Thai Aubergines

[unclefudgly]

I planted 4 varieties of aubergines this year, 1 european and 3 thai types, pea, apple and ping tung. Hope i get something from at least one of them, will be sticking them in the polytunnel in a couple of weeks, or is that too early do you think?

[smallblueplanet]

Ping tung (long) is one of our faves, you should get a good crop from that. When we tried the smaller (egg-sized) round thai aubs we got zilch ripe ones, they just didn't want to grow even though they'd fruited. Threw the rest of the seeds away!

I'd say even in a polytunnel its too early - how big are they? They want high temps & humidity. We don't plant ours out into an unheated greenhouse until mid May.

[unclefudgly]

Thanks SBP... I've only just germinated them so I guess I can keep them indoors until the end of April if I pot them on. I have a few more varieties I bought in Thailand last year so will experiment and let you know.

[smallblueplanet]

Look forward to seeing pictures if you get fruit.

[Ader1]

I'd say even in a polytunnel its too early - how big are they? They want high temps & humidity. We don't plant ours out into an unheated greenhouse until mid May.

OK....interesting. I was thinking of starting a new thread but I'll ask here for now. This is my question. I like growing some plants which aren't native such as these Thai Aubergines but haven't been successfully. I did get some success growing both Thai Sweet Basil and Holy Basil. I love Thai Curries. ;-) Anyway, is principle, is it possible to grow anything anywhere as long as you can replicate conditions such as heat and humidity....and maybe light? Do people do this in the UK? Thanks.

[rana]

Given that you can replicate the natural conditions you could grow plants on the moon. With the Thai pea aubergines I have had the same lack of success as Smallblueplanet.

[Ader1]

Given that you can replicate the natural conditions you could grow plants on the moon. With the Thai pea aubergines I have had the same lack of success as Smallblueplanet.

So there must be something which you aren't replicating?

[smallblueplanet]

In the case of our Thai 'egg-sized/shaped' aubergines I imagine that obviously we weren't replicating the daylight hours and the temperatures/humidity required.

We got the plants to grow well but the fruit never got near egg-size and stopped growing even though other aubergines nearby were fruiting happily. Dug them out to make space before the end of the season as the greenhouse has limited space and we don't want to waste it.

[unclefudgly]

My Makheua Thai Pea Aubergines have finally germinated after nearly a month. Ping Tung are nearly 4" high but the round green failed first sowing so did them again a couple of weeks ago in the polytunnel and they seem to be working this time.