LSU AgCenter's Weekly Message

There’s An Eggplant for Just About Everyone

Once we get past mid-May or so, we’re more limited with regard to planting warm-season vegetables. A lot of them don’t produce as well when temperatures are very hot, but eggplants – like okra, southern peas, and sweet potatoes – are exceptions. These can handle our hot summers.

The first eggplant dish I remember liking was eggplant casserole, a popular dish at a well-known local restaurant in Bogalusa. I assume it was made with the oblong purple eggplants with which most of us are familiar. Later, when I lived in North Carolina and often shopped at the State Farmer’s Market, I learned that I liked thinly sliced white eggplants pan fried in olive oil with Italian seasoning and salt. While in grad school in Baton Rouge, my housemate from Thailand grew another type – a small green eggplant – in our backyard.

Clearly, eggplants come in a range of colors and sizes. Most of those we eat are varieties of the species Solanum melongena. They’re in the nightshade family (Solanaceae) with tomatoes, peppers, and potatoes.

Most eggplants take about 80 to 90 days to produce ripe fruit and can continue producing for six to eight weeks. They’re frost-sensitive, so plant transplants by early July.

Soil pH for eggplants should be in the range of pH 5.5 to 6.8. For every 100 feet of row, 3 pounds (6 cups) 13-13-13, 4 pounds (8 cups) 10-10-10, or 5 pounds (10 cups) of 8-8-8 or 8-24-24 can be mixed into the soil before planting.

Place transplants 2 to 3 feet apart within a row. Begin supporting them with a sturdy stake while they’re still small.

Like tomatoes and peppers, eggplants should be side-dressed when they first set fruit. Calcium nitrate can be used at a rate of 2 pounds (3.5 cups) per 100 feet of row. Once harvest begins, side-dress every three to four weeks to encourage continued fruit production.

Water plants adequately. If you water in a way that gets leaves and fruit wet (e.g., with a sprinkler), do this early in the day so that plants dry quickly and are less likely to develop disease problems.

Harvest eggplants while they’re still shiny. Eggplants with a dull finish are past the point of optimal quality. Cut the fruit’s stem rather than trying to pull or twist it off the plant.

Let me know if you have questions.

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Dr. Mary Helen Ferguson is an Extension Agent with the LSU AgCenter, with horticulture responsibilities in Washington and Tangipahoa Parishes. Contact Mary Helen at mhferguson@agcenter.lsu.edu or 985-277-1850 (Hammond) or 985-839-7855 (Franklinton).