What varieties is everyone growing this year?
 

This will be my first year growing eggplants. I have seedling for the following:

Black Beauty
Long Purple Dark
Rosa Bianca

Dean

Louisiana Long Green is back again this year. This is probably the variety I've repeated the most. Produces like crazy and has sweet, mild flavor. I also have Prosperosa. I should have grown White Beauty again. I really like that one. I tried Black Beauty my first year growing eggplant and Rosa Bianca my second year. Hope they do well for you, Dean. I think they're both good.

I am growing yaponskiy karlik (japanese dwarf) from Andrey, zolotoe yaitso (gold egg) also from Andrey, Black Beauty (they do great for me in my zone 8 desert garden), applegreen, and ping tung long. I have 4 plants of each in 15 gallon grow bags.

Here is a photo of yaponskiy karlik. I am real impressed with how the plant looks, extremely healthy looking.

I planted Pink Tunglong and Rosa Bianca. They never sprouted, or so I thought until I saw that my feline friend had chosen that spot in the garden for regular dust baths. So I went to the garden center and got a Black Beauty which is just starting to flower. Since then I also found a volunteer from last year - also a purple type - and planted Thai Green, which I am still waiting to see sprout. - dawn

How about, Rosa Bianca, Proposa, Nada, and Black Bell II.

Butch

this year i'm growing ukrainian beauty, diamond, ping tung long, and an unknown to me variety from iran. this is the 3rd try for ping tung long. first 2 attempts were unsuccessful. 3 strikes and you're out.

Michael - very good-looking and healthy plant. Yaponskiy Karlik is a Siberian CV despite Japanese part of its name and its very early and compact for eggplant. Zolotoe Yaitso (Golden Egg) has golden-yellow egg shaped fruits...

I'll be growing 2 Rosa Biancas only. I haven't found anything better.

I have a flower bud on my Yaponskiy Karlik-I think its going to be pretty early for me. I corrected the Russian spelling on my golden egg in the post above.

Here is my yaponskiy karlik today, 2 weeks photo from my earlier one. Has several flowers already. Nice and compact. Its 7 inches tall. Going to be my earliest eggplant this season.

[quote=barkeater;99560]I'll be growing 2 Rosa Biancas only. I haven't found anything better.[/quote]

Glad to hear that! I am growing it too, plus Diamond.

Funny thing is, I have never grown, nor eaten, eggplant before!

The good thing is, if you don't like Rosa Bianca, then you'll know you don't like eggplant! I'm trying 1 of the 2 in a pot this year to see if the warmer location will yield better.

I have a couple of Louisiana Long Green growing quickly. I should be able to start picking soon. I had heard that Prosperosa was not a really productive variety but I have a lot of fruit set on those plants. Looking forward to those, as well.

[quote=barkeater;103516]The good thing is, if you don't like Rosa Bianca, then you'll know you don't like eggplant! I'm trying 1 of the 2 in a pot this year to see if the warmer location will yield better.[/quote]

4-gallon buckets for mine here on the blacktop should provide some heat for them.

This sounded like the best description for Rosa Bianca, from Fedco:

[I] Open-pollinated bicolor Italian heirloom. Vermont market grower Alan LePage calls it “the best eggplant in the universe,” with a creamy pudding-like consistency and delicate flavor. Gorgeous fruits, white with lavender streaking down the side, can command $3 per pound. Quite different from those familiar slender black types, Rosa is plump, about 3-4" across and 5" long, narrow at the top and widening with indentations almost in folds like draped fabric. Fruits average 2 lb, max out at 4 lb, making it LePage’s highest-yielding eggplant. Rosa needs to be coddled, particularly in the northern half of New England. Needs alternating temperatures to break dormancy: warm days (preferably 80s), cooler nights (around 70°). We recommend raised beds, row covers and plastic or IRT mulch.[/I]

That's interesting, Mark. I grew RB a couple years ago, and had 2 really large eggplants and a couple small ones. Last year I didn't have seeds, and grew a black hybrid instead which yielded half as much. I thought it was just because of weather differences. So Mr. LePage may be right when it
comes to growing RB in the far north.

It was a lot different farming in NJ, the eggplant capitol of the world. All white or white striped eggplant yielded less than half of black eggplant. I didn't know Rosa Bianca by name then, it was generically called Sicilian eggplant by the Italian farmers I bought my transplants from.

But I really pushed it at my farm market because it tasted so much better, and 15 years ago I was selling as much white as black over a season, even though I charged 50% more.