Picked my first two eggplants today-5-25-09
 

First eggplants of the year today. Finally some home-grown eggplants. :D Casper on the left, applegreen on the right. Fantastic taste-grilled with some great olive oil drizzled on top.!

Very nice! I am a long way away from that, having just gotten my 16 plants in this week. As usual, I am doing some dehybridizing and selecting. Neon F2 showed three distinctly different seedling types - purple stem, green stem and slightly purple stem. Orient Express F2 showed two types - purple stem and slightly purple stem. Orient Charm F3 showed two types - purple stem and green stem.

Sometimes this type of thing shows up clearly in different fruit, sometimes not. Last year I had two Louisiana Long Green plant types - purplish stem and green stem. One had white flowers, the other lavender. Despite this, the fruit on both were essentially identical.

This genetics stuff is fascinating (well, to me, anyway).

My main standby eggplant this year are Rosa Bianca, Prosperosa, New York Improved, Green Giant, Casper, and two I named - Ripples (from Zebra, looks like an elongated Listada di Gandia), and Snow Globe, out of Cloud Nine.

[quote=mdvpc;131900]First eggplants of the year today. Finally some home-grown eggplants. :D Casper on the left, applegreen on the right. Fantastic taste-grilled with some great olive oil drizzled on top.![/quote]

Oh, I'm envious! One of mine just opened it's first bloom, so I'm a good ways from having fruit yet. Congrats! I like them grilled too! It's how I usually prepare mine.

Looks great, how do you like the applegreen? I lost all of my AP seedlings:cry: I do have small eggplants and lots of blooms. We had our 1st squash today, they were wonderful:D

neva

I have several Rosa Bianca seedlings. I've never grown eggplant before and am wondering how many eggplant will typically be produced by each plant and if they bear fruit continuously thru the summer.
Thanks!

Neva-Applegreen is one of my favorites. Its early and a good size, great taste. Produces lots of fruit. Farmette, cant tell you about Rosa Bianca. Production depends on so many factors.

Craig-never heard of NY Improved. I have grown most of your picks-all good ones.

NY Improved (or NY Spineless Improved) was given to me by my friend Jeff - I think he got it from Baker Creek. It is one of the oldies - the typical large black purple bell shape. We love it because it is the perfect one to cut slabs from to bread and bake and make eggplant parmesan from! We tend to gravitate towards the more round/bell shaped ones for that reason, and grow less of the slender ones. Though our other main summer aubergine user, ratattoiuille, doesn't care which shape or size is used!

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I have never eaten eggplant! I have a few growing. One plant of the 4 neva gave me are still struggling to survive. I have the regular ones that you can find locally. Have seeds to grow for next season so hopefully it will be better. I am just hoping I and my family likes eggplant
Kat

Craig-we call NY Improved Black Beauty around here. :))

Ah, the dreaded AKA! My eggplant have finally "kicked in", as are my dwarfs - you know, that point at which the foliage looks happy, lush, dark...

We are getting nice ample rain (which is so essential when one is growing so much in pots)....hoping for a really interesting, productive year!

Craig-You might remember telling me to quit growing black beauty and get into other kinds of eggplants-thats why I had to kid you about NY Improved. I have no idea if its the same, but had to pull your chain a little!

Oh yes, I remember!

Seriously, in my zone 8 garden, black beauty is a beauty! Its late compared to my other varieties I am growing this year-casper, ping tung long, applegreen and a couple others, but when they come in, black beauty is great.

Congratulations. My eggplants are still have a long way to go before I'll be eating them (with the exception of my "cheater" plant). Eggplants are such slow growers. Of the varieties I'm growing Black Beauty seems to be growing fastest yet you say it is a late one. hmm.

Randy

Randy-Casper and Applegreen are early for me. Probably around 60-65 days, Blk Beauty is about 90 days for me. My black beauty has fruit that are about ready to harvest now.