📌 Quick Summary: Eggplant Chat
- Germination: Eggplant seeds are notorious for uneven germination. Surprisingly, growers often report older seeds sprouting faster than fresh ones.
- Diseases: Fusarium Wilt is a major killer of greenhouse eggplants. Grafting onto hardy rootstock is becoming a popular solution.
- Culinary Note: Never eat eggplants raw (due to alkaloids like solanine). Also, many gardeners prefer cooking them fresh rather than freezing them, as the texture and flavor degrade.
Photo by: deliza.
Jump to section:
Jumping Through Hoops to Germinate
When it comes to germinating eggplants, I always feel like I’m jumping through hoops! I used to sow them directly in soil, but the emergence was so wildly uneven. Some just sat there taking up space and never sprouted.
I’ve tried pre-sprouting them in damp paper towels until they crack, or waiting until there’s a visible root—but nothing guarantees 100% success. This year, some already have true leaves, others are barely opening their cotyledons, and some are still sitting under the dirt. Next year, I’m just going to sow 5 seeds in a single community pot and prick out the strongest ones. At least they’ll all be uniform size when transplanting!
Oddly enough, my old eggplant seeds from 2017-2018 sprouted perfectly! Meanwhile, I have brand new, fresh seeds that absolutely refuse to sprout. Go figure.
Battling Fusarium Wilt & Grafting
My eggplants catch Fusarium Wilt so fast. Right when they start heavily producing fruit, the wilt shows up out of nowhere. I lose so many plants to it.
Biological fungicide tablets (like Gliocladin) help a little bit, but not completely. There’s still a noticeable delay in fruiting when the disease hits.
This year, since I actually had more seedlings sprout than I planned for, I am dedicating half of them to grafting! I’m going to play around, gain some experience, and compare the grafted plants against the own-root ones. Hopefully, the grafted rootstock will resist the soil-borne diseases.
To Freeze or Not To Freeze?
I only grow 1 or 2 bushes of the Bibo variety. We aren’t huge eggplant eaters; I’m the only one who eats them, and only “fresh” (not canned/pickled).
Wait, what do you mean you eat eggplants “fresh”? Like… completely raw? 😳
You absolutely cannot eat raw eggplant! It contains solanine/alkaloids. Anna just meant that she cooks them fresh straight from the garden rather than making winter canning preserves out of them. 😂
Anna, you know you can fry the eggplant slices in the summer and then freeze them! That way, in the winter, you can just pull them out and make your favorite garlic-tomato-mayo appetizer.
I’ve tried that, but honestly, the taste and texture are just not the same after freezing.
