My eggplant gardening journey

Here is a photo diary of my 2 eggplant shrubs.

Eggplant seedling in the ground on 8 October 2011.

 I grew my eggplant shrubs from seeds. They were very strong seedlings. I planted them directly in the ground where they grew very quickly. Given its orangish appearance, I suspect that the sandy soil has a lot of iron. I have never tested this soil to verify its pH.

I generally never watered my eggplant plants. I always assumed that, because they were in the ground, they could get sufficient water without my help. Unlike my other container plants, they never wilted.

Notice the straw mulch around the base. I used mulch to minimize competition from aggressive weeds.



Eggplant foliage on 6 October 2011

Twenty days made a difference in height. 

In this photo, the eggplant seedling is roughly 5 inches above the ground.  -->

Eggplant on 26 October 2011

Eggplant seedling on 26 October 2011



The plants grew very vigorously. I really did not prune them as I had planned. Consequently, I had to find creative ways of supporting the limbs.
*** BUY TROPICAL SEEDS ***


Eggplant shrubs standing roughly 3 feet tall on 18 June 2012

The limbs had grown so long that they started to rest onto the ground, especially when laden with eggplants. In fact, with the 2 eggplant shrubs only about 2 feet apart from each other, I could not tell the limbs apart. To raise the limbs off of the ground, I drove a wooden pole into the ground between the plants. On the upward end of the pole, I inserted a partly emerged nail around which twine could be wrapped. I knotted the ends of the loose ends of the twine to create loops into which the limbs could be placed. The ball is there to protect me from hurting myself with the nail.

Closer aerial view of eggplant shrubs. The pink ball to the left is the market for an earlier support pole of bamboo pole. Clearly, the laden limbs of my now 3-foot eggplant shrubs could no longer be supported entirely by that shorter pole.

Harvest of black beauty eggplant on 10 June 2012

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