Growing eggplant in a cold climate - 2 tips from gardeners (Primorye and the Urals)
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EGGLANTS IN THE NORTHERN REGIONS - SECRETS OF CARE
GROWING EGGLANDS IN THE URALS
If you have a good greenhouse, and you can also extend the season and heat it up in May and at the end of August, feel free to plant heat-loving crops, including eggplants.
And about how to deal with them in order to get a crop in the Middle Urals and in other regions with an unkind climate, says agronomist Valentina Ivanovna Evdokimova.
“Eggplant, or, as they are also called, Indian berries, in our conditions can only ripen in a greenhouse. Among all members of the nightshade family, they are the most thermophilic. Let me remind you that the seeds germinate at 25-28 °, so do not complain about low germination if you have not created the right temperature. For growth and development, they also need warm air - 22-24 °, and even at night a temperature of 18-19 is preferable.
If it is cooler in the greenhouse, the fruits stop growing, and at 13-15 °, the flowers and ovaries fall off.
The basic techniques for growing eggplant seedlings are the same as for tomatoes. Before sowing, seeds are soaked for 12 hours in a fertilizer solution: for 1 liter of water - 5 g of potassium nitrate and double superphosphate.
Before sowing, the soil in the box is well moistened, the seeds are sown to a depth of 1 cm, covered with moist soil, covered with plastic wrap on top and placed in a warm place to get friendly shoots.
When the seedlings have their first true leaf, they are dived into pre-prepared pots filled with the same mixture as for the seedlings. Before picking, the pots are well moistened and then placed in pallets on the windowsill.
Planting must be regularly moistened, since a lack of moisture leads to lignification of the stem, premature aging of the plant and a decrease in yield.
Seedlings are planted in spring unheated greenhouses in mid-May. 1-4 plants are placed per 6 sq.m of the greenhouse area. The age of seedlings at the time of planting is 55-60 days. Plants should have a stem 20-25 cm high, 5-7 leaves, possibly a bud.
If necessary, carry out top dressing. Special attention to nitrogen nutrition. At the first signs of nitrogen starvation (leaves turn pale), top dressing is done with ammonium nitrate. Dissolve 10-20 g of fertilizer in a bucket of water and water the plants, spending a bucket on 4 sq.m of plantings.
Barren shoots are cut out in spring greenhouses, it is enough to leave 2-3 with buds. It is necessary to regularly remove yellow leaves and faded flowers to avoid rotting them and spreading gray mold. Gray rot affects plants in greenhouses when the air humidity exceeds the optimum level (60-70%). Eggplants love dry air, so greenhouses must be ventilated by opening the top and side windows.
For better pollination of flowers, be sure to shake the trellis daily at noon.
The fruits are harvested selectively, in the phase of technical ripeness. Plants are watered (do not flood!) In sunny weather every other day, preventing the soil from drying out.
Many do not like eggplant because they are sometimes bitter. The reason for this is sharp fluctuations in air temperature and lack of moisture in the soil, the characteristics of the variety (usually bitterness is characteristic of old varieties) and untimely harvesting.
What varieties can be advised to plant in the Urals? The earliest ripe is Robin Hood, but, of course, the fruits are not large, and the yield is low. The same group includes Donetsk fruitful (from germination to fruiting 110-115 days). Up to 15 fruits of 140-160 g each are formed on the plant. The fruits are cylindrical, dark purple with white pulp.
Two mid-season varieties with dense, without bitterness, pulp: Donskoy 14 and Bataysky. They are good for cooking eggplant caviar.
If it is possible to flood the greenhouse, you can plant a mid-season hybrid Ft Behemoth. He has low, half a meter, plants with strong stems that can withstand large blue-black pear-shaped fruits.
Very beautiful and productive Nutcracker eggplant. The fruits are dense, used for food in technical ripeness, when their weight reaches 100-150 g, and the seeds are still light (about 40 days after setting).
By the time the fruits are fully ripe (biological ripeness), bitterness accumulates in them, and they become tasteless.
© Author: Recorded by I. Nimtsovich Sverdlovsk region.
See also: Eggplant seedlings - sow in mid-February + shaping and care
GROWING EGGLANTS IN PRIMORSKY REGION
I read more than once that you should not rush to sow heat-loving crops for seedlings. About two years ago I tried to sow eggplant seeds not in February, but in the second decade of March.
Chose hybrid F1 Solara. Seedlings did not dive, so as not to slow down the growth of plants.
[Spring was cold and rainy. The seedlings were planted in the ground in early June. By that time, almost all plants had already gained color.
The soil in my area is loamy, I bring ash without sparing. I keep pigs, so in the spring we abundantly fill the beds with rotted manure with sawdust (from the litter) and dig it up.
You have to weed often, because grass grows on manure like yeast. I do all the work according to the lunar calendar, I think this is very important.
I have a large farm, there are enough worries even without eggplants. At first she looked after diligently, and when they started, she only watered. For a week, I probably didn’t approach them, but when I saw it, I was glad: on each plant 70-80 cm high, there were 3-5 fruits the size of a small melon or a children's ball. The plants were so powerful that in the autumn my husband could hardly pull them out. Weighed only the largest fruits - 1,6-2,2 kg.
The Solara hybrid was sown for the sake of the experiment - only 20 plants, and the main part - 70 roots - were Almaz eggplant varieties. The harvest that year was rich.
Since then, I have been planting eggplants for three years - and always successfully. Other vegetables were also born. The cellar is full: enough for myself for the winter and for sale.
Reference by topic: Varieties of pepper and eggplant for temperate climates - my reviews
GROWING PEPPERS AND EGGLANDS IN THE COLD SUMMER - VIDEO EXPERIENCE
© Author: V. Bubnova Primorsky Krai, pos. Angular
Below other entries on the topic "Dacha and garden - with their own hands"
- Eggplant on hydrogel, proper lighting and other secrets of care (Nizhny Novgorod)
- Eggplant varieties Robin Hood and Sperm Whale - my reviews
- Cultivation of eggplant: varieties of novelties and reviews about them
- How to grow eggplants in a greenhouse in Siberia (Novosibirsk)
- Hybrids and varieties of eggplant for the temperate climate of the middle zone and their care
- Agronomist's advice on choosing eggplant varieties - names + descriptions of the best
- Aubergine seedlings - planting and growing at home
- Eggplant in tall beds - growing, planting and care
- Growing eggplant varieties Ilya Muromets and Andryusha F1 - my reviews
- Eggplant "Bull's Heart", "Galina" and "Marzipan" - cultivation and my reviews
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I can’t grow eggplants in any way: I’ve been trying to plant seedlings for three years now. In the first year, almost all the seedlings died, then the story repeated itself again and again. Seedlings sprout, grow, no suspicious signs. But when transplanting, I notice that the tips of the roots (2-3 cm), sticking out of the earth clod, are somehow dark. Previously did not attach any importance to this. Or is it some kind of disease?
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Eggplant Trouble! The leaves are covered with dark spots, the stems look like straw (weaken, dry, may break when harvesting the fruit). The fruits rot, not having time to ripen. It looks like phomopsis, but antifungal agents do not help. Several seasons in a row there is no harvest.
How to deal with such an infection? Tell me who has come across: perhaps there are rot-resistant varieties.