The distant ancestors of eggplant can be found today in the Middle East and in India, where they grow in the wild. Eggplant began to grow and cultivate more than 1600 years ago. Arabs brought the berry to Africa, and then (already in the 19th century) Europeans learned how to plant eggplants, grow and care for them.
Eggplant is called berry because it belongs to the Solanum family, a type of herbaceous perennial plant. It contains a lot of potassium salts, so in the East it is known as the "vegetable of longevity." If you regularly eat it, it has a positive effect on the heart, breaks down saturated fats well, and maintains the acid-base and salt balance at the proper level. Eggplant helps with gout, kidney disease, disorders of the gastrointestinal tract.
How to plant eggplant?
First we plant them in seedlings. Today, seeds are most often sold already pickled, but if you do not have such seeds or you have prepared them yourself, then pickle them in a weak solution of potassium permanganate, followed by drying. You can soak in a solution of aloe juice, this will increase the germination of seeds. Cut off a couple of aloe leaves from the plant, hold for 24 hours in the refrigerator, then squeeze the juice and dilute it in a 1: 1 ratio with water. In this mixture, soak the seeds for 24 hours, and then put on a saucer with a cloth, moisten for two days. They will hatch and give good shoots.
The vegetative period for eggplants is quite long, up to 120 days, so you need to know when to plant eggplants to get a crop. They need to be planted in advance, otherwise at the end of summer you can not wait for the fruits. The land from store bags is suitable for them, and if you yourself prepare the soil for sowing, then it should be light, with the addition of wood ash and superphosphate (per tablespoon). Leave a centimeter of free space to the top edge of the boxes so that the soil does not wash out when watering. It is better, if necessary, to fill the earth.
How to plant eggplant, if you do not have boxes with soil, but sowing pots (peat)? In this case, harvest the soil immediately in the required quantity, and then lay it out in pots, putting two or three seeds at once. Then it will be possible to remove extra shoots or plant them when diving. Make a pick when two well-developed leaves appear. They are also called real, unlike the first, cotyledonary. Before transplanting them, do not forget to shed well, after transplanting, also water abundantly, and then only after the fifth day resume watering once every five to six days. When transplanting the soil into the soil, you need to immerse up to the first two (cotyledon) leaves.
Seedlings should be in a sunny place, and you need to ensure that it is not cold on the window. Add them lighting in cloudy weather, and also extend the daylight hours to 10 hours. Watering the eggplants is necessary only with warm water, both when growing seedlings, and during the whole time of their growth. Having learned how to plant eggplant for seedlings, you need to remember how to grow them properly.
Keep track of the color and growth of plants. If the growth has stopped, and the leaves become pale green, then they lack nutrients. For feeding, you can use mullein. For 5 liters of water, take half a teaspoon of urea and half a glass of mullein. Or use store top dressing, instructions with a detailed description of the application are on the packaging. If possible, use wood ash to sprinkle on the soil.
When the weather is warm, seedlings can be planted in the ground, covering the plants with a film (on arcs), let it remain for the entire time of cultivation. The film can be lifted in the heat. Now that you know how to sow eggplant and care for it, you can safely get down to business, so that by the end of the summer get a rich harvest.