[tjg911]

I may have picked the last of my eggplants. It is way too early for this but for the past few weeks it has been in the 70's and cool, some days we did not get to 70. Last weekend we had temps down into the 30's on 2 nights. My 3 Cloud Nine plants don't look like they did a month ago nor are they producing flowers like they were! I have a few fruits and flowers on each plant but they are really small fruits that are not growing much. 2 fruits at 1/2 picking size developed a dark soft spot and they were discarded. This weekend temps are supposed to go back into the 80's and Monday they are forecasting 87!

Cloud Nine produced a more useable eggplant for me this year than Ichiban did last year. Since I don't grill or bake them, I prefer the tear drop shape. Maybe next year I'll try Black Beauty, I always viewed that variety as the 'big this' or 'early that' run of the mill variety. Of the 2 varieties I have grown I don't see any difference in taste, I always thought for the most part all eggplants taste the same. My only reason I don't like Cloud Nine is with white skins they are hard to see if all the skin was removed by the peeler. I fry them and use them with combinations of broccoli, swiss chard, zucchini, peppers, in spaghetti sauce and babaganosh (sp?) (that's fried not baked).

I grow 3 plants, each plant in a 5 gallon pail. Is Black Beauty a good producer for CT? I want good yields more than aesthetics or taste, as I said I think all eggplants taste alike.

Thanks,

Tom