Vegetable Gardening (30 page)

Small and round

The plants in this category grow only 1 to 2 feet tall, making them great for container culture. Each plant produces 20 to 25, 1- to 3-inch-round fruits. Even though the following eggplants are novelties, they're also great for skewering and pickling:

‘Calliope':
This hybrid features a heavy crop of round, 2-inch-diameter, purple-and-white-striped fruits in 64 days on a spineless plant.

‘Easter Egg':
These open-pollinated plants produce white-skinned, egg-shaped fruits that kids marvel at. They received their name because they resemble chicken eggs. They turn yellow at maturity, which takes 65 days, but they're best when eaten white; they taste bitter if you allow them to mature to yellow.

‘Kermit':
These Thai specialty hybrid fruits have green skin with white stripes — very unusual. They take 60 days to mature.

‘Turkish Orange' (
Solanum gilo
):
These bushy, 2- to 3-foot-tall open-pollinated plants have good insect resistance and produce fruits that mature from green to orange. The fruits are best when eaten green, before their skin turns orange and bitter. They take 80 days to mature.

Growing Peppers and Eggplants

Many of the
cultural instructions
(instructions on how to grow a plant) for producing tomatoes (see Chapter 4) hold true for peppers and eggplants as well. But, of course, peppers and eggplants have some of their own special requirements as well, as you find out in this section.

A few guidelines for starting and planting

Peppers and eggplants are warm-season crops, so you don't need to rush to plant them until the ground has warmed up sufficiently. Here are some guidelines you can follow:

In most areas, you need to start peppers and eggplants from seed indoors, usually 6 to 8 weeks before the last frost date for your area (see the appendix for first and last frost dates). You also can purchase them from a local nursery or through the mail as transplants. (See Chapter 13 for seed-starting basics.)

If you live in zone 9 or 10, you can sow the seeds directly into your garden. If you keep the plants healthy and have no frost in your area, peppers and eggplants can actually be
perennials
(plants that grow year-round) and will bear fruit all season.

However, even in cold climates, I've dug up pepper plants and eggplants in fall, placed them in pots in my greenhouse all winter, and then transplanted them back out in spring. Even after three years these plants remain attractive and healthy.

Peppers and eggplants are more finicky than tomatoes are about temperatures, fertilization, and general growing conditions, so they're less forgiving of mistakes. So, you need to be extra cautious about starting pepper and eggplant seedlings early indoors. Give them ample light, fertilizer, and water; harden them off well; and wait to plant until the soil temperature is at least 60 degrees Fahrenheit. You should purchase or have grown a 4- to 6-inch-tall, dark-green-leafed, stocky transplant that isn't
root-bound
(roots growing around the container).

One handy product you may want to purchase is a
soil thermometer.
Usually costing less than $20, a soil thermometer can help you gauge when to plant warm-season crops such as peppers and eggplants. Place it in a shady spot and take readings in the morning for accuracy.

If your peppers have flowered or set fruits before you've transplanted them or when the seedlings still have only four to six leaves each, remove any blossoms or fruits. The plants will then send more energy to grow more leaves and roots to support a larger harvest later rather than maturing only a few peppers early.

Peppers and eggplants grow best in raised beds (see Chapter 3) because the soil warms faster and drains quicker. The following guidelines can help you get the soil temperature right depending on your climate:

Cold areas:
Cover the top of the beds with black or dark green plastic mulch to preheat the soil a few weeks before planting. (See Chapter 15 for details on how to use mulch in your garden.)