Black Beauty Eggplant pest control and harvest

This is one of my frequent black beauty eggplant harvests from 2 largely forgotten medium-sized 8-month old plants in the ground. I actually had not invested much time and effort in these plants. I left smaller fruits on the plants that I could pick about 1.5 weeks later. The only attention that I gave them was my homemade garden garlic spray on the leaves.

Six eggplants harvest on 10th June. (Some smaller fruits remained on my 2 plants)



My eggplant harvest on 10th June2012. A few jalapeño peppers on the side.

My observations about eggplants (aka aubergine):
Garden pests:

• They are not susceptible to many pests and therefore very easy to grow. However, when the leaves were being chewed up in their infancy stage, the plants became completely transformed after I sprayed  garlic spray on the under (and topside) of the leaves. The leaves became green and large withim days.
• On 2 ocassions, mice or rats were eating the fruit. I sprinkled a lot of powdered pepper and grounded cinnamon as natural deterrents. Since that was not as successful alone when it rained, I placed rat poison in an old laundry container between the plants. I used the container to prevent the poison from contaminating the soil. I camouflaged the container with straw for aesthetic purposes.

The Summer season:

• The plants were always healthy and produced many eggplants. However, I find that the eggplant production seems to have increased quite notably since the more intense heat began.

Using my eggplant harvest:

• With the frequent and abundant eggplant harvests, I started to see the value of advice to grow only what you like to eat. I quickly learnt how to make vegetable pasta-free lasagna. The eggplant slices became my pasta substitutes. I am harvesting peppers that I can not use. I have made pepper sauce but begging people to take peppers, including postal workers. Fortunately, I will no longer be doing this with eggplants.

More about my eggplants:

• Photo & written diary of my 2 eggplants from seedling to abundantly harvesting shrubs
• My eggplant gardening journey
• How to identify non-GM fruits and vegetables

*** BUY TROPICAL SEEDS ***

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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