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🍆The Black Purple Eggplant is a popular heirloom variety with tender flesh and round purple-black eggplants! This easy-to-grow variety is highly productive, with 30-inch-tall bushes that lift large, fleshy fruits weighing 2 pounds off the ground! Beautiful in the garden and in the kitchen, these purple gems are breaded or fried and eaten as meat. Substitute for vegetarian or vegan dishes. It is also an important source of dietary fiber, iron, potassium and protein.

🌻FEATURE

Plant Name: Eggplant

Days to Germinate: 7-14

Days to Harvest: 78

USDA Zones: 5-12

Sunlight: Full Sun, Partial Shade

GMO: No

Pollination: Heirloom, Open-Pollinated

🌱Growing

SOIL: Prefers well-drained sandy or loamy soil. A pH of between 6.0 and 6.5 will keep plants healthy and nourished.

WATER: Requires low to moderate levels of water. Aim for about 1–1.5 inches of water per week. Tolerant of drought but will produce more fruit with consistently moist soil. Use drip irrigation to avoid getting water on the leaves.

NUTRIENTS: Requires moderate to high levels of nutrients. Use a balanced organic fertilizer every 2 weeks during the growing season.

PRUNING: You can pick off flowers to keep only 4–5 actively growing fruits per plant if you want bigger fruit. If growing eggplant as a perennial in tropical areas, prune plants heavily at least once a year.

MULCHING: Use mulch to suppress weeds, keep soil moist, and retain warmth as temperatures begin to drop in the fall.

SUPPORT: Use cages or stakes to provide support for larger plants.

🦋Diseases

Eggplant can get diseases at various stages, including seed rot, damping off, anthacnose, late blight, alternaria leaf spot, and verticillium wilt. Diseases may manifest if 3 conditions take hold: presence of a disease pathogen, a susceptible host, and a favorable environment. Diseases are preventable by rotating crops, proper irrigation, plant spacing, and good sanitation (such as disposing diseased plants). Check the plants daily and if spots or mold appear, treat the plant with an approved fungicide. Neem oil, sulfur, and other fungicides may be used. Please always follow label directions.

🥘 Culinary

Commonly used in Mediterranean, Indian, and European cooking. Try it grilled, baked, sautéed, stuffed, or fried. No need to peel, just rinse your fruit before using. Many recipes suggest salting sliced eggplant, leaving it to sit, then rinsing and drying to soften the flesh and remove any bitterness. It will absorb a lot of fat when cooking, so this process can also reduce sogginess. Eggplant is a great meat substitute due to its texture.