake. Also I also do not always see "fairy dust" aka pollen but am happy when I do
I think my eggplant must be one of those plants that has to be treated more gently, Shawn. And I was thrilled when I saw that little bit of fairy dust. It gave me hope.
Nice!
It really is a beautiful plant. I ordered the pods.
joes , it's a wonderful project. I can't wait for the little eggplants! Wishing you the very best on your project. Useful tip -- don't crowd them.
I plan to plant one eggplant and two Thai peppers in 1/2 of a Farm Plus. Do you think that will work?
Joes, I don't have a Farm, but I am guessing that one half of one side of the Farm would be fairly close to the size of one Bounty. In my Bounty, I can grow one Fairytale eggplant. I am going to have to tag the Pepper King, mike, to answer your pepper question because I have no idea how bushy they get. My guess is that with pruning, two might fit. But Mike has Farms and grows peppers, so he would know for sure.
Those flowers are so pretty! I think you are having great success with this project,sher!
If the two peppers get too crowded I will just move one to a Folgers can.
Thank you, Corinne. They are doing better than I expected. So glad!
Ah.... are you trying to compete with my growing collection of Folgers cans? I have a big head start on you!
So far....only one. No worries, pretty sure you will be the Folgers leader for a long time. I use cottage cheese containers too. I have about a half a dozen of those, but I think they are too small for most full grown plants.
Joes, you won't be able to do more than one plant, even in a Farm. I grew these in 5-gallon buckets in 2015.The plants were 5-feet wide at the widest. Sher, you have a beautiful plant. I hope you get plentiful eggs.
mike, thanks so much for your help. And for the eggplant compliment. It is doing so much better than my first eggplant attempt!
Looking forward to seeing your fruits!I think fairy tale eggplants may be the cutest vegetable in existence.
Those are from AG fairytale eggplant pods?
No
I hope I can get at least one Thai pepper in with an AG fairytale eggplant. Otherwise, I will pull it and put it in a five gallon bucket too. Half a farm is too much for only one plant.
it looks wonderful
So many pretty blooms! Looks promising for a good harvest. I love eggplant, it is definitely on my to-grow list next spring.
Awesome sauce!
Very exciting
It is a very pretty plant. I am looking forward to watching it here.
Thanks, joes. I trimmed off some of the huge, old looking leaves and it looks even prettier now. I will post more photos as soon as the baby eggplants start forming.
Exciting!
It sure looks like it is doing well.