Eggplants are heat-loving southern plants in which fruits of the most unusual color grow, at least for our latitudes. It ranges from pale purple to intense purple, almost black. However, an unusual color is not the main advantage of eggplant. The fruits have wonderful taste in a stew or fried form.
This plant is quite picky, so eggplants are practically not grown in open ground . Preference is given to greenhouses and greenhouses. But this method is not always convenient, especially since the volumes of buildings often do not allow to plant all heat-loving vegetable crops in them: peppers, tomatoes, cucumbers, etc. Therefore, the logical question arises of how to grow eggplant in open ground. Let's try to answer it.
Landing place
Before landing, you must correctly select the site. It must be sunny and protected from the wind. Best of all, if the soil is light, heavy ones need preliminary preparation - they need to be fertilized at the rate of one bucket of humus or peat mixture per square meter of land. Eggplant is best planted after crops such as peas or beans. The beds need to be prepared since the fall: dig, fertilize, remove the roots of weeds. In the spring, the soil is again dug up and loosened.
Seedlings
Planting eggplant in open ground is carried out only by seedlings. Our summer is too short to be able to get the crop immediately from the seeds. Sowing is best done in late February or early March. Seeds should be placed immediately in separate cups, two seeds per container. After the sprouts appear, you need to leave the strongest and strongest.
How to grow eggplant in open ground: planting time and care
It is worth planting seedlings only when the weather is warm, not only without frost, but also without too low plus temperatures. As a rule, this occurs in late May or in early June. For safety, it is necessary to prepare a film in order to cover plants at night, or to prepare paper caps, envelopes, which can also serve as protection against cold weather. Watering is needed regularly, its frequency depends on the amount of natural precipitation. Still need to systematically loosen and weed the weeds. It is necessary to feed eggplants three times a season (not counting fertilizing the soil before planting seedlings in spring or late autumn).
What other information is useful in order to know
how to grow eggplant in the open field and get a good harvest? Remember that these plants belong to the Solanaceae family, as well as the potatoes that the Colorado potato beetle loves so much. Therefore, you must either provide mechanical protection in the form of a nylon mesh, or spray with a decoction of wormwood or celandine. It is possible with chemicals, but not later than twenty days before the formation of the fruit. Eggplant needs to be collected in August in several stages with a break of 4-5 days. It is impossible to allow at least one fruit from the bush to reach full maturity - after this the plant ceases to devote all its energy to growing the crop and actually goes into hibernation.
So, now you know how to grow eggplant in open ground. This is, of course, laborious and painstaking, but the result will be impressive.