How to Grow Eggplant in your Vegetable Garden

Eggplants grow only during the summer season.

Eggplants are large, sensitive and often under-represented plants in the home garden. These bushy plants belong to the same family as peppers and grow with similar requirements for sun, air warmth and soil. Eggplant bushes produce large and small white, purple and magenta fruits for baking and slicing, but do so only when conditions allow. Plant eggplant seedlings when temperatures are warm and nurture them through the season for a uccessful harvest.

Things You'll Need

• Organic compost
• Garden fork
• Fertilizer
• Mulch
• Pruning shears/clippers

Instructions

1. Start eggplants in outdoor gardens well after the last frost of the season. These sensitive plants fail in cold air or soil and do best in 65- to 70-degree starts. Plant eggplants 60 to 100 days before the first frost in fall, depending on the cultivar, to ensure a long growing season.

2. Set the eggplant plot in a 5- to 10-square foot site with full sunshine and good air circulation. Eggplants require the warmth and light of the sun to grow and bear their fruit. Dig into the top 10 inches of natural soil through the plot to break it up and mix 5 inches of organic compost into the foundation to enrich the soil. Eggplants do best in quick-draining, crumbly and rich soil. Work 8-8-8, 10-10-10 or 8-24-24 fertilizer into the soil, per manufacturer directions, for more nutrition.

3. Plant eggplant seedlings rather than seeds, to speed the growing process and shorten the season. Put the seedlings at every 2 feet in the row, and leave 2 to 3 feet between multiple rows. Eggplants become large with time and need the space for air and sun exposure.

4. Water the eggplants with 2 to 3 inches of water every week and use 2 inches of organic mulch to keep soil moist, warm and free of weeds.

5. Feed eggplants with 8-8-8 or 10-10-10 granular fertilizer every month, per manufacturer directions. These are hungry plants that do best with consistent nutrition. Replenish the mulch layer as it breaks down to maintain garden protection.

6. Harvest eggplants at their maturity dates or when fruit turns its mature color and reaches desired size. Eggplants don't get better with age, so best harvests happen early. Cut the stems above the fruits to harvest eggplants without damage.

References

• University of Illinois Extension; Watch Your Garden Grow: Eggplant; Ron Wolford, et al.
• Fort Valley State University: Growing Eggplants
• Colorado State University Extension; Peppers and Eggplants; JE Ellis; April 2007