In the spring-summer period, people begin to think about what vegetables to plant in the infield. Among the popular crops is eggplant. How to grow seedlings, care for plants, fight pests? These questions are answered in our article.
general characteristics
Eggplant is a heat-loving plant from the nightshade family with a powerful stem that has thorns. Its leaves are large, oval, the fruits are oval, cylindrical, pear-shaped, spherical. Eggplant color is usually purple, but there are varieties of unusual colors: white, black, lilac, lilac, striped. The fruit mass is from 20 g to 2 kg, length is from 5 to 65 cm.
Eggplant: how to grow seedlings
First of all, you need to decide on the variety: preference is given to precocious and hybrids, which are insensitive to the length of daylight hours. The fact is that the plant has one feature: for optimal growth and high yield, it needs 12-14 hours of daylight hours. Such indicators are all year round at the equator, elsewhere in the summer months the daylight hours are longer.
This explains that some varieties form few ovaries in June-July, and only in August begins to catch up on eggplant.
How to grow seedlings? The following conditions must be observed:
- in the soil mixture should be a large proportion of humus or rotted compost;
- for better germination of seeds, they can be soaked in aloe juice for a day;
- the room where the seedlings are grown should be warm;
- top dressing should be carried out with an increased dose of nitrogen (urea or "Solution");
- the term for growing seedlings is 70 days.
When planting in a greenhouse or soil, it should be remembered that the plant must be transplanted carefully, without damaging the root system, otherwise the growth of the fruits will be significantly delayed. It is allowed to plant tomatoes and peppers together with eggplants, but it is better that they are in a separate "shelter".
How to grow eggplant in a greenhouse
The plant is placed in a greenhouse in mid-May (15-20th day), but you need to prepare the soil in advance and cover it so that it warms up to 16 degrees Celsius. Soil preparation - digging and applying two buckets of humus and 100 g of complex fertilizers per square meter. When planting between plants leave 30 cm, between their rows - 60 cm. Eggplant seedlings are not buried.
In the greenhouse, you need to provide a temperature of 20-28 degrees, otherwise the ovaries will form poorly and fall off. Care is reduced to watering (2 times a week under the root), top dressing (1 time in 14 days), loosening row-spacing, weeding as necessary. There is one more nuance that concerns how to grow good eggplants: you need to water them in the afternoon with warm and settled water.
The formation of plants is reduced to trimming the lower, non-fruiting branches, to remove diseased leaves, to garter if necessary. Daily shaking of the stem provides good tying.
It must be remembered that the plant does not tolerate dimming, so low leafy vegetables should be planted nearby: onions, dill, sorrel.
Eggplant: how to grow to protect against pests
The main pests are Colorado beetles. They can destroy the plant completely. Therefore, you need to deal with the Colorado potato beetles : do not plant eggplant near potatoes and periodically inspect stems and leaves. Chemicals can be used only before the appearance of ovaries, so gardeners use folk methods, such as:
- sprinkle with salt flour, which remains from frying fish;
- sprinkling soil with wet wood ash, followed by spraying with water (once a week).
Eggplant - demanding plants, but the ripening of the fruit will be all the more pleasant. And how many dishes can be prepared from the "little blue" ...