Cultivation of eggplants has always been considered by gardeners as a kind of test of skill. Heat-loving culture is capricious, picky, requires constant care.
However, the emergence of new varieties and hybrids, modern methods of agricultural technology made it possible to grow eggplant without leaving the apartment.
Homemade eggplant varieties
- Diamond. Glossy, with dense greenish pulp, without bitterness.
- Albatross. Treats mid season.
- Afghan red. Ultrafast. Maturing term - 100 days from the first shoots. Forms brushes of round, red, small fruits.
- A-163 Delicacy. Early variety. The first fruits are removed after 115-125 days after germination.
- Dwarf Early 921. Multiple variety.
- Lolita. Hybrid. Recommended for extended and winter-spring cultivation.
- Maikop -15. Dining destination, medium early.
- Solaris. Resistant to temperature extremes. Good fruit tying.
- Universal 6. Fruits are pear-shaped with dark, almost black skin.
Two ways to grow on the window
Rearing
- Autumn transplanted grown in open ground, low bushes on which the ovary remained in pots of not less than 5 liters and resettled them in an apartment.
- The soil in the pot ram toward the walls. Well watered. Cut off the extra stems and leaves, put on a sill protected from drafts.
- Until the plant takes root, it is regularly sprayed and watered.
- Next, cultivated as room eggplant grown seedlings.
- Growing continue 1-3 months.
Growing eggplant seeds from home
Seed preparation:
- Hold culling dried, damaged, small seeds.
- For own seed fund select fully ripened soft fruits. Cut into several longitudinal parts. A tablespoon of carefully removed the seeds. Dried.
- Uncoated Seeds must be sanitized. To do this, prepare a weak solution of potassium permanganate and pickle seeds in it for 20-30 minutes.
- Wrap the seed in a damp cloth.. Leave to germinate in a warm place.
Important! Be careful when buying seeds in the store. Check expiration date. Remember that seeds obtained from their fruits remain viable for no more than four years.
The soil. Prepare a soil for planting. Garden land, riding and lowland peat are mixed in equal shares. The mixture is filled with prepared pots, cups. Poured over a pink solution of potassium permanganate. Leave the earth to settle and thicken.
Important! The seedling of this solanaceous culture develops slowly. Calculate landing dates based on the fact that fruits ripen completely in 130-160 days after germination.
Seedling. At a temperature of + 20-25 ° C in advance, the germinated seeds sprout in 3-5 days, unsprouted - in 2 weeks. At lower temperatures, the time of emergence of shoots is increased by 10-15 days.
At emergence of shoots pots put on window sillsfacing south, south-west. The windows are insulated. Under the pots enclose the board, a plastic sheet.
They monitor the humidity and temperature of the soil in pots. Watered with warm water.. When too wet, cold soil seedlings rot. With a lack of moisture withers, dries.
Eggplant afraid of drafts, even a light breeze leads to the death of seedlings. When growing eggplants near heating batteries, they increase the humidity of the air by spraying the bushes from a spray bottle.
If the eggplants were sown in the box, dive.
After the appearance of cotyledon leaves, sprouts with a clod of earth are carefully transplanted into large containers. If the root system is damaged when picking, support the plants with a growth stimulator of Kornevin.
For active growth and laying of ovaries eggplants need to receive light and heat 12-14 hours a day.
Special lamps for doshochivaniya seedlings are fixed at a height of 15-40 cm from the plants.
From January to March, the seedlings are closed with a mini greenhouse. To do this, wire or rails construct a frame and wrapped it with a thick film. In the greenhouse, the temperature is kept at + 20-25 ° С in sunny weather, + 17 ° С on cloudy days, + 14-17 ° С at night.
Eggplant seedlings feed once in 7-10 days any liquid universal fertilizer based on biohumus or diluted bird droppings, mullein, semi-decomposed compost. The last time before transplanting make mineral full fertilizer. Plant nutrition is accompanied by abundant watering.
Pass eggplant seedlings at the age of 70-80 days after the pots are almost completely filled with overgrown roots. For autumn seedlings this is the first decade of March. Select bushes with at least 8 true leaves and 2-3 buds.
Pots for constant growth should be a diameter of 20-25 cm, the depth of the cassettes, boxes 15-20 cm.
Soil for growing adult eggplants are mixed from equal parts of sand, peat, sod land. At the bottom of each tank lay out 5-7 granules of complex fertilizer of the “Ispolin” type, superphosphate to activate the ovaries.
In cassettes, pots, buckets, eggplant bushes are planted in the center, and 25-30 cm are left in the boxes between the plants.
With an insufficient amount of land or in the case of planting a tall variety, the growth of seedlings stops, the roots become brown.
In this case, the plant is transshipped again in containers by 2-3 cm superior to the previous ones, organic fertilizer for tomatoes and eggplant, for example, Senor Tomato are added to the ground.
Waiting for the harvest
The eggplants transplanted to the main dish are exposed on the windows in the second decade of February.
Regularly watered. Starting from May - every day. The soil should always remain wet.
With a lack of moisture the plants will begin to throw flower buds and ovaries, taste will deteriorate, bitterness will appear.
With too rapid growth, the tops of the lateral stems are pinched. During flowering, pour 2-3 cm of fresh soil to the stems. When the ovaries begin to form, the procedure is repeated.
Artificial pollination is carried out if the fruits are tied inactively, slowly.. Flowering plants gently shake, tap on the stem with your fingers or transfer pollen from one flower to another with a brush.
Fruits for better safety cut off with a knife. 20-35 fruits weighing 50-150 g are harvested from the bush. If they want to get large fruits of eggplants, they remove part of the ovaries, leaving 4-6 eggplants on one plant.
How to grow eggplants on the balcony:
- On unheated balconies, loggias, verandas grown up eggplants endure in early May.
- The room temperature should be within + 23-28 ° C.
- They provide such an arrangement of plants so that you can freely pass between the bushes without touching the leaves and thorns.
Eggplant in a private house
Owners of private houses have the opportunity to grow eggplants all year round in heated greenhouses, getting decent yields.
- Seedlings of plants are grown on the windowsill.
- Planting eggplants in a greenhouse at a permanent place, seedlings are planted in wells of medium depth, shed with warm water, mulched with a thin layer of peat.
- Leave 50 cm between the bushes.
- Eggplants in the greenhouse need rich organic matter, light soil. Agronomists recommend mixing ordinary garden soil, rotted compost, peat, manure, loosening additives. Before planting, the soil is heated to + 18-20 ° C.
- Next to eggplants do not plant other crops. The exception is the small varieties of tomatoes.
- In the greenhouse maintain a constant microclimate: daytime temperature +28, at night + 12 ° С. Rising temperatures above + 35 ° C is detrimental to the culture.
- Do not allow humidity drops. To eliminate excess moisture, carefully ventilate the greenhouse after each watering.
- The first time after transplantation, the eggplants are watered on the fifth day, then daily. Watering is carried out in the morning, under the root, with water with a temperature not lower than + 25 ° C.
- Regularly superficially loosened, spud the root leg.
Practical tips for growing eggplant in the greenhouse:
Top dressing in greenhouse conditions
When growing eggplant greenhouse fertilizer applied at least 3-5 times per season. First, phosphorus-potassium, in the period of active fruiting nitrogen-phosphate.
The first feeding is carried out in 2-3 weeks after transplanting the seedlings, when the roots take root, they will begin to actively absorb nutrients.
If the plants do not bloom well, they are sprayed with a solution of boric acid. To do this, 5 grams of dry matter is dissolved in 5 liters of hot water.
With excessive foliation, excessive build-up of green mass make potassium compounds. Sickly, weak bushes are supported by preparations with a high content of nitrogen.
Diseases
Eggplant cultivated at home and winter greenhouses susceptible to fusarium wilt, blight, leaf mosaic.
Treatment is traditional:
- For the treatment of phytophthora eggplant bushes in the evening sprayed with copper-containing preparations, for example, a solution of blue vitriol (0.2%).
- For the prevention of mosaic, spotting, wipe the eggplant leaves with diluted skim milk.
Pests
When growing eggplant at home Whitefly, spider mite, orange aphid. To get rid of insects, plants are treated with neonicotodine insecticides Aktara, Konfidor, Mospilan, which have a systemic effect on plants - penetrate inside, plants accumulate in the juice, feeding on which adults and larvae die.
Garlic extract helps from spider mite. One glass of crushed garlic is diluted in 10 liters of water. Spray the affected leaves twice a week.
Growing eggplants at home, in an apartment, on a balcony is an interesting, but troublesome and unproductive occupation. Greater harvest, at comparable costs, is obtained by growing and winter cultivation of eggplants in heated greenhouses in home gardens.
Useful materials
Read other articles about growing and caring for eggplant seedlings:
- Different methods of cultivation: in peat tablets, in a snail and even on toilet paper.
- All features of sowing according to the lunar calendar.
- Features of cultivation in different regions of Russia: in the Urals, in Siberia and the Moscow region.
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