If you want to plant eggplants on your plot , cultivation and care should be carried out in accordance with all the rules. Only in this case will there be an opportunity to get a big crop. Lack of experience should not bother you. Eggplant is a worthy representative of the nightshade family, which include tomatoes, potatoes and peppers. Therefore, it will require no more care than tomatoes.
Before growing eggplant, you should choose several varieties that are most suitable for the weather conditions in your area. Keep in mind that this vegetable is very demanding, but can be planted both in the greenhouse and in the open ground. In the middle lane, planting heat-loving eggplant, cultivation is advisable to produce under film shelter. This will speed up the process of fruit formation and double the yield.
It is worth remembering that eggplant is a very thermophilic plant. It is sensitive to a lack and excess of moisture, and is picky to the presence of sunlight. For seedlings, a greenhouse in a shady corner of the garden or a site with closely located groundwater will not work.
Having thought over the location of eggplants on your site, and having bought seeds, start growing seedlings. Sowing seeds should be in the second decade of February. Use special small-sized garden containers and fertile soil for tomatoes. Be sure to maintain a temperature of 22-24 degrees throughout the growing season of a plant such as eggplant. Growing with temperature changes will slow the development of the vegetable. After sowing the seeds, sprinkle them with earth and water. Cover the containers with foil or glass until shoots appear.
When the seedlings grow to 5-8 centimeters, transplant the plants into larger containers. Eggplant does not respond well to various transplants, so this process should be minimized. Care consists in maintaining a stable temperature regime, watering and providing a large amount of light. If there is not enough daylight, then use additional lamps in the morning and evening hours.
Eggplant is planted in a permanent place in a greenhouse or garden bed only after warming the soil for at least 18-20 degrees. Otherwise, all the ovaries will fall and growth will stop. Pre-prepare the soil on the ridges. It should be light, loose and moderately fertilized. We dig holes at a distance of 50 centimeters from each other and water them well. Gently release the seedlings from the pots and set in the hole. Sprinkle with dry soil on top.
Further care is not complicated. Periodically loosen the beds, weed out, monitor the moisture of the soil and feed the eggplant. The cultivation of such tasty and healthy vegetables will take place without much difficulty, if you know a little tricks.
- Be sure to loosen the soil. Without oxygen access to the root system, eggplants stop growing.
- Do not waste your time tying up a plant. In height, it reaches 50-70 centimeters and has a fairly strong stem. Therefore, this measure is not required.
- Carefully water the plant. The earth should never dry out. Even the slightest drought will rob you of the crop.
- After planting seedlings on the ridges, carry out root dressing with manure in a proportion of 1/10. When using chicken droppings - 1/20. The first feeding of seedlings should be done 14 days after transplantation, and the second - at the time of fruiting.
- Eggplant seedlings are very fond of the Colorado potato beetle. Therefore, before landing on a permanent place, treat it with a solution of the drug "Prestige". This will make the eggplant unattractive to the beetle.
- Remove the lower yellowed leaves from the plants. Then it will not spend its strength on them.
- Do not delay harvesting. This contributes to a more rapid development of the remaining ovaries.