Thanks to new cold-resistant varieties, eggplant cultivation in open ground has become possible in various regions of Russia. This method of cultivation allows you to get crops, saving on the construction of greenhouse structures. We learn how to plant and grow eggplants without shelter, and how to achieve high yields.
Where can eggplants be grown without shelter?
Eggplant, unlike many other vegetable crops, require special cultivation conditions.
Basic eggplant requirements for growing conditions:
- fertile and loose soil;
- the exception of even short-term frosts;
- temperature minimum at +20 ° C, at lower temperatures, the culture slows down development;
- minimum daylight hours - 12 hours;
- regular watering - with a lack of moisture, the bushes drop ovaries and buds.
In Siberia
In Siberia, it is almost impossible to grow ordinary eggplant varieties intended for regions with a warm climate. But, thanks to selection, hybrids were developed that are characterized by increased resistance to cold and early ripening. Such varieties can be grown not only in the Krasnodar Territory or Crimea, but also in Siberia.
Popular cultivars in the Siberian region:
In the Urals
It is very difficult to grow eggplant in the Urals - the conditions here are completely unfavorable for this culture. But local vegetable growers and gardeners manage to grow varieties and hybrids having a ripening period of up to 95 days.
Varieties suitable for the Urals:
In the Moscow region
In the Moscow region eggplants are grown by seedlings. Planting of seedlings begins no earlier than mid-May, so that spring return frosts will not catch them.
Popular varieties of eggplant for the Moscow region:
Outdoor landing
Eggplant cultivation is possible only in regions with a warm summer long enough for the fruit to ripen.
Eggplants grow well after cabbage, cucumbers, carrots, onions, zucchini, garlic, beans or peas. After potatoes, tomatoes, peppers and physalis, this crop is not recommended to be planted.
Optimal timing
Eggplant seedlings are planted in open ground when the weather is stable and stable.
Conditions for planting seedlings:
- the soil warmed up to +18 ° C;
- stable warm air temperature and exclusion of return frosts.
The best time for planting seedlings in open ground is for temperate regions, early June.
Soil selection and preparation
The most suitable soil for growing eggplant is sandy loam and loamy. They can grow on heavier soils, but only after appropriate preparation.
Preparation of heavy soils for planting eggplant:
- For each square meter of land, add a bucket of humus and peat.
- To improve the structure of the soil, add coarse river sand (3 buckets per 1 sq. M.) To it.
Ground preparation for planting:
- In the autumn, dig the area onto the bayonet of the shovel.
- Fertilize under digging. In autumn, you can use fresh manure - 1 bucket per 1 sq. Km. m, in the spring - only rotted.
- When the snow melts and the soil dries well, loosen it with a rake and level it.
- You can add mineral fertilizers to poor soils. For 1 square. m - 1 tbsp. l superphosphate and potassium sulfate, 1 part of urea, 2 cups of wood ash.
The eggplant planting area is usually prepared in the fall. But if this was not possible, all preparatory measures are transferred to the spring - they are carried out 2-3 weeks before transplanting.
How to choose seeds?
Eggplant seeds are bought in specialized stores or collected independently. The second case is suitable only for varieties, hybrids in this way cannot be propagated.
How to choose seeds in the store:
- By maturity. In a climate favorable for eggplant, you can grow varieties with any ripening period - from early to late ripening. But the farther north, the shorter the ripening period should be. In the northern regions exclusively ripening varieties are grown.
- By type of cultivation. In an adverse climate, eggplants are grown only in greenhouses and greenhouses. When buying seeds, pay attention to information about the method of cultivation - for open ground seeds or for indoor.
- In appearance. The weight, shape, color and size of the fruit can be judged by the photos on the bags with seeds. On sale there are varieties with round and oblong fruits, with white, purple, brown and even orange.
- By the number of seeds in the bag. Different manufacturers pack seeds differently. It happens that in one bag they put only 10 seeds.
- On germination. Before planting, be sure to check the seeds for germination. Wrap a few seeds in wet gauze and hold in warm water for a day. Spread the seeds on the fabric and moisten them regularly. If more than 50% of the seeds hatch in 5 days, the material is suitable for planting.
How to choose seedlings?
It is very difficult to choose high-quality eggplant seedlings - healthy and strong. This culture tolerates transplant worse than others. That is why eggplant should be grown in separate glasses.
Gardeners who do not trust the purchased seedlings grow it themselves. It takes about 70 days, but you can get guaranteed quality planting material.
Signs of quality seedlings:
- thick stem - from 0.5 cm in diameter;
- height - about 20 cm;
- the number of leaves - 7-8 pieces;
- visible nascent accessory shoots;
- flowers are welcome.
Planting eggplant seedlings in open ground
When the seedlings reach the necessary vegetative stage, and the temperature conditions become favorable, it can be planted in the ground.
Transplant procedure:
- Dig holes in prepared beds. The distance between the holes depends on the type of eggplant - for sprawling bushes, the intervals are left longer. On average, the distance between neighboring plants should be 30-40 cm, and between rows - 60 cm.
- Water the wells plentifully. Pour 1 to 3 liters of water into each.
- Place the seedling in the hole with a lump of earth. Try not to damage the roots when transplanting.
- Deepen the seedling and sprinkle it with soil to the first leaves. Compact the soil with your hands and mulch. You can use peat, dry grass, straw.
It is recommended to plant eggplants in a checkerboard pattern - this scheme allows the bushes to grow without obscuring each other.
Planting eggplant in open ground seeds
The main problem in growing eggplants in most regions of Russia is their demand for heat and a long growing season. For ripening, the culture needs from 100 to 160 days. Therefore, sowing eggplant in the ground is grown mainly in the south of the country.
Eggplant seeds are sown in open ground when the weather is stable and stable. Such conditions usually arise no earlier than May 20-30.
Seeds that will be sown in open ground are calibrated, disinfected, and soaked in a growth stimulator. Immediately before sowing, the seeds are kept for 24 hours in purified water.
After preparing the seeds, sow them in the ground:
- In the bed, loosened and prepared for sowing according to all the rules, make furrows with a depth of 4-5 cm.
- Put seeds in the furrows. Put 2-3 seeds together with an interval of 20 cm or more - the distance between adjacent bushes depends on the variety.
- Sprinkle the furrows with soil and pour them through the rain nozzle.
- After a week, when the sprouts appear, pinch the weak, and leave the strong.
How to care for the culture?
Eggplants are demanding of growing conditions, but they do not need special care. It is important to water, feed and protect them from pests in time.
Lighting
Eggplants need a 12-hour daylight. If the lighting is less than 12 hours, the plant slows down growth, does not develop, the fruits do not form.
For more than 12-14 hours, illumination is also not allowed. If the daylight is too long, the eggplants begin to intensively build up green mass, without giving flowers and ovaries. Therefore, at hand there should always be covering material that will help limit the access of light to plants.
Temperature mode
Eggplants need a certain temperature regime for active growth and fruit formation. When the temperature drops below a certain minimum, the development of the plant stops.
Optimum temperatures:
- soil - from +16 to +18 ° C;
- daytime - from +18 to +24 ° C;
- nightly - from +15 to +18 ° C.
Today, manufacturers offer varieties that can grow and develop normally at an average daily air temperature of +15 ° C.
Culture is extremely negatively affected by:
- prolonged drizzle;
- lowering the temperature to +12 ° C - this leads to the dropping of flowers and ovaries.
If the temperature drops below +12 ° C, the plant dies. To protect eggplants from death, during the cold snap, planting is poured with warm water or covered with covering material.
Watering
Eggplant is a moisture-loving crop. Both the development of the plant as a whole and its productivity depend on the correctness of irrigation.
Rules for watering eggplant:
- Plantings are watered only with warm water. In the south, water can be warmed in the sun. In other regions, irrigation water is artificially heated. The optimum water temperature is +25 ° C.
- Eggplant is never watered from above, only under the root. The ingress of water on the leaves negatively affects the health of the plant.
- If eggplant is grown by seedling, then the first time the plants are watered 10-12 days after planting in the ground. In hot and dry weather - after 7-8 days.
- The soil should always be moist. But humidity should not exceed 65-70%. Eggplant roots do not tolerate high soil moisture.
- When the plant enters the phase of flowering and the formation of ovaries, watering becomes more frequent, the amount of water given to the plant increases. The soil should be moistened up to 20 cm deep. Planting is watered every 5-6 days.
Top dressing
Eggplants actively bear fruit, from each bush, depending on the variety, remove from 3 to 6-7 kg. Full fruiting is impossible without regular top dressing. The frequency of top dressing is once every 2-3 weeks.
How to feed eggplant:
- The first feeding. Runs under the root. It is carried out 10 days after transplanting seedlings into the ground. The reference point for feeding is the appearance of the first new leaf on the bush. Introduce nitrogen-containing fertilizer.
For the first top dressing, Kemira, Kristallin, Rastvorin, Effekton are suitable. 30-40 g are taken on a bucket of water. The norm of the solution for one plant is 1-1.5 liters. Instead of these fertilizers, you can add ammophos - they dilute 150 g in a bucket of water. - The second top dressing. It is carried out two weeks after the first feeding. They make a mixture of wood ash and mineral fertilizer - nitroammofoski or nitrofoski. 20-25 g are added to one bush
The second option is an extract from bird droppings. Insist 2-3 kg of litter in a bucket of water. After 2-3 days, the infusion is filtered and diluted in 10-15 liters of warm water. On one bush - 1-1.5 l of solution.
- The third top dressing. In the flowering phase, eggplants are given nitrophos, nitrophos or diammophos - 40 g per 1 sq. m. During this period, plants are sprayed with preparations containing trace elements, and solutions of fermented herbs. Boric acid can also be used for spraying. 2 g of the drug are diluted in 10 l of hot water.
Given the multiple harvesting, it will be useful to support the fruiting of eggplant. After the first or second harvest of fruits, it is recommended to feed the plants with phosphorus-potassium fertilizers.
Weeding
On the beds where eggplant grows, the soil should always be loosened and moist. The formation of crust and the growth of weed vegetation is unacceptable.
Loosen the soil carefully so as not to damage the roots close to the surface of the earth. Loosening is carried out on the second day after watering. At the same time, they perform hilling - they dig up the soil to the stem.
Bushes
Low-growing and dwarf eggplants do not need to form and structure bushes. For other varieties - medium and tall, the formation is carried out when the bushes reach a height of 25-30 cm.
The formation of bushes can not be postponed, since the cutting off of large stepsons injures the plant, can provoke a disease and even death.
How to form bushes:
- Examine the central stem. Remove the stepsons located in the axils of the leaves - until the first bud. In underdeveloped plants, the first bud can be cut off. This procedure contributes to the active development of stems and roots, the formation of flowers and ovaries. Eggplant stepsons grow slowly, so they are cut off once every half a month.
- On early and mid-ripening varieties, forming many ovaries, tear off 20-25% of the flowers. This must be done if the eggplants grow large - weighing from 250 g. A large number of flowers leads to fading and underdevelopment of the fruit.
- Middle and late varieties are usually tall, with a large number of sprawling branches. Form such plants from 1-2 or 3 stems. Leave one ovary on the branches, pinch all the rest, and better, carefully cut with secateurs.
With proper formation, a tall bush has from 5 to 8 large fruits.
Garter
Tall bushes of eggplant are tied to trellises. The trellis method of garter prevents mutual shading of plants.
Features eggplant garter:
- A plant is tied near each branch - this is the most fragile part of the stem, which often breaks under a load of fruits.
- Tapestries are made of twine stretched along the beds in several levels. Fasten the twine to the stakes installed at the beginning and end of the row.
Harvesting and storage
Two matrices of eggplant are distinguished - biological and technical. The first ones are mature, but still tasteless, the second ones are suitable for eating.
Only the ripened fruits are harvested from the eggplant - in a state of technical ripeness, while overripe and unripe ones are not suitable - they are tasteless.
Features of the collection and storage of eggplant:
- Unlike many cultures, it is impossible to pick ripened fruits from eggplants - they will no longer become ripe and tasty.
- Eggplant collection begins 30-40 days after flowering is complete.
- The fruits should become glossy and achieve their varietal growth.
- The fruits are cut with secateurs. After cutting, a stalk about 2 cm long should remain.
- Eggplants do not store for a long time. Shelf life is about a month. They are stored in basements. It is recommended that each fruit be wrapped in paper and folded into boxes. You can also store eggplant in plastic bags.
Under favorable storage conditions and regular bulkheading, fruits can be stored for up to two months.
Pest and Disease Control
Eggplants, most often, suffer from fungal diseases, and their main pest is the Colorado potato beetle. The most effective methods of combating diseases and pests are preventive.
The most common diseases and pests of eggplant:
Diseases / Pests | Symptoms / nature of the lesion | How to fight? |
Blackleg | A fungal disease in which the root neck darkens and is pulled. The plant withers and dies. | There is no cure. Prevention consists in disinfecting the soil with bleach - 200 g are diluted in 10 l of water. Sick plants are torn out and burned. |
Late blight | The fungus affects leaves, stems, fruits - rusty spots with a green border appear on them. | Spraying with a solution of copper sulfate of 0.2% or another copper-containing preparation. |
Black bacterial spotting | Bacteria infect all parts of the plant.Small spots of black color appear on them. | Observe crop rotation, destroy plant debris after harvesting, disinfect the soil. |
Mosaic | The virus causes the appearance of a mosaic color on the leaves. There are yellow spots on the fruits. | Seeds are disinfected by dropping in 20% hydrochloric acid for 30 minutes. Also disinfect all inventory. |
Spider mite | Sucks juices from a plant. The leaves become stained and then dry. Yields are falling. | Spray onion or garlic solution, with the addition of a spoonful of liquid soap. |
Aphid | It feeds on plant juices, located on leaves, stems, flowers. | Spraying with karbofos or celtan. |
Colorado beetle | Larvae eat all parts of the plant. | Plants that repel bugs, for example, marigolds, are planted along the beds. Spray with insecticides. |
Slug | Eat leaves, eat stems and even fruits. | Sprinkle aisles with fluffy lime, tobacco dust or wood ash. |
Spraying with insecticides and fungicides is carried out before flowering and after flowering. During flowering and fruiting processing is prohibited.
Tips from experienced gardeners
To grow many large eggplants, beginners should take a closer look at the secrets of agricultural technology from those who know a lot about growing eggplants.
Helpful hints:
- Between the beds on which the eggplants grow, plant plants that repel insect pests.
- Grow eggplant in warm beds. In the autumn, dig a trench, fill it with waste and sprinkle with earth. In the spring, plant seedlings on a warm nutrient substrate. Such a bed can be used for three years.
- Culture does not tolerate transplant. Do not sow seedlings in large boxes, so as not to dive it. It is better to do without picking - to sow seedlings in separate glasses.
- Eggplant needs constantly moistened soil, which means you can’t do without mulching. As mulch, ordinary grass, straw, sawdust can be used. Mulch will not allow the bed to dry out and reduces water costs.
The best way to grow eggplant in the open field is seedling, it is it that allows you to guaranteed to get a crop. For each region, you need to choose the right time for planting and a variety that can grow in certain weather conditions.
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