After not planting any eggplants last year I decided I had to have eggplants again this year. That required some planning ahead last fall as I cleared out a flower bed near the back door in order to change it over to veggies. Lots of plants (mostly daylilies) got moved.

Anyway my point is I am harvesting eggplants!!

So I have Little Fingers which I have had before. Am always pleased with these. Lots of them and the plants just keep cranking them out.But they are somewhat small as one would expect.

Two small fruited similar types would be Hansel (purple) and Gretel (white). Slightly larger than little fingers but otherwise really similar. Can't find those plants locally any more.

New for me was Parks Whopper. Wow, lovely italian type eggplants and it just keeps on producing. I bought a six pack but maybe will buy more next season. But I will have them for sure.

So join in. Which are your favorite? Which are disappointments?

Ok I will bite. My trial variety this year is Night Shadow, a large market type similar to Black beauty but much more productive.
I am continuing with Black Shine, an Asian type with superb flavor and excellent early production. Tends to peter out relatively early. a little quicker than Orient Express and better flavor.
Also continuing with Fond May, a long Chinese variety similar to Ping Tung Long, but more uniform and productive. A hard flesh variety that holds for weeks with out shriveling.

Last year my test variety was Black Knight, performed well

Over the years I have grown Black Beauty, Green Goddess, Baluroi, Casper, Classic, Cloud Nine, Edna, Epic, Itchiban, Long Ship, Money Maker #2, Nubia, Orient Express, Slim Jim, Twilight, Vittoria. They are in the database.

Only real disapointments were Slim Jim. (just too small for my uses) and Long Ship (Just too skinny, 12 inch long eggplant with a 1 inch diameter just does not do it for me.)

Excellent information in your report.

Honestly I have been looking for much more production in my Italian Purple Eggplants.

Classic and Black Beauty don't produce much so I was thrilled with the Park's Whopper Eggplants this year. Big improvement.

Now with your input I have more larger fruited purple eggplants to check into.

Parks Whopper eggplants. I know I could leave them to get much larger.




Little Fingers

I'm growing Fairy Tale for about the third year. I am not a huge eggplant fan, but love these little ones to grill. The plants do well in containers and are SO prolific. I also like to smoke them and make a smoked eggplant/yogurt dip. It freezes well, too so a good way to preserve our extra harvest.

I'm also growing Ping Tung Long for the first time this year--the plant is huge and healthy, but no fruit yet. That concerns me a bit......

I am growing Black Beauty again, I always get enough from 3 plants to meet my needs and half the county Well, this year I have 5 of these, and one patio egg plant just for kicks. The patio plant has some very small ones coming on it. The others are just blooming now. I was late planting this year. I don't know why I have so many plants, I must have been hungry for them when I bought the plants.

mom2goldens said:I'm growing Fairy Tale for about the third year. I am not a huge eggplant fan, but love these little ones to grill. The plants do well in containers and are SO prolific. I also like to smoke them and make a smoked eggplant/yogurt dip. It freezes well, too so a good way to preserve our extra harvest.

I'm also growing Ping Tung Long for the first time this year--the plant is huge and healthy, but no fruit yet. That concerns me a bit......

I have already harvested eggplants off my Ping Tung Long so I agree that it is unusual not to have fruit set already.

I LOVE Fairy Tale. just love it. Can't find plants locally so I don't have it this year. Perfect beautiful nice sized eggplants and they just keep on coming no matter how much you pick.

tveguy3 said:I am growing Black Beauty again, I always get enough from 3 plants to meet my needs and half the county Well, this year I have 5 of these, and one patio egg plant just for kicks. The patio plant has some very small ones coming on it. The others are just blooming now. I was late planting this year. I don't know why I have so many plants, I must have been hungry for them when I bought the plants.

Tom, you sure have better luck with the Black Beauty than I did. Like everything else I grow I need abundant production from my eggplants. If I don't get that then I look for another variety to grow.

So as I was harvesting eggplant today, I actually did find a Ping Tung Long that was ready to harvest.

We are smoking a chicken tonight, so I'm going to smoke up a bunch of my eggplant for a eggplant/yogurt dip I make.

It's so hot here today, it's just miserable to be outside. Got my watering and garden walk done early today

mom2goldens said:So as I was harvesting eggplant today, I actually did find a Ping Tung Long that was ready to harvest.

We are smoking a chicken tonight, so I'm going to smoke up a bunch of my eggplant for a eggplant/yogurt dip I make.

It's so hot here today, it's just miserable to be outside. Got my watering and garden walk done early today

So at least you do have an eggplant. Those fruits are good at hiding. Mine are in an eggplant jungle.

My eggplant are pretty jungle-like also, although I've learned that staking them helps immensely. The fairy tale plants have slightly smaller leaves than the Ping Tung, and that makes it much easier to find the fruit. I have 3 eggplant and 3 peppers in an Earthbox. That is the recommended planting, and they've done well that way the past few years (although the foliage is pretty dense). Only change I made this year was to grow one less eggplant and one more pepper.

mom2goldens said:My eggplant are pretty jungle-like also, although I've learned that staking them helps immensely. The fairy tale plants have slightly smaller leaves than the Ping Tung, and that makes it much easier to find the fruit. I have 3 eggplant and 3 peppers in an Earthbox. That is the recommended planting, and they've done well that way the past few years (although the foliage is pretty dense). Only change I made this year was to grow one less eggplant and one more pepper.

I don't think the eggplant mind the foliage jungle. Mine are a foliage jungle and they seem to be thriving. I do water them a lot.

That's the nice part about the earthboxes--they have fairly large water reservoirs and wicks up through the potting mix. I have drip irrigation set up on each box, and a timer to run into each of the fill-tubes every day for 15 minutes. When the tomato plants get large, watering down a fill-tube gets challenging, so the drip irrigation set up is really handy.

mom2goldens said:That's the nice part about the earthboxes--they have fairly large water reservoirs and wicks up through the potting mix. I have drip irrigation set up on each box, and a timer to run into each of the fill-tubes every day for 15 minutes. When the tomato plants get large, watering down a fill-tube gets challenging, so the drip irrigation set up is really handy.

Sounds like a good system.

Mom2goldens,

Please post your smoked eggplant/yogurt dip recipe!

I'm growing Gretels again. It's an Asian hybrid, just enough for me to keep up with. Although, next season I'll add either a Beatrice or try the Black Shine or Park's Whopper mentioned above to get a larger size for meaty recipes.

The Gretels are VERY prolific, growing to 5-6" in only 3-4 days after the bloom. My plants were petering out after all the rain and humidity we've had here in Houston, so, I took a calculated risk. I harvested EVERY fruit off the plants, gave them a good dose of Triple 13, and watered them in well. After about one week, they were full of new blooms and have started cranking out a whole second crop.

The skins on this fruit are tender enough that you don't have to peel them, if they are harvested between 4-6" long. I've learned to eyeball when they're just about at peak. Generally, in that 4-6" length, with some "heft" to the individual fruit. Some get to that length, but are skinny and lightweight. These I leave alone until they get some "heft," and it doesn't seem to affect the taste, although the skin gets a tiny bit chewier.

Gretel has a black counterpart called (you guessed it) HANSEL! I grew them together the first season, and I much prefer the Gretels for my uses. Nothing wrong with Hansel. The characteristics are just a bit different. Hansel fills out more than Gretels at their peak, and the skins are much tougher from the beginning. I don't relish having to peel the Hansels, so, I stick with the Gretels. Although, Hansel would make a fine grilling veggie, if just split down the middle. I generally just cut Gretels into 1" coins for my recipes. She cooks up very quickly!

Heeeeeeeeeeeeeere's Gretel!




Observation: The Gretels in my patented Earthboxes (one each, in 3 EBs) have consistently lagged behind in production and, the fruits have remained smaller. The EBs get fed on a regular basis, but, the plants aren't as productive as the ones in the ground...

Rita,
Thanks for starting some dedicated veggie threads. Makes it soooooooooo much better to compare in a specific category for quick reference!

Hugs!

The recipe below is one that being discussed on another website I frequent. I fully intend on trying this recipe, possibly this weekend. I'll post a follow-up report. LMK if you try it, too!

Eggplant Beignets

3 cups boiled and mashed #Eggplant
Let cool
Add:
►1/2 cup sugar
►3 tablespoons Vanilla
►2 cups Self-rising flour

Mix above ingredients, then add 2 eggs, and mix by hand
Heat oil in a non-stick frying pan.
Drop mixture by the spoonful into the frying pan, and fry until golden brown on both sides.

Optional: Sprinkle with powdered Sugar

Gymgirl said:

I'm growing Gretels again. It's an Asian hybrid, just enough for me to keep up with. Although, next season I'll add either a Beatrice or try the Black Shine or Park's Whopper mentioned above to get a larger size for meaty recipes.

The Gretels are VERY prolific, growing to 5-6" in only 3-4 days after the bloom. My plants were petering out after all the rain and humidity we've had here in Houston, so, I took a calculated risk. I harvested EVERY fruit off the plants, gave them a good dose of Triple 13, and watered them in well. After about one week, they were full of new blooms and have started cranking out a whole second crop.

The skins on this fruit are tender enough that you don't have to peel them, if they are harvested between 4-6" long. I've learned to eyeball when they're just about at peak. Generally, in that 4-6" length, with some "heft" to the individual fruit. Some get to that length, but are skinny and lightweight. These I leave alone until they get some "heft," and it doesn't seem to affect the taste, although the skin gets a tiny bit chewier.

Gretel has a black counterpart called (you guessed it) HANSEL! I grew them together the first season, and I much prefer the Gretels for my uses. Nothing wrong with Hansel. The characteristics are just a bit different. Hansel fills out more than Gretels at their peak, and the skins are much tougher from the beginning. I don't relish having to peel the Hansels, so, I stick with the Gretels. Although, Hansel would make a fine grilling veggie, if just split down the middle. I generally just cut Gretels into 1" coins for my recipes. She cooks up very quickly!

Heeeeeeeeeeeeeere's Gretel!

• Eggplant (Solanum melongena 'Gretel')
• Uploaded by Gymgirl

Observation: The Gretels in my patented Earthboxes (one each, in 3 EBs) have consistently lagged behind in production and, the fruits have remained smaller. The EBs get fed on a regular basis, but, the plants aren't as productive as the ones in the ground...

I really recommend those Parks Whoppers for the larger Italian Size fruit like you might get in the Supermarket.

Anyway, mainly my point is I loved reading your report on your Hansel and Gretel Eggplants. I heartily agree on them both being superb. One year (was it two or three years ago?) I was lucky enough to find plants locally and bought both. Yes, Gretel is the better of the two but that is really being nit picky for me as I loved both. Really was displeased that no one locally carried plants these past few years.

I really would love to grow both again and I might have to resort to buying seed and starting my own plants.

Gymgirl said:

Heeeeeeeeeeeeeere's Gretel!

• Eggplant (Solanum melongena 'Gretel')
• Uploaded by Gymgirl

Observation: The Gretels in my patented Earthboxes (one each, in 3 EBs) have consistently lagged behind in production and, the fruits have remained smaller. The EBs get fed on a regular basis, but, the plants aren't as productive as the ones in the ground...

Just look at that harvest. Wow, all those lovely white eggplants.

I will have to take pictures of a white eggplant I have called Snowy. I am tired of waiting for those fruits to turn white. They have a greenish tint and that green tinge just stays no matter how big the eggplants get. They don't get white like the other whites do.

I don't like it and will not be growing it again next season.