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......
tveguy3 said:I am growing Black Beauty again, I always get enough from 3 plants to meet my needs and half the countyWell, 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: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: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: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.
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!
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- Eggplant (Solanum melongena 'Gretel')
- Uploaded by Gymgirl
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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...
Gymgirl said:
Heeeeeeeeeeeeeere's Gretel!
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- 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...