Aubergines 2010

[Kirsten]

Hi everyone!

Just wanted to kick off the 2010 season with my aubergine (you Brits have converted me) seedlings :)

http://i49.tinypic.com/2w23i3n.jpg

It's super early still, but I want mine to be big and strong by the time I can transplant them out this year - last year didn't go so well and they were still only about two inches tall by transplant time, and wobbly. I think I neglected them too much in favor of my tomatoes! This year I plan on spoiling them as much as I did the toms and hopefully they'll reward me in kind with lots of beautiful, glossy purple aubergines... these are the Asian variety :)

[Riz]

nice K

real early huh :)



ill be keeping my eye on this thread, and yes aubergines, and now we want you to start learning the English accent too :)


i still cant get over the fact its 2010

[Kirsten]

Oh don't remind me! I'm supposed to graduate in 2010 :eek:

Here are some of the oldest seedlings, exactly three weeks post-planting. They were slow germinators, but that was probably due to the temperature (we've got snow outside right now)

http://i50.tinypic.com/344bnua.jpg

[Kirsten]

And I just realized that I haven't changed my status (the words beside my avatar) in a year.... now it's true again!

[Kirsten]

I've got eight healthy seedlings in total - out of 24 I think about 12-13 germinated. I lost a few and had to cull a few.

[Riz]

nice K

looks like your aubergines are in for a long season :).. i am getting itchy fingers though every time i pop into this thread :)

so will you be growing all 12 of them.. and will you be growing in pots or in the dirt !!!?

[Kirsten]

Riz - just 8 of them left now :( one of them struggled mightily with the seed coat for about a week before giving up...

Anyway, the healthy ones - they've almost all started putting out their first pair of true leaves! I'm so excited :)

http://i50.tinypic.com/25s9cly.jpg

[Kirsten]

3 weeks, photo from last Sunday

http://i48.tinypic.com/jpapue.jpg

[Tania]

I read about aubergine and you did the right thing sowing them so early because they need, after my book, around 130 days until are able to have aubergine.

[Riz]

nice K..

how is the light working out for ya !!?

[Kirsten]

Every Sunday I take pictures of everything :) Here they are as of about 10 minutes ago -

http://i49.tinypic.com/2uek4fr.jpg

Light + greenhouse is working out great! I don't know how I'll fit the tomatoes under there too, though, when the time comes... maybe get another light/build another one??

[Riz]

they certainly have started to perk up K....

ya know you can buy all the light hardware separately to like the ballast/reflector/bulb might work out cheaper, try asking in a hydroponics store in your area or online, they might have a sale on and you may be able to pick up a decent light with high wattage at a reasonable price :)

[Kirsten]

I wish I could! Sadly I don't have a car (I wish we had decent public transportation here like y'all do in London) so getting around is quite difficult :(

On a worse note... I noticed today that four of the plants seem to have developed some odd drying out on the leaves that does not look good. I'm split on whether I should hack off the affected leaves because there are so few of them to start with :(

[Tania]

Be careful at water and light. I had this issue when i used cold water straight from the sink

[Kirsten]

Tania,
Did you find that you were using too much or too little water/light/what caused it? I've been using room temperature water, but I woke up today to find that several more are looking terrible. :(

[Riz]

K

what's your watering regime, how often do you water them ? too much watering can cause it IMHO

[Kirsten]

to be honest I thought I'd not been watering enough... I'd just been lightly dripping some in to keep the top layer of soil moist, but yesterday I gave them a good soak. Maybe I've been giving them too much all long? I went ahead and chopped off all the affected leaves, and now they look terrible :(

[Tania]

The eggplant needs water, may be give them less. The spots could be some white fungus also. Keep them under observation and if other spots will appear it means its a disease and have nothing to do with light or water.
In my case it was a cold water over a warm soil (in summer).

[Riz]

K

i am using the process of elimination here...

what about the soil/compost you are using, is it old or fresh and new ? couldn't find much info on aubergine seedlings, but i read that some people bottom feed the seedlings.. as in just leave the pots in a dish of water and let the soil soak the water up !!!!

but i have never tried that, i just watered then regularly like you have been doing.......

[Kirsten]

I actually have no idea on the soil. We have a huge greenhouse on campus here that pretty much gives me whatever soil I want, and so far I've not had any problems with it (the other plants planted in this have been just fine), and I mixed in some partially decomposed compost in the bottoms - maybe that's the problem? I'll be letting my next batch of compost decompose 100% before I add it.

And I think you're right - I'll probably switch to bottom waterings from now on, especially since the roots have gotten so deep and top watering won't get to the bottom. I've been checking on them since I hacked off all the diseased portions and as of today I don't see any diseased areas, so that's good :)

Thanks a lot for your help! I really appreciate it :)

[Riz]

well K its sunday and we need a update on the seedlings !!!!

[Kirsten]

you're right! Sorry I was in Boston all weekend and it was too dark to take a nice picture by the time I got back, so I had to take it this morning... here we are:

http://i49.tinypic.com/34h8777.jpg

I culled off a few more leaves due to the weird disease, but so far everything looks to be ok and the plants that were clipped last week have recovered nicely. Keeping my fingers crossed!

[Riz]

they look much better k :)

spreading out nicely...

[Kirsten]

I'm at home for spring break - going back tomorrow without my eggplant babies :( I couldn't find anyone I trusted enough to take care of them over break so I took them home with me, and I decided to just leave them here. Hopefully my parents can do a good job of finishing my seedling-rearing job, and I can go back to start my tomatoes :) My mom said that the eggplants have now graduated to kindergarten (what do you Brits call it? wikipedia says nursery school?), and I am back to putting another set of plants through daycare. :)

[Kirsten]

My gosh, I'm a failure - before I left this morning I took the picture...and then left my camera at home. My parents are going to have to mail it over :(

[Kirsten]

Here's the last eggplant pic I took before I left - at 57 days. Getting big!

http://i42.tinypic.com/1pgsy1.jpg

[Tania]

I like how healthy are the leaves. They look very good. I read in the book when the seedling has 6-8 true leaves, then you should plant them out in the garden . You will plant them in the garden or will leave them in pots?

[Kirsten]

They will go out in the garden :) Hopefully in another month or so, it's already 55+ degrees F here at night but I'm not sure if that will hold all through April!

[~Obsidian~]

Here's the last eggplant pic I took before I left - at 57 days. Getting big!

http://i42.tinypic.com/1pgsy1.jpg

Masha'Allah Kirsten, box of goodies :D

[Riz]

An update on the aubergine seedlings please !!!? :)

[Kirsten]

Mom says they were planted out about two weeks ago and are thriving :) I'll be home next week!!

[Kirsten]

I took this picture of my eggplants only a few days ago - and I went out today and one of them was almost eaten to the ground :eek: I'm not sure what's going on there!

http://i45.tinypic.com/muiblh.jpg

[Riz]

hmm did you see any slime trails !!!?

[Riz]

what's the latest on the aubergines K.. you lost them all ? or have they recovered !?

[Kirsten]

Ah I can't believe I haven't updated them in so long!

The one that got almost chomped to the ground is sending out side shoots - I'm not sure how that's going to fare, but it's still alive, so we'll just wait and see.

Two days ago we got a report that "large hail" was on its way :eek: I ran downstairs and yelled at my dad to hurry up and set up the net over the eggplants that he's been meaning to for weeks now, but he was busy watching the world cup and had no intention of budging from in front of the TV for the next few hours :down: I didn't even know where any of the net equipment was and Dad wasn't speaking beyond things like "GOAL!", "HOW COULD YOU MISS THAT", "YELLOW CARD", etc... :mad::rolleyes: so instead I ran around covering them with random stupid items... trash cans, empty flower pots, old chairs... the garden looked terrible indeed... and the hail never came!

Anyway, the eggplants are now doing fine. Two of them have opened up pretty purple flowers already, and one of them is being overly ambitious and trying to hold up NINE flowers at once!

[Kirsten]

I'M SO EXCITED!!!!!!!!!

http://i47.tinypic.com/27wsn7a.jpg

[Tania]

The snails eat too from my cauliflowers and cabbages. They are more damaged than your plants. The little aubergines are really very cute :p

[Kirsten]

The snails eat too from my cauliflowers and cabbages. They are more damaged than your plants. The little aubergines are really very cute :p

Aren't they? I always want to pick one and play with it! My dad always says (I don't really believe him though) that if you touch it it won't grow anymore! :eek:

Some more recent pictures:

http://thelungsofourcity.files.wordpress.com/2010/07/eggplanttemp.jpg

http://thelungsofourcity.files.wordpress.com/2010/07/eggplantemp2.jpg

[Tania]

Next year i will try it too :) I think its true what your dad says. I never touched them either.

[Riz]

Two days ago we got a report that "large hail" was on its way :eek: I ran downstairs and yelled at my dad to hurry up and set up the net over the eggplants that he's been meaning to for weeks now, but he was busy watching the world cup and had no intention of budging from in front of the TV for the next few hours :down: I didn't even know where any of the net equipment was and Dad wasn't speaking beyond things like "GOAL!", "HOW COULD YOU MISS THAT", "YELLOW CARD", etc... :mad::rolleyes: so instead I ran around covering them with random stupid items... trash cans, empty flower pots, old chairs... the garden looked terrible indeed... and the hail never came!

Anyway, the eggplants are now doing fine. Two of them have opened up pretty purple flowers already, and one of them is being overly ambitious and trying to hold up NINE flowers at once!

hi K..

i am sure your dad was happy that USA actually won the group stages ahead of England LOL. haha you guys played well against US...


i like these aubergines at first i thought they were purple chilli plants.. they have a awesome purple colour though, will they swell up or are these the finger aubergines!!!?

[Kirsten]

hi K..

i am sure your dad was happy that USA actually won the group stages ahead of England LOL. haha you guys played well against US...


But not against anybody else :mad: I feel so bad for your keeper though!! The poor guy :(

I think we will actually pick two or three of these and eat them tomorrow. I'm still hoping they will swell up a little wider, but it doesn't look like that will happen. And I do actually have purple chili plants LOL will have to post a picture later !

[Kirsten]

Dinner :)

http://i32.tinypic.com/30bhj76.jpg

[rubmanhayat]

Starting to get some Egg Plant.

[Tania]

They are soo cute.

[rubmanhayat]

They are gonna be dinner soon :D

[Riz]

how many plants have you got growing???? i hope more than one yaar??? they need lots of warm weather for them to mature so inshallah you will get that next few weeks :)

[rubmanhayat]

:) Just got only one growing. My friend's wife bought it from Home Depot. Didn't start it from seed. We're getting good warm weather this month. We were hit by 110F last week. This week it's 90s. Inshallah they'll harvest some soon.