how does your aubergine grow?

[jrricko]

I have similar problems with my aubergines. Only one of my plants has fruit growing on it. It's growing on the main stem and it's huge, it looks more like a brown/purple pumpkin than an aubergine. I'm not convinced it will ever be edible when it (eventually) ripens. I read in GYO that your supposed to prevent aubergines growing on the stem, is that because you get one huge fruit rather than several on the side shoots? It's probably too late this year but I'll know for next year...

[Alison]

Have been trying off and on for two or three years to grow aubergines, several different types but the only ones I've managed to get to fruit were bambino (I think) which produced about half a dozen mini fruits before autumn closed in. Can't remember what type I have this year, the plants seem healthy enough and the 2 in the greenhouse have had a few flowers (which I've done the paintbrush fertilisation trick on) but no sign of any fruit and the one in a pot in the garden isn't even that advanced - mind you it was just a spare plant I couldn't bear to throw away (it's like murdering your children!). The greenhouse is unheated at this time of year, am I just keeping them too cold or perhaps picking the wrong varieties for the north Cheshire climate?

[Alison]

Now that this year is getting on a bit I'm getting excited at the thought of next year's harvest (wishing my life away!). Had a bad year with aubergenes (nice growth, fair few flowers but no sign of fruit) so thought I'd go for different varieties next year. Like the idea of the Ichiban and Applegreen but can't find any seeds for the Applegreen ones. Can you remember where you got your seeds from Smallblueplanet? Always keen to try some of the less common types.

Thanks.

[Alice]

As Before SBP, great aubs. As before here, absolutely no success. The plants did set fruit (very small) then just withered and died. It's been a great summer here so don't think we can blame the weather. Will give it another go next year (ever the optimist). Again, congrats and well done on the aubs. If you can think of anything that makes the difference, do share it with us.

[JazzDuke]

with a tiny plastic 'greenhouse' and only room for a couple of pots I'm growing 'Mini Finger' and they've been excellent, small but I've harvested about two fruits a week for the last month or so and still they come.

Will try and grow some bigger but not too big ones next year. Black Beauty and Moneymaker seem very common. I saw a nice, not too large, purple/white stripey one in a catalogue.

[Alice]

Thanks for that Jazzduke. Have made a note of the variety and will give it a go along with anything else anybody wants to recommend. I just have to master this. Why will the tomatoes, cucumbers and peppers do fine, but no aubs. GRRRRRRRR!!!!

[JazzDuke]

I had no problem with germination except the very first fruit on each plant never really came to much but other than that I was most impressed as a novice at first attempt. Also the way they came along nicely spaced out is a bonus.

[smallblueplanet]

Alison, can't really understand why you've had no aub success - only can say what we did...

When we were in Derbyshire we tried growing them in a lean-to conservatory in 10/12" pots, got reasonable plants and flowers but almost no fruit - might have had an applegreen or two.

Here in Wiltshire we have our first greenhouse, we planted direct into the border (about end of May, germinated well before and/or cheated with a garden centre grown one). We also planted some in pots in the greenhouse this year.

The plants in the greenhouse were really quite good at flowering and fruiting - the 1st year we bought a plant from the GC, a variety called 'Blackbell f1' (a variety used by market gardeners) and it gave a good yield of purple egg-shaped fruits off one plant. Couldn't find any seeds for it though.

So next we tried 'Diamond' & Applegreen - not a very good yield from Diamond, but Applegreen is good at being relatively early with lots of small green fruit carrying on quite late/cold.

This year we grew Ichiban, thai long green & black beauty in the greenhouse border and ping tung long and applegreen in pots. The Ichiban are great 3 or 4 fruits growing at a time, good taste. The thai long green have multiple clusters of fruit with a milder taste. The black beauty plant (from the garden centre for an early start) gave about 6 or 7 fruits early on, but has nearly stopped now. The ping tung long has grown 2/3 fruits and the applegreen was starting to do really well but we lost it to wet/mould, I think the pot drainage was poor!

Aubs need really hot weather at least 21c to be growing fruit. We keep the green house door shut if the temp drops but most of the days in summer its open to allow pollination (and the top vent is always open).

Its difficult to say why you've got plants/flowers and no fruit - we've had similar situations and all that is different between then (Derbyshire) and now is temperature and being grown in the ground, they can be quite big plants.

I got our applegreen seeds from 'Dave's Seeds' (in the USA - very helpful & friendly) off ebay.co.uk - search on ebay (or even google) for eggplants!

Dave's Seeds

only $1.39 p&p for however many pkts.

Not listing applegreen atm - try emailing him, as its a bit early maybe.

I also got the Ichiban, ping tung long and thai long green from there. Also the Cubanelle pepper seeds which gave huge numbers of 'mediterranean-type' green peppers and Matina tomato seeds - some of the tastiest toms I've eaten, also early to fruit & lots of them.

[smallblueplanet]

Oh and here's a couple of photos for comparison

-thai long green (in border)

- ping tung long (in pot)

- cubanelle

[SueA]

Hi SBP, I'd have thought those 'Cubanelle' were green peppers if you hadn't said they were aubs, they look really unusual- do they taste the same as the purple ones? MissyMoo has posted some called 'Mini Rossana' on another thread & says she has got about 50 aubs from 3 plants so might give those a try sometime.

[smallblueplanet]

Sorry Sue I've confused you, yes they're green peppers - just put the photo in cos they were also from Dave's Seeds like the aubs and I was impressed by the number of peppers per plant (we also tried California Wonder which were fab smelling/tasting green 'blocky-type' peppers, but only got two off one plant )

[SueA]

Definitely me being a bit dopey SBP, I hadn't read your previous post properly!
They all look like good quality seeds might give 'Dave' a visit next time I'm buying.

[eddie]

like most of you i grew the standard black aub,s loads of flowers and no fruits .flowers just seem to rot on plant ,this year tried the small red aub,s forgotton the name of them but have got loads of nice red fruits on plant ripening up nicley did,nt do anything different to last year so its a puzzle why some varietys act different ,when given the same conditions i,m no garden expert but good to chat tho,

[Filbert]

Grew or tried to grow large purple aubergines last year and ended up with three smallish ones. Thought I would try something different this year so chose fairytale. Lots of flowers most of which set producing purple and white stripey aubergines - quite unusual and pretty. The only problem is they are all really small. Should have taken some off early in the season I suppose but was just so chuffed they were growing.