Growing eggplants on your own can be fun. Not only that their nutrients are good for your body, but their beautiful purplish color can be an attractive property of your garden. But what if you do not have a spacious garden?
You can always grow eggplants in containers!
Almost any vegetable that grow in a garden can also do well in containers, including eggplants.
Variety selection is important thing to keep in mind. Choose the right variety for container-grown. As for eggplants, you can choose almost all varieties. However, Dusty, Black Beauty, Casper, Little Figures, Florida Market and Long Tom are considered the best.
When you’ve got the right eggplant seeds, prepare the containers. They should be 3 to 5 gallon pots. Since adequate drainage is a necessity, add about 1 inch of coarse gravel in the bottom of the pots. The drain holes are best located along the pots side, about 1/4 – 1/2 inch from the bottom.
Fill in each pot soil suitable for pots, like Pro Mix or Miracle Grow Potting. These synthetic soils are best suited for growing eggplants in pots since they are a mixture of sawdust, wood chips, peat moss, vermiculite and almost any other type of gardening medium. Make sure that the soil is disease-free and weed-free. Make sure that it holds moisture and nutrients but drain well and be lightweight as well. You can either buy the soil from nurseries, or compose it on your own by mixing horticultural grade vermiculite, peat moss, limestone, superphosphate and garden fertilizer. Mix all materials thoroughly. Add a little water to reduce dust.
After preparing the pots and the soil, plant 4 – 6 seeds into each pot. Arrange the first seed in the middle part of the pot and the rest around the outer edge. This way those seeds can be kept evenly separated from each other, to anticipate the seedling failure and allow each successful seedling to grow well. Put in also 2 teaspoons of fertilizer; a slow release one like Osmocoat is a good choice.
Next step is watering your eggplants well. Provide them plenty of water, and then let the pots drain overnight. Keep them in shade. Water them regularly the next days to keep them moist.
After about 60 days, you should be able to harvest your eggplants. Pick them out. If you pick them when they are smaller, they will keep producing fruits till frost.
Agricultural Biodiversity 