Garden Sheds, Harvest Eggplants: An Elegant, Drought-resistant Vegetable

I grow more eggplant than we need just to have plenty of the gorgeous purple and black eggplant fruits in the garden. I get four or six beautiful eggplants, or “eggs” as my grandson says, from each plant, but you can get lots more if you have a longer, hotter season than mine.

Eggplant is a tender crop. It can’t stand frost. I set out a few transplants before our last frost date and surround them with plastic or cover them with hot caps. Most of the plants go in the garden when there’s no threat of frost and the ground is warm. I put them in a staggered double row, as I do with peppers and broccoli, and set each one in the soil just slightly deeper than it was in its flat or pot.

Put eggplants in a sunny spot because they thrive on sun and lots of heat. Eggplant is one of the most heat- and drought-tolerant vegetables. A few years ago, gardeners in Texas and Oklahoma had a terribly hot summer with many days of temperatures above 100° F. A friend in Texas wrote to me that the only thing growing in his garden was eggplant. Well, that’s because eggplants have a unique response to heat and drought. Instead of continuing to lose moisture through their leaf pores, or “stomates,” like most vegetables in hot weather, eggplant pores shut down to save the plant’s dwindling water supply.

Harvest when glossy

When I set out my eggplants I put lettuce transplants between them. The lettuce plants cover the ground quickly, which saves me some weeding and watering. When the first small eggplant fruits appear, I harvest nice heads of lettuce.

Eggplants don’t need a lot of fertilizer. A tablespoon of 5-10-10 at planting time and another when you see blossoms or the first little eggplants is about all they need.

Eggplant tastes best when young. Start harvesting when the fruits reach one-third their full growth—anytime after their skins appear glossy. The eggplants are past their prime when the outside skin turns dull and you find lots of seeds inside.

Black Beauty is everybody’s standard variety and mine too. But I also plant Dusky, which matures earlier and serves northern gardeners well.

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