Are there any features of growing eggplant? How to plant eggplant for seedlings? Is it possible to grow them in open ground in a seedling-free way? Gardeners always have a lot of questions about how to plant, care for eggplant, especially for beginners. Agrotechnics for growing eggplant is not complicated, but has some features. They must be remembered if you are going to grow this “blue” vegetable saturated with taste, vitamins, microelements. By the way, “blue” eggplants are called in many countries, although the color of its peel is traditionally purple.
Now there are varieties not only purple, but also lilac, colorful, striped, even white.
Eggplant shape also changes - it depends on the variety. The fruits are cylindrical, elongated, round, ellipsoidal, teardrop-shaped.
In the conventional representation, eggplant is a southern vegetable. Of course, it grows best, bears fruit in the southern regions. But today, so many zoned varieties have been bred that it is time to stop talking about eggplant as a heat-loving plant. Now this is a normal, habitual "resident" of the middle zone beds, even the northern regions. Only it is grown in the south and north in different ways.
Of course, first of all, eggplant is thermophilic, moisture-loving. Not a single “little blue one” will refuse from the sun. It is for this reason that it is possible to sow eggplant seeds directly into the soil only in the southern regions, and even then some procedures will have to be done with the seeds. And in the climate of the middle zone or where it is even colder, this culture will have to be grown seedlings.
By the way! Another reason for the preferred seedling method for growing eggplants is the long growing season compared to all other crops. From planting to full maturation of the eggplant, it can take up to 120 days (depending on the variety).
When to plant eggplant
Depending on the characteristics of your climate, you need to sow eggplant for seedlings at different times. Also, the timing depends on how you are going to grow the vegetable further - in open or protected ground. I will not disclose this issue in detail in this article, since very detailed information on the timing of planting eggplants can be found here: When to plant eggplants in 2019.
How to plant eggplant
The soil for planting seeds, if you buy a storefront, should be intended for nightshade. Preparing it yourself is also not difficult. The most important thing is to keep the proportions so that the soil is airy, light, has a supply of nutrients. It is advisable to water the soil with a weak solution of potassium permanganate before planting.
One more tip! Whatever soil you use, add 3 tablespoons of ash, 1 spoon of dolomite flour, 2 tablespoons of complex fertilizer to 6 liters (liters, not kilograms!) Of soil.
Seeds are pre-disinfected. This can be done with solutions of potassium permanganate or hydrogen peroxide, treated with growth regulators, such as Epin, HB-101, Heteroauxin, and then laid for germination. Why disinfection - I hope you understand. Germination is also a necessary stage that should not be missed all for the same reason of a long growing season of culture. Seeds with hatching white sprouts are planted in the prepared soil to a depth of 1.5-2 cm.
Advice! It is better to plant eggplants in glasses or pots with a diameter of at least 6 cm, 2-3 pieces each, with a distance of two centimeters between them.
How not to plant eggplant for seedlings
I will share the negative experience of planting eggplant. I once bought (we have such shops or departments called "everything is 39") a cassette for growing seedlings for 12 cells. Peat tablets have already been inserted into the cassette cells. True, the shell on these tablets was not. What attracted me? Naturally, low price and small cassette volume. In addition, only I love eggplant in our family, so I decided that just 12 bushes of this vegetable would be enough for me.
Immediately alerted that after getting wet, the tablet turned into some very homogeneous porridge-like soil mass. My first mistake! It was necessary to replace the soil! But ... it was too lazy to bother - anyway, I put one eggplant seed there.
The seeds did not begin to germinate - these seeds last year had 100% germination. Mistake? Yes! Another one! She waited two weeks - usually eggplant seeds under good conditions germinate in 5-10 days - but this period passed, and there were no seedlings. Just in case, I decided to sprout a new portion of seeds. I planted them additionally in another cassette with soil, which I prepared myself.
Then he began to worry about planting pepper and tomatoes for seedlings. But I didn’t forget about the new cassette - I watered it! Hope dies last! Imagine, shoots in two cells hatch after 25 (!) Days. You see them in the photo above. And the rest of the cells are literally "moss overgrown."
The second photo shows eggplant seedlings planted two weeks after the first. I took both photos in one day. The difference is palpable! That's how much good soil means!
No need to plant eggplant or any other vegetables, flowers for seedlings in tablets of such an incomprehensible origin that are essentially not peat.
Eggplant seedling care
Eggplant seedlings do not like transplants, so the best option is to sow seeds in peat pots to do without picking at all. If, due to saving space on the windowsill, your choice of seeding requires picking plants, then it must be carried out as carefully as possible.
As soon as you sow the seeds, cover the pots with foil, soak them for six days at a temperature of + 23-25ºС. During this time, provided that you have sprouted seeds, shoots should appear. Remove the film. It is desirable to reduce the temperature of the content to + 19ºС. This stimulates the growth of the root system, which is rather weak in eggplant.
So, your eggplant has risen! The first days to water the seedlings is not recommended, it is enough to spray them with warm water. Then, every 4-5 days, water the seedlings with settled water at a temperature of + 25-30 ° C. As soon as the first 2-3 true leaves appear, transplant the plantlet gently into a large bowl.
Further care is abundant watering, weeding, loosening the soil.
Eggplant seedlings are not needed. On the contrary, faster eggplant growth is facilitated by a short daylight hours before flowering, no more than 10 hours. You can get a crop of vegetables two weeks earlier if you cover seedlings from six in the evening until eight in the morning with plywood or cardboard boxes for longer than 10 hours of light.
Problems with eggplant seedlings
In general, eggplant is not the most problematic vegetable. But during the cultivation of seedlings, various troubles can happen to her.
For example, seedlings suddenly stop growing. Carefully pull out one seedling along with a lump of earth, inspect the roots. If the roots have become brown, then most likely the seedling has little space, and it requires transplanting into a large container.
It may happen that the seedlings begin to wither. There are several reasons. The first - oddly enough, excess moisture - the roots are suffocating without oxygen. The second, too large temperature difference between the soil and the surrounding air. This can happen if containers with seedlings are on a cold windowsill. The first reason to eliminate the limitation of watering, loosening the soil. The second - by changing the location of the seedlings or by covering it from streams of cold air.
If the lower leaves of the seedlings began to turn yellow or turn pale, then the reason is a lack of nutrients.
Urgently feed the seedlings with complex mineral fertilizer.
Well, if you notice strange spots on the leaves, then the reason is pests, people call them midges or spider mites. Most likely on your plants aphids or fungus mosquitoes scyarides got on. In this case, spray the leaves of the plants on both sides with a solution of Fitosporin. The soil can be shed with Actar's pesticide. Against sciarides will help spraying dichlorvos. From midges it is enough to sprinkle the soil in a cup or pot with ground hot pepper.
Have a good harvest!