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Video: Eggplants - Cultivation And Varieties
It turns out that eggplant is a perennial, and we grow it as an annual. The fruit of an eggplant can be a berry of various colors and shapes. And not just a blue cylinder: pear-shaped, spherical, serpentine with white or greenish dense pulp, without bitterness. The color of the skin of the fruit varies from dark brown with a reddish tint, brown with a grayish tint to yellow or grayish green.
The exoticism of the vegetable is due to the fact that it comes from India. In Latin, its name literally means "nightshade with apple". Nightshade among the ancient Romans was considered a gift of the sun god - Salt - (salted, sunflower). The ancient Greeks considered eggplant a poisonous plant and called it "the apple of madness", believing that the one who ate it would lose his mind … And we now know that eggplant … insanely delicious!
Eggplant (Solanum melongena) is a species of perennial herbaceous plants of the Solanum genus, a vegetable crop. It is also known as badrijan (rarely bubrijan), and in the southern regions of Russia, eggplants are called blue.
Content:
- Growing eggplants
- Eggplant planting care
- Eggplant varieties
Growing eggplants
We place eggplants after the best predecessors, they are melons, cabbage, onions, root crops. We return the eggplants to their original place not earlier than in 2-3 years. If you keep them in the same place permanently, the plants suffer from fungal and viral diseases. We plant in an open, well-lit place.
After harvesting the previous crop, we immediately clear the soil of plant residues, fill it with humus at the rate of 80-100 kg, superphosphate - 400-450 g, potassium salt - 100-150 g per 10 m².
We dig the site to a depth of 25-28 cm in the fall. In early spring, as soon as the soil dries up, we carry out harrowing. Already in April, we apply nitrogen fertilizer (urea) in a dose of 300 g per 10 m² with embedding at a depth of 6-8 cm.
Practice shows that sowing with large sorted seeds increases productivity. How do you sort the seeds? To do this, pour 5 liters of water into a bucket, put 60 g of table salt there. When the salt dissolves, fill in the seeds, then stir them for 1-2 minutes, then stand for 3-5 minutes. Then we drain the floating seeds with the solution, wash the remaining ones with clean water five to six times. After washing, lay out large, full-weight seeds on a canvas and dry.
Before sowing, it is advisable to determine the germination of seeds. For this purpose, on a shallow plate covered with filter paper, lay out 50 or 100 seeds, slightly moisten the paper and place on a windowsill in a heated room. When the seeds hatch (after 5-7 days), we calculate the germination rate as a percentage. This helps to avoid sparse seedlings.
Eggplant gardeners are grown mainly through seedlings. It is obtained in greenhouses with a layer of manure of 50-60 cm. Sowing seeds in greenhouses is carried out in early March, that is, 55-60 days before planting seedlings in a permanent place. Before sowing, the wooden parts of the greenhouse are treated with a 10% solution of bleach or a thick solution of freshly slaked lime.
Soil composition: turf soil mixed with humus in a 2: 1 ratio. Greenhouse soil is poured over manure with a layer of 15-16 cm. Before sowing, the soil is flavored with superphosphate at the rate of 250 g per greenhouse frame (1.5 m²). Under the frame, 8-10 g of seeds are sown with embedding to a depth of 1-2 cm. For a plot of 10 m², it is enough to grow 100 seedlings. The temperature regime during the period of seed germination is maintained within the range of 25-30 ° C. With the emergence of seedlings, the temperature during the first 6 days is reduced to 14-16 ° C. Then the temperature is adjusted: during the day, they maintain 16-26 ° C at 10-14 ° C at night.
Gardeners know that the eggplant root system is difficult to recover and, torn apart during transplantation, lags behind in growth. Therefore, it is better to grow seedlings in humus-earthen pots. For the pots, a nutrient mixture is prepared from 8 parts of humus, 2 parts of sod land, 1 part of mullein with the addition of about 10 g of urea, 40-50 g of superphosphate and 4-5 g of potassium salt per bucket. The size of the pots is 6x6 cm.
8-4 days before sowing, the pots are tightly placed in a warm greenhouse with a soil thickness of 5-6 cm. If the pots are dry, then they are moistened and 8-4 seeds are placed in each. From above, the seeds are sprinkled with earth in a layer of 1-2 cm.
Watering seedlings in greenhouses as needed, usually done in the morning and at the same time airing the greenhouse. In cloudy cold weather, watering is prohibited.
Seedlings need feeding. To do this, take 50 g of superphosphate, 20 g of ammonium sulfate and 16 g of potassium salt on a bucket of water. From organic feeds, mullein, bird droppings or slurry are used. Bird droppings and mullein are pre-fermented in a tub (6-8 days). The fermented liquid is diluted with water: a solution of bird droppings 15-20 times (for young plants in the phase of the first true leaf) or 10-15 times (for seedlings with 4-5 leaves). The mullein solution is diluted with water by 3-5, and slurry by 2-3 times.
Organic and mineral dressings alternate. The first feeding (with organic fertilizers) is carried out 10-15 days after germination, the second - 10 days after the first fertilizing with mineral fertilizers. After feeding, the seedlings are lightly watered with clean water to wash off the droplets of the solution from it.
10-15 days before planting, the seedlings are hardened: watering is reduced, the frame is removed (first, only for a day, and then, depending on the air temperature, for a whole day). 5-10 days before planting in a permanent place, the plants are sprayed with a 0.5% solution of copper sulfate (50 g per 10 l of water) to protect the plants from fungal diseases.
Seedlings of eggplants by the time of planting in a permanent place should have 5-6 true leaves, a thick stem and a well-developed root system.
On the eve of disembarkation, seedlings in a greenhouse are watered abundantly with water. They start planting seedlings when the probability of frost disappears, that is, at the end of the first or at the beginning of the second decade of May (for Crimea). A delay in planting seedlings even by 7-10 days leads to a decrease in yield.
Seedlings grown without pots are chosen, keeping a clod of earth. They are planted to a depth of 7-8 cm, 1.5 cm deeper than the root collar. The row spacing is 60-70 cm, the intervals between plants in a row are 20-25 cm. If the lump of earth on the roots is fragile, then when selecting seedlings, the roots are immersed in a mullein with clay. Note again: potted seedlings take root faster, give a higher yield, and they are harvested 20-25 days earlier.
Eggplant planting care
We plant eggplant seedlings in wet soil in cloudy weather or in the afternoon. So the plants take root better. We squeeze the ground near the roots well and water it immediately. After 3-4 days, in place of the fallen seedlings, we plant a new one and carry out the second watering (200 liters, watering and fertilizing rates are given for 10 m²).
The total number of waterings during the summer is 9-10, in 7-9 days. After each watering, we loosen the soil to a depth of 8-10 cm, at the same time we remove the weeds. The first feeding is carried out 15-20 days after planting the seedlings (urea 100-150 g). We give the second dressing three weeks after the first (superphosphate solution 150 g and urea 100 g). We close the fertilizers with a heron to a depth of 8-10 cm and water immediately. At the beginning of fruiting, feeding with a fresh mullein (6-8 kg) together with irrigation water is effective. After 15-20 days, feeding with fresh mullein can be repeated.
Eggplant plants can be attacked by the Colorado potato beetle. Against this malicious pest, we use a solution of chlorophos of 0.3% concentration (30 g of the drug per 10 liters of water). The signal for use is the hatching of beetle larvae.
Eggplant varieties
The best varieties of eggplants: Delicacy, Gribovsky-752, Dwarf early-921, Donskoy, Long purple, Bulgarian. The dark purple color of the skin is present in the eastern group of early varieties (varieties: Delikates, Dwarf early, Vostochny).
In the western group of varieties, the shape of the fruit is flattened, spherical, oval, ovoid, shortened pear-shaped, cylindrical (varieties: Crimean, Donskoy).
For growing under a film in the middle lane, early ripening early varieties are used: Delikates 163, Dwarf early 6, etc. Of the mid-ripening and productive, Universal 6, Simferopol 105, etc. are suitable.
The best time for cleaning is dry, cool weather before the first frost. Even slight frost damage makes the eggplant unusable.
Albatross
High-yielding mid-season. The period from germination to harvest is 115-130 days. The plant is compact, 40-60 cm high. Fruits are short-pear-shaped, weighing 300-450 g, with dense white flesh without bitterness. The color in technical ripeness is blue-violet, in biological it is brown-brown. The keeping quality and transportability are excellent. Universal use
Arap
Attractive fruit in deep purple color. The period from germination to harvesting of the first crop is 120-130 days. Semi-sprawling bush, 85-90 cm high outdoors. Fruits are cylindrical, 20-25 cm long. The fruit retains its commercial qualities for a long time
