Eggplant Plant Profile

Eggplant Plant Profile

Eggplant (Solanum melongena) is an annual plant that produces edible fruits. It is perennial to USDA zones 10-12.

Eggplants originated in India and are also known as Aubergine. Eggplant fruits are commonly purple or white and can be egg-shaped, long and slender, or short and fat.

Most gardeners in our region start their plants by seed indoors in March or purchase started seedlings in order to get a head start on the growing season. The seedlings can be planted outside once the soil is warm enough in very late spring.

The plant has pretty lilac flowers and large leaves. Don’t be surprised if those leaves become riddled with small holes.  They are caused by the flea beetle. To help prevent that damage, protect your eggplants with a row cover until the plants start to flower.

Like its cousins in the nightshade family tomatoes and peppers, the eggplant will need staking and fertilizing as the heavy fruits start to form on it.

Harvest the fruits when the skin is glossy and taut by cutting it off the stem with a sharp knife. Prepare and eat it right away as eggplants can turn bitter if left too long on the plant or not consumed while fresh.

Eggplant: You Can Grow That!

The video was produced by Washington Gardener Magazine as part of our Plant Profile series for Mid-Atlantic USA gardeners.

Audio and text by Kathy Jentz

Video and editing by Taylor Edwards

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Fenton Friday: Betting on Eggplant

Eggplant 'Picasso'

This week was the community garden's annual harvest collection for Shepherd's Table and we filled the back seat and trunk of a small car with tomatoes, herbs, okra, edamame, peppers, squash, greens, and much more.

From my own plot, I stripped several branches off the tomato plants and groomed off anything green to ripe on them. I am starting on the garden clean-out process of the summer crops, since the days are getting shorter and cooler now.

Two things I was surprised are still going strong in my plot are the eggplants and peppers. The eggplant is just one plant that I tried out in a container. I kept it under a covercloth to ward off those nasty flea beetles that turned me off of growing eggplants after experiencing some bad infestations. It barely gave me anything all summer, but now I am getting handfuls at once. 'Picasso' is a beauty -- almost hate to eat them.

The pepper plants are prolific as well. I pull out two plants of 'Lemon Drop' -- a hot one from Peru with a citrus flavor - and donated all of them to the harvest collection. I also pulled out one of the 'Roulette' pepper plants to give away those as well. These are habanero type, but with no heat. They are also an All-America Selections winner and are a very attractive, care-free pepper to grow.

Pepper 'Roulette'

What are you harvesting in your garden this week? 

 About Fenton Friday: Every Friday during the growing season, I'll be giving you an update on my community garden plot at the Fenton Street Community Garden just across the street from my house in zone 7 Mid-Atlantic MD/DC border. I'm plot #16. It is a 10 ft x 20 ft space and this is our 8th year in the garden. (It opened in May 2011.) See past posts about our edible garden by putting "Fenton" into the Search box above.

Savory Sunday: Eggplant Parmesan Sliders

Guest post by Shelby Smith

    One of the easiest and best known recipes for eggplant is Eggplant Parmesan, but let’s put a small spin on it. Pretty much anything can be made into a slider, why not eggplant parmesan slider?

    This is a fun twist on a traditional entrée dish -- making it into a lunch option or a quick meal on the go. Eggplant by itself doesn’t have much taste, but it can be prepared several ways and absorb a lot of flavor.

Ingredients

• 1 medium eggplant.
• ½ cup of flour.
• ½ cup seasoned bread crumbs.
• 2 eggs scrambled.
• 2 tbsp. of Parmesan cheese.
• ¼ tsp. of salt and pepper.
• ½ cup tomato sauce fresh or jar.
• Packet of slider buns.
• ½ cup of oil.

Directions

1. Heat oil to medium high in a pot that is at least 4 inches tall.
2. Turn broiler on to high.
3. In two bowls place your flour and bread crumbs. Mix salt and pepper in the flour. In another bowl pour your scrambled eggs.
4. Slice eggplant into ½ inch thick slices and peel off the skin.
5. In an assembly line completely dread the eggplant slices in flour.
6. Coat the slices in egg then bread crumbs.
7. Fry each slice individually (depending on how wide your pot is) until golden brown.
8. When ready to serve, put each fried slice on a lined baking sheet and layer tomato sauce and Parmesan cheese on each piece. Broil until the cheese is melted.
9. Serve on slider buns with as much sauce or cheese as you want.

You can stack these with as much cheese as possible. The sliders should be crisp on the outside and buttery and soft on the inside. You could try baking the eggplant in the oven to save using too much oil.

You could even use this same recipe with zucchini and squash. Try serving this with light salad, like the arugula tomato and avocado salad I posted last week.

"Savory Sunday" is a new weekly blog series with seasonal recipes from the garden.

About the Author:

Shelby Smith is a senior double major in multi-platform journalism and film studies at the University of Maryland College Park. She was a sports copy-editor for a campus publication called Unwind Magazine and a writer at The Campus Current newspaper at Anne Arundel Community College.