The significance of knowing the different eggplant growing stages for your gardens, greenhouses, and farms will bring the best produce anywhere throughout the year. Each plant has its growing stages and these include seed planting, germination, sprout, seeling, planting, flowering, fruit planting, seed planting, and more.
What Are The Eggplant Growing Stages
Eggplants are very nice to have in the garden. These species of plants come from the family known to be Solanaceae grown across the globe for having edible fruits. The common purple type is used in the kitchen for a variety of cuisines. Typically, eggplants are ingredients for cooking and are categorized as a botanical.
You will find below the stages that eggplants go through when being planted, cultivated, and harvested.
Seeds
After having the seeds sowed on warm soil, it takes about one to two weeks for these eggplant seeds to sprout. For the seedlings, as soon as these germinate, the seedlings are growing up to 10 weeks before they are prepared for the transplanting stage.
You can be able to surmise that these seedlings are strong enough to be transplanted when they develop from their four to six leaves. Remember though, colder temperatures are deadly for the seedings, so it must be around 65 degrees Fahrenheit or 18 degrees Celsius before having these transplanted in the greenhouse farms.
Adult Eggplants
120 days. These are the number of days before eggplants reach their maturity, depending on their variant or type. When they mature, they grow the main stem with various other stems branching out. These stems expand to grow larger, characterized with oval-shaped leaves that have a leathery texture.
Interestingly enough, there are leaves that many even have spines or hair. These crops can grow to up to four feet, with mature crops that must be staked so the fruits do not pull them toward the soil.
Flowers And Fruits
The stage of maturity for these eggplants bring out flowers with purple, and star shapes. Self-pollinating flowers from both the male and female organs from the florals. The fruits then bloom from the eggplant’s flower’s female part.
And then, you have the fruits. Depending on which type of eggplant is being discussed, these fruits may either be striped, purple, or white. Many of these eggplants produce purple-colored fruit that grows up to 10 inches when they mature. Various eggplants may cultivate and bear fruit to up to 80 days.
Harvesting Phase
There is the last stage in growing eggplants, and it is the harvesting phase. What happens here? Once the fruit starts to develop, you can be able to harvest them while they are young, a few days from maturity to get them in their best flavor.
How to tell if the eggplant fruits are already ripe? These are possible when they have the glossy skin and the firm texture. If you are looking at harvesting the seeds for planting, you can wait until these fruits are larger enough with their dull skin, and when they feel softer to the touch.
How Long Does It Take To Grow An Eggplant?
You have learned about time ranges from the previous paragraphs, when it comes to these eggplant growing stages. However, you will know more about these in this part of the blog where we will discuss how long it takes to grow these eggplants.
Typically speaking, eggplants will require 120 days maximum to get to their maturity from the seed, but selecting the faster-maturing variant for the best growing conditions can give you fresher, and riper eggplants in no time. The farm-to-table eggplants are at your fingertips.
When you are growing from seed, these crops require longer periods to mature and will not thrive in colder environments. If you are looking at growing them from seeds, then they have to be cultivated indoors. It takes approximately 10 weeks before the average last frosting date from your area.
If you wish to grow them from transplants, first the gardener may take these from their garden center, but be sure to purchase until the final frosting date has ended. Select plants with more compact and denser growth. Make sure that you avoid speeding up the process by purchasing plants with blossoms. These may slow down the growth as they have been transplanted, leading to fewer eggplants during the harvest.
Now if you are looking at growing them in colder climates, then you will have to adjust. You may cover the soil around these plants with black-colored mulch made from plastic material to help raise the temperature of the soil, promoting faster growth.
Should a late frost strike, make sure that the eggplants are covered with row covers and hot caps to avoid damage. These caps are individual coverings from the plant from plastic or paper that trap the sun’s warmth and speed up the growing process.
How Many Eggplants Do You Get Per Plant?
The standard eggplants can produce their purple-black-colored, egg-shaped fruits at four to six large-rounded fruits from each plant.
Here is the step-by-step process on how you can plant these eggplants right:
- Begin with starting the seeds indoors at nine weeks before the final phases of the spring season’s frosting. These seeds tend to germinate faster at temperatures of 90 degrees Fahrenheit. However, you can purchase six- to eight-week-old nursery plants before getting started with the steps.
- Choose the planting site. The best-recommended site is a sunny spot to provide you with the best results. Eggplants grow well in areas at 5.8 to 6.5 pH soil levels for the ideal growth.
- For soil fertilizer, they require only moderate amounts. You can choose to have an inch or so of these compounds into the planting bed around a week before planting.
- To start with the planting, stake these plants immediately at around two inches from the plant to offer support as they grow. For those living in colder temperatures, you may consider having row covers to keep these eggplants warmer and more sheltered. Leave areas for these bees to pollinate. You may also add mulch layers to retain moisture, suppressing weeds.
Grow Eggplants With Krostrade
Krostrade.com is a website that offers tents, greenhouses, bike racks, and more for your needs. It is recommended to grow the crops, such as eggplants, in greenhouses because you get the ideal temperature. For more information, go to www.krostrade.com.